Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A Note from the Editor: We strive to maintain high editorial standards.


While we stand behind most of the content contained in the recent post by Che Chihuahua, we have removed the posting because in the final analysis it didn't fully meet the editorial standards of this blog.


In several instances, the posting fell into the intellectually lazy practice of relying on ad hominem arguments, also known as argumentum ad hominem, an argument directed at the man or woman. This violates the general APWP editorial approach of arguing facts not personalities. We believe that the usage of this argumentative style by such diverse media genres as Air America, The Daily Kos, TV news propagandists, and several big city newspapers are the primary reason that journalism and political discourse has devolved into silly name calling and the toxic culture of agenda journalism.

We do not claim to be perfect.  But some humor even if appears to be personally cruel can make a telling point, i.e., "a teachable moment."  For example, poking fun at John Kerry's and Nancy Pelosi's penchant for botox usage takes the look of ironic coincidence when paired with the removal of the proposed 5% Botax on botox from the proposed Health Care Reform [sic] legislation.  There are those that might claim that it consituted an unfair tax against middle class women.  But it's still kind of funny that Democrats that have never met a tax that they didn't like would remove a tax so near and dear to the faces of the Democrat Party.

Finally, profanity or vulgarity, even if disguised or sanitized for public consumption, will generally not be used unless it is within the context of a news story, e.g., a direct quote from former Vice-President Dick Cheney to Senator Patrick Leahy.  It is a quote that we heartily agree with.


    

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