An Open Letter to the Mainstream Media

by Tony Peyser

You’ve still been mostly silent
On the Gannon-Guckert affair
You’re acting kind of ho-hum
And just don’t want to "go there."

This secret flunky was planted
To keep Bush out of the ringer
If Gannon is a journalist
William Hung’s an opera singer.

It appears you’re loathe to touch
What others may bequeath you
Because "these kinds of stories"
Are somehow just beneath you.

I find this a bit peculiar
Because I don’t recall a trace
Of reluctance in your writing
About Monica Whatsherface.

You didn’t seem suddenly shy
About following Gary Hart
Or recently doing stories
Taking Bernard Kerik apart.

Does the gay angle make you wince?
(It appears Gannon’s not straight.)
But you wrote about McGreevey
Who once ran The Garden State

And had given a cushy job
And many things did share with
This Israeli guy he’d hired whom
He was having an affair with.

You may try to argue that
You’re just being objective
But it seems your story choices
Are, in fact, highly selective.

Do you hate this story because
Bloggers yell, “We told you so!”
Or because you should’ve known
About Gannon two years ago?

I think you’d rather close your eyes
Than admit that you were wrong
(Which, by the way, is pretty much
What Bush has done all along.)

This ignore-it-all behavior
May not be what you first planned
But ostriches, not reporters, should
Be putting their heads in the sand.

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Tony Peyser provides poems and weekly cartoons for The Santa Monica Mirror and writes the new BuzzFlash column, "Blue State Jukebox." He was also a daily cartoonist for the L.A. Times from 1994 to 1997. You can contact Tony via email at tonypeyser@yahoo.com.

BuzzFlash Cartoons by Tony Peyser are © Tony Peyser.
Contact Tony for reprint permissions.

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