Mike Watson

09/14/02 When The Dallas Times Herald shut its doors, Dallas lost two newspapers.

Neil Planick is exactly right in his assessment of The Dallas Managed News. Never have I seen a more biased news outlet.

Over the past year, I have often been close to stories that were either ignored by DMN or shamelessly spun into the type of propaganda not seen since the demise of the Soviet Union.

Newspaper types are always the first to sermonize about the importance of a free press but that freedom is only valuable if it is used to cover the news fairly, and most importantly, honestly. Because of DMN's failure to provide its readers with a fair and accurate accounting of all sides of every story, I cancelled my subscription earlier this year. Fifteen years of fiction was enough.

I haven't missed the DMN one bit. We are blessed with numerous radio and television outlets, each competing to produce the most complete and accurate coverage of every story. When one of these outlets decides that being a mouthpiece for a politician or business mogul is more important than being the watchdog of the people, I simply change the channel.

If the American Airlines Center is such a wonderful place, then it ought to have no trouble competing with Reunion on an equal footing. If the company-formerly-known-as-Palladium can't make money on the prime real estate west of downtown without a tax break, then we need to wait for somebody who can. And if Belo can't satisfy themselves with covering the news--all of the news--in a truthful, unbiased manner, then they should sell the Morning News to somebody who can and go into the tabloid business.

Think about what you want from a news outlet and compare that to what you get from DMN. Drop by a book store or library and pick up a copy of The New York Times or Washington Post. Compare one of those real newspapers to our local rag. Remember their coverage of Watergate and consider the courage it took for people like Graham, Bradley, Woodward and Bernstein to expose some of the most powerful men in the world as crooks. Who does that for us? Nobody at The Dallas Morning News, that's certain.

I'd love to be able to read a great local paper every day. Unfortunately, we have to face facts: When the Dallas Times Herald shut its doors, Dallas didn't lose just one newspaper. It lost two.