Pagan Witch!
Posted on 07/19/2007 4:05:30 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Philadelphia man isn't only GOP member switching sides in 2008
Ever been harassed by a group of irate Republicans? For the past few days, since a news story of mine was published on Monday, I have been bombarded with dozens of daily e-mails from Republicans calling me a liar, demanding I be fired, and insisting on a retraction.
The grumbling arose partially because my editor took a small part of my story and made it into a headline: "GOP lawyer sold on Dems." Reporters don't write headlines, editors do. And they want to write something catchy so readers will read the darned story.
The story was not about the GOP lawyer; it was about the speeches five Democratic presidential candidates gave to a convention of trial lawyers (those two words "trial lawyers" also make Republicans crazy) last Sunday. As reporters usually do, I asked two attendees after the session what they thought about the speeches.
One of the men I interviewed, Jim Ronca, identified himself as a disgruntled Republican, fed up with the Bush White House, who was going to give his vote and money to Democrats. In my story I called him a "staunch Republican." His wife was standing by his side, and so was a friend, a Democrat from New York, Ted Oshman, neither of whom disputed Ronca's description of himself as a Republican.
Oshman added during our interview that he could "not eliminate one of" the Democrats, they all spoke so well. That line ended up in a subhead on the story.
After the story was published, some Republicans posted to right-wing Web sites the two headlines and the two paragraphs quoting Ronca.
And so the madness began.
Industrious partisans, upset that anyone calling himself a Republican could possibly think of supporting the Democrats, decided to "investigate" Ronca, an attorney from Philadelphia. And what they found, they told me, was a long history of Ronca giving more money to Democrats than Republicans. (In fact, much of the money he donated to Democrats was after George W. Bush was elected.)
Richard Rentfrow sent a "notice" each day demanding I give him "Jim Ronca's GOP credentials" or he would "out" me to other papers and Web sites. After he sent me what he described as his "5th notice" he posted an e-mail decrying me as "a lying liberal Democrat girl reporter." Thank you Richard, at my age it's nice to be thought of as a girl.
"Is this a story or an editorial?" wrote Reg Fennell. "You know your "staunch Republican" is NOTHING OF THE SORT! You know he has a history of not supporting Republicans. Did you really believe this would go unnoticed or are you simply comfortable with intellectual dishonesty to your readers? Maybe you're just lazy and careless." Oh, Reg, calm down.
Here's another from Jeffery Cernekee: "It seems that you must be on the demorats [sic] payroll. Your claim that a prominent republican is changing his ways. Too bad the truth will come out and of course it did that he gave most of his money to the demorats [sic]. Will you please get you [sic] facts straight or quit reporting on things you do not have a clue about. . . . Do you have to lie to give the impression that people are leaving the republicans to vote for the demorats [sic]? How bush of you."
Karen Mango wrote: "Have you been fired yet for your lie about your trial lawyer/staunch republican turned democrat? Are you shamefaced for believing a TRIAL LAWYER??? I hope you finally did the research that the bloggers did with a google entry -- your Ronca has given to democrats all his life. He lied to you, and you printed it. You didn't research, you were salivating over going to print with an anti-republican story, and the truth never mattered. Don't fall back on the ''he said he was a staunch republican,'' because your article does not attribute his political stance as a quote, but as fact.
"I can't wait for your next article: All Trial Lawyers are Lying Jerks."
The final kicker for all you Republicans who read my column with a magnifying glass is a press release issued Wednesday: "One of Chicago's key Republican fund-raisers, CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy today announced that he is endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2008 election."
Duffy says he intends to remain a registered Republican.
mailto:jhunter@suntimes.com
LLS
Always a large sack of excuses when you catch them with their knickers down around their knees...
Interesting to find out what kind of court appointed connections this lawyer has.
PING
Staunch seems to be the inoperative adjective. Perhaps reporters/journalists/columnists/partisans should just step away from the use of adjectives. They are nothing but a continued source of bias on display.
Pagan Witch!
In Philadelphia, the word a few years ago was for Democrats to register Republican in order to mess up the Republican primaries. The few dyed in the wool Democrats I know well here are still registered Republicans. They are always accusing Republicans of shady tactics, but turn a blind eye to the ethics of their own actions. When it pleases them, they claim to be registered Republicans.
Maybe she should have done some checking on the “staunch Republican” before she ran her story.
I don’t consider myself “staunch” but I don’t give a dime to Democrats either.
glad she’s so thin-skinned. The article you posted the other day glossing over Democrat scandals, and extolling Obama’s coming regime of moral purity as follow up to this “staunch Republican” tripe shows she’s an enterprising Democrat operative who was swinging into high gear. Since we know she’s checking this site now, lay it on heavy, maybe this can be another day when she goes home with a really bad headache.
I use the Heavy Duty Spray Staunch when I iron my shirts.
Leni
they all seem to fall in love with their pretty thoughts...
Hahahahahaha. I thought a bit of cynical detachment would be a “reporter’s” most important atribute. That means asking everyone questions. You know, “what do you mean by staunch, how long have you been a Republican, have you ever supported a democrat?”, or at least use the all purpose handy dandy, “” around anything not fact checked.
That should do it. Its hard being a reporter. Waaaaaa. As for the letter writers, well they’re just doing the job your Professors didn’t do in J school.
So, Jennifer, Republicans are sensitized to the Fake Republican Scam put out by you Girl Reporters in the MSM. And you know what Jennifer, we sensitized Republicans were correct. Jim Ronca misrepresented himself and YOU went along with the scam, without checking it out. What's the likelihood of a Republican Trial Lawyer, one of the major Dhimmicrat interest groups?
Jennifer, you also wrote: "(those two words "trial lawyers" also make Republicans crazy)". I guess those two words "trial lawyers" drove the trial lawyers crazy too. They changed the name of their organization.
Jennifer, I'll give you another tip, Republicans are sick to death of the lying, lazy, biased, agenda-driven Mainstream Media. So, when you put out unchecked crap slamming Republicans, you're wacking a Hornet's nest with a stick, as you found out. I'm old enough to remember, when reporters bragged about getting a story from their own grandmother and were skeptical enough to demand a second source. You, Girl Reporter, just take obvious Defeatocrat propaganda and run with it. Your Editor liked the anti-GOP propaganda so much, he made that the lead to get people to read the darned story. Okay, we read the story and we're responding. You ought to be happy.
Nice in a skanky sort of way.
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