AN OPEN LETTER FROM STEVE PORTER TO THE ERIE TIMES NEWS

Steve Porter is an idealist. He believes in America and he believes in Democracy and he believes in fair play. His campaign for congress against a corrupt rubber stamp was not covered in the Republican-owned media in his out-of-the-way district. The incumbent, Phil English, who was once twice arrested for soliciting sex from teenage males, got a free ride from the media-- not just on that kind of stuff but also on his reactionary voting record of lockstep support for the Bush Regime.


This morning Dr. Porter sent DWT a copy of the letter he sent to the district's biggest newspaper, the Erie Times News. Today's tepid thought piece on its own media bias in the Washington Post is barely a blip on the radar compared to the willful thwarting of the electoral process and the functionality of democracy by the Erie Times News. If they print Dr. Porter's letter, it will be the first substantive coverage of the race they have done. It was addressed to Bryan Oberle (Bryan.Oberle@TimesNews.Com).

I am writing this before Tuesday's vote because I don't want the tally to be blamed one way or the other for my views of your newspaper.

Over the past 4 years, with rare exception, your paper has been as corrupt in its presentation of my views as it could be. You vilified my book without ever having read it, and when Kevin Flowers finally did read it, you never printed an apology for your slime.

In every one of dozens of press releases I sent you, you never printed one. And in each, I attached my views on every issue in the campaign. You never saw fit to share them with your readers.

You have been a fop for the English machine, but that was to be expected given your political history.

But worst of all, you have forgotten your role as reporters, which is not to pontificate about your views, but to print the views of the candidates.

Not once in two successive elections have you ever bothered in an objective way to simply list the key issues (Iraq, the economy, health care, Social Security, energy, the environment, immigration, corruption, etc.) and simply printed my positions and those of my opponent.

One would think that showing our positions side-by-side would really have served the public interest by informing them as voters.

And since you know how important money is to the process of getting elected (you mentioned little else in your endorsement of English), you might also have printed the politicalmoneyline.com analysis of where we both got our funding. That, too, would have been of enormous help to the voters.

You have allowed our President to conduct a criminal war with virtually no opposition from you, and you have consciously withheld vital information from the voters.

The blood of this war is as much on your hands as the administration's, and the degradation of our democracy through the sloth of the media can be laid directly on your doorstep.

The Erie Times News owes its readers an apology. It is a paper which ought to be ashamed of itself.

With all sincerity,

Dr. Steven Porter
Democratic Candidate for Congress
PA-03