Friday, December 16, 2011

The Bloom is Off the Boston Globe

Has been for a while.

"Professor derides Iowans’ fitness to caucus and stirs a storm " December 16, 2011

Political notebook

--NOMORE--"

"US journalism professor derides Iowa, faces fury

University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom, whose article for The Atlantic magazine's website painted Iowans as uneducated Jesus freaks who love hunting and don't deserve the political clout they will exercise Jan. 3.

Every four years, some pundits and voters complain about the small, largely white states of Iowa and New Hampshire getting to play outsized roles nominating presidential candidates with their first-in-the-nation contests. But what makes Bloom's critique stand out is that it came from within and was expressed in brutal terms by a talented writer who spent years reporting on Iowa.

Add in some factual inaccuracies, sweeping generalizations and stereotypes about Iowans, and you have an outrage that is playing out from Sioux City to Keokuk (which he labeled "a depressed, crime-infested slum town".)
 
Please remember that!

Bloom said he wrote the article to expose "uncomfortable truths and unconventional truths" about Iowa's population and economy and generate a debate about whether its four-decade run as the first caucus state should continue.  

Meaning he is PUSHING an AGENDA! 

And is it just a COINCIDENCE that this piece comes out just as RON PAUL might win Iowa?

Related: Chris Wallace: Iowa ‘won’t count’ if Ron Paul wins

Sigh.   

As for unconventional and uncomfortable truths, THAT IS WHY YOU and I are HERE, readers!!

In the article, he paints Iowa's cities and rural areas as economic wastelands with little culture.  

Now you are talking about Israel.

He calls the state politically schizophrenic with Republicans living west of Des Moines and Democrats to the east. He describes rural areas as hotbeds for suicide and filled with the uneducated, the elderly and meth addicts. He calls the Mississippi River "commercially irrelevant" and describes cities along it as "some of the skuzziest" he'd ever seen.

Bloom, who is Jewish, complains that Iowans constantly talk about Jesus and hunting....  

Oh, we are getting a dose of JEWISH SUPREMACISM, huh? 

I'll tell you one thing: talking Jesus and hunting is a hell of a lot better than talking Talmud and Holocaust™.

The response has been bipartisan. "Professor Bloom is engaging here in just a remarkable level of stereotyping. He should know better," said Sue Dvorsky, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Iowa. "He's done two great books about life in Iowa. This commentary is not worthy of him." 

"The saddest part of all of this is he's a journalism professor for crying out loud!" added Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, a Republican. "This is a condescending piece that I'm ashamed to say was funded by my constituents' tax dollars."

Some online critics have told Bloom to leave the state, called him a liar and worse....  

Aaaawwwwww, the poor a**hole.

Critics argued Iowa voters were some of the most educated in the country. Others noted the state's unemployment rate of 6 percent is below the national average. Iowa's population is slowly increasing, not "dropping precipitously" as Bloom wrote.

Bloom, currently at the University of Michigan as a visiting scholar, said critics are missing the larger point....   

Meaning the AGENDA SUPERSEDES FACTS!

What I couldn't find anywhere, but what my printed paper ended the piece with:

In a statement issued Wednesday, he added: "Sorry if I offended, but that's the real job of journalism."  

Then the Globe is DOING ITS JOB! 

Yeah, AmeriKan "journalism" is NOT ABOUT TRUTH or FACTS, it is about OFFENDING PEOPLE -- as long as they are NOT JEWISH!  Do that and you are tagged as an anti-Semite!!

--MORE--" 

I have to go to TAIWAN to get the story, Globe?