Officer M

I cancelled my subscription to the Dallas Morning News. They kept sending it anyway for the next two weeks or so and then called to see what my problem was.

I've never had much use for all the fluff used to fill space between the ads (little Jimmy got sick but he's all better now or Ross Jr. went to a party with his pal Tom and here's their picture but their not as messed up as they look). In fifteen years of reading the DMN, I've only agreed with 3 or 4 editorials and they were along the lines of "Christmas is Good" or something like that. But since I never paid much attention to the filler and fluff and since, like any intelligent adult, I never had much trouble ignoring the boneheads on the editorial board, neither had any bearing on my decision to dump the News.

I read a newspaper because I want an accurate account of what is happening in the world. I can't get that from the Dallas Morning News.

I've been a firefighter and paramedic in Dallas for many years. I'm intimately familiar with the details of many of the stories the News "covers". I often read a reporter's account of an incident where I was involved and wondered if he was talking about the same wreck, shooting or fire I witnessed. Names, dates, hospital destinations, fire cause, damage estimates, numbers of fatalities and injuries and many other material facts contained in DMN stories are just plain wrong.

When I read a story that I am familiar with and see errors, omissions and some elements that have to have been made up from scratch, I have to wonder about all of the stories I don't know anything about. Can I really trust anything printed in this rag.

Then I saw how slanted the reporting was on the Pay Referendum Election and the Palladium giveaway. It was frightening how good they seemed to be at skewing a story to serve their own purposes. Then I realized that they'd had a lot of practice. With no real competition, the DMN can report a story from any angle it wants and never be called to account for taking liberty with the facts. How can anyone trust anything they read in Dallas' only paper?

The doubts finally got to me and I decided to save a few trees. The paper stopped coming a few weeks ago and I haven't missed it. I listen to KRLD whenever I'm in the car and watch Ch. 5 every evening. I haven't missed anything and I saved a little money in the bargain.

If you buy the Dallas Morning News for fluff and poorly-reasoned opinions you're getting a deal. But if you think you read it to get complete, accurate reporting, guess again. Dallas is not a "one newspaper town". The truth is that Dallas doesn't have a newspaper anymore.

The DMN editorial board were all in favor of the arena. Now its costing Dallas' taxpayers. They again abandoned common sense and backed the Palladium deal. Taxpayers will pay for that one, too. If you're starting to feel a little strapped as a result of these and other DMN-backed boondoggles and you're looking for a place to cut back, let me make a suggestion: Do what I did and dump the Dallas Morning News.