Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Cartoon: Afghan torture

"The torture of Afghan detainees continues."

Oh.

It's supposed to be funny.

I suppose I should feel better about our country imprisoning and torturing people without legal basis or protection for them.

Funny.

Assessing the assessor

Joanna Dodder adds some details and a correction to her previous good investigative work on the connections between Elise Townsend and Victor Hambrick. The unnamed Courier editor weighs in with the conclusion that Mr Hambrick is dirty enough to vote out if he doesn't resign. That might seem a bit intemperate to readers who favor innocence until guilt is proven. It also might seem a bit self-serving in that the editor favored Mr Hambrick's opponent in the election.

Guys, you have an opportunity to build some credibility here. Let Joanna do her job and don't screw it up with self-important tantrums.

Update, noonish: A thought: If the smell test is a proper criterion, why are the editors not calling for the resignation of Richie Rich Renzi?

Wiederaenders: "Hints give new meaning to Big 4-0"

Tim studies his moustache and adds a stanza to the Courier's paean for Gheral Brownlow. I looked for the "meaning" promised in the headline, but I couldn't find it. Don't fret, Tim, you'll know the midlife crisis when it appears.

Update, 9:20: Name fixed, thanks anonymous.

Jackson: "‘Crown jewel’ getting needed accessories"

Jerry turns in a pretty well-structured column celebrating downtown development. You can argue with his point of view, but he writes it clearly and with some style.

A1: "Asking for more"

Shari Lopatin gives us the perspective of PUSD teachers and school staff on the pay issue, with a little bit of excuse-making from an assistant superintendant and an informative sidebar comparing other nearby districts. What I hoped to see was some tracking of the money the legislature has been adding to school spending in recent years specifically, they say, for teacher pay. That gets into what's happening at the board and upper-administrative levels, of course.

A1: "Police arrest man hiding in PV home"

Ken Hedler's barricade story suffers primarily from hasty writing and absent-minded editing. Beyond the usual kitchen-sink rundown of the police reports, Ken talked to some of the bystanders, and that's good, but the quote from Jim Gibbons, for example, makes no sense. The whole thing just feels slapdash.

A1: "Crash victim remains critical"

On a slow news day you have to promote something to page one, and today the editor picked a standard police-blotter piece by Mirsada Buric. But it appears there wasn't enough in the story to fill the space, so the staff (Doug Cook?) doubled its size by adding some feature boilerplate about motorcycles -- little of which would appear to relate to this story.