The Return of Tomas

I'm pleased to present the First Edition of the Empirical Manifesto Newsletter and welcome back schpydurx to my FL, freshly returned from his self-imposed exile. Today's edition is an exclusive interview discussing his new position as a newswriter covering local political events.

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ehowton: First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on being selected as a reporter for the Conservative online newspaper News Platoon. I'm thrilled to see you doing political work that will make a real difference instead of claiming that ceaselessly bitching about our current administration on your blog is true political punditism (which I have to assume you've since rescinded).

schpydurx: Thank you for having me.

I'd like to clear something up straightway though, and that's this faulty syllogism that so-called "ceaselessly bitching on a blog" is more than just bitching. A blog may be the only news source that tells the whole story for some. Yes, blogging is typically personal and biased, but when you consider that the so-called mainstream media too is biased towards Liberal causes, you take heed to the words of the Committees of Correspondence founder Samuel Adams, "You can't trust the media." His point, of course, was not to take news at face value. Just looking at human behavior, it's simple to deduce that if a particular information source is always biased positively or negatively towards their subject, there's a part of the story that isn't being told.

So when I criticize Our Dear Leader, I'm doing the job that the mainstream media and Paul Harvey (God rest him) used to do: I'm telling the rest of the story. I don't need equal time, I AM equal time.

And for what it's worth, if it wasn't for modern so-called Web 2.0 technologies like blogging, Facebook and Twitter, I wouldn't have been made aware of the opportunities and problems in our community. I met Christie Carden (hsvteaparty.com, see my interview with Christie here) through Facebook and that was how I got involved with the Tea Parties. Because of Christie, I was also clued into Linda Lawrence's work with the South Huntsville Civic Association to stop the Huntsville Housing Authority's utter usurpation of power. Because of Linda's and other like-minded groups' online presence and her networking with Christie, I covered the Grissom meeting and am planning on working more closely on the HHA issue.

And for the record, I volunteered for News Platoon. There was no selection process. I agreed to willingly give of my time to support a cause that I believe in.

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