Readers
Letters to the Editor
Bottom line, we must work for good of U.S.
It is time for a reality check for Republicans who blame Democratic bias for the Tucson Citizen closing.
How ironic that of seven letters printed Tuesday, five expressed Republican sentiment and none Democratic.
Newspapers are closing for many reasons, including the recession and competition from radio, TV, cell phone and cyberspace. I once heard the Citizen editor say they manage for the bottom line, not to express political affiliation.
Franklin Coe Bumgarner Sr. needs to check the facts. I never said Republicans are “responsible for all recessions.” I said Republican administrations started 90 percent of recessions since 1950. Every Republican administration since 1929 has started a recession.
Any future Republican use of their unregulated, free market, anti-labor, anti-science, anti-tax, anti-government, supply-side, trickledown economic model will also fail.
These odds aren’t good enough for me to risk the loss of the other half of my life savings!
If we all work together and put the country ahead of political party, we can restore our country to prosperity.
Benjamin F. Love
Press shouldn’t be free to state liberal views
The Citizen once was a moderate, semi-conservative, readable newspaper.
Thanks to the likes of Mark Kimble and Billie Stanton, it has turned into a liberal, left-wing, anti-American venue, spouting venom that would be music to the ears of our enemies.
It is even more to the left than the Star and my alma mater, the bastion of left-wing politics and liberalism, the University of Arizona.
Fortunately, the majority are not brainwashed by the leftist faculty of zealots.
Maybe someday the universities and journalists will get back to what the intentions were and still should be, to present the facts and both sides of an issue, allowing people to form their own opinions.
Journalism and higher education need to get back to the concept of fair and balanced, which is the last thing any liberal would advocate.
Hopefully the Citizen goes out of business, and then I have no alternative but to read the Star, which now is to the right of what soon should be defunct.
When you read between the lines, you will see our country for what it really is and represents, liberty and justice for all.
We must remember that freedom isn’t free, it has a price, and allows Stanton and her cohorts their venue without repercussions.
In many other countries, she would be beaten, jailed or executed. Here, she gets paid for her hatred and disdain of our country and its core values.
Mike Edmond
retired police, Army Reserves
Loss will only be felt when Citizen is gone
You should be very proud of your service to this community. Newspapers are fading not because of reporters’ skill and dedication but because of our new world.
I thank you because I have been an avid newspaper reader all my life. As with all professions, some are very good at their trade and others not so much.
The loss of the Citizen will only be felt when you are gone.
I have lived in very high- quality cities (Eugene, Austin, Denver, New York City and Amsterdam). Each enjoyed excellent newspapers and radio and TV stations.
As in the financial world, lack of oversight by the FCC and media consolidation have dumbed down and homogenized on-air media.
For a brief moment in the ’70s, independent radio stations supported a music revolution. There was a time when, driving across the country, a listener could understand the uniqueness of each town by the local flavor of its hometown stations (like KXCI, one of the very few that remain). Now it all sounds the same.
This hasn’t happened to newspapers, but it looks as if we are heading in that direction.
After a year in Tucson, I have noticed an unusually high number of whiners and complainers about anything that improves the quality of life.
Many of us moved here for the excellent weather, but my primary reason is the fine architectural history, university, arts and music community and easy access to Mexico.
In the end, the quality of the people who live here will determine whether Tucson continues to grow our cultural assets or whether these gifts will decay.
Tucson seems especially vulnerable from the pressure of retirees and other newcomers who want Tucson to look more like the places they left.
I’ve seen this occur in other wonderful communities like Santa Fe and Eugene. If you want more franchises and malls, go back to Cleveland. If want to hurry, drive like maniacs, never smile or say thank you, go back to New York.
But if you want to live and learn about the amazing history, culture and people of the Sonoran Desert, welcome to Tucson, stop complaining and help out.
It seems strange that Tucson should exist in such a backward-thinking state.
I am amazed to see letters to the editor saying they want the Citizen to fail because you printed left-leaning letters. Good journalism and newspapers are about curiosity and broadening one’s mind, not propaganda. You can get all of that you want from Rush Limbaugh.
Tucson will be greatly diminished by the loss of the Citizen. Perhaps the world will be fine reading the news on laptops, but I love newspapers, especially good ones like the Citizen.
Jim Williams