This morning I turned to the Op-Ed page of the San Francisco Chronicle, and I found this column. The basic theme of the piece is that Barack Obama is incapable of expounding on "American Exceptionalism" because he doesn't understand how ordinary Americans think, and his "liberal base" requires him to run down America. The piece ends with a paean to Ronald Reagan, celebrating Saint Ronnie's ability to make Americans feel good about America.
The piece was so transparently bogus, and such a moronic piece of writing that I did what every DKos reader would do. I turned to Mr. Google (tm).
More after the fold.
I had never heard of Patrick Dorinson, but he is described at the end of the piece thus: "Patrick Dorinson is a communications and media strategist and principal of PD Communications in Sacramento."
So I Googled (tm) PD Communications, and it turns out that the guy whose initials are the name of the company and is described as a "principal" is the only person listed on the company website. PD Communications seems to be one person.
On the page describing Mr. Dorinson's stunning curriculum vitae, we find this line:
Mr. Dorinson served as the Communications Director of the California Republican Party where he worked closely with the Schwarzenegger for Governor Campaign as well as the other statewide campaigns and coordinating communications strategies for the Party's Victory '06 program.
Mr. Dorinson is a paid political publicist working for the GOP. And the San Francisco Chronicle ran his hit piece on Obama without informing its readers of that fact.
The Chronicle has a comments feature, the comments on the column mirrored my own. Actually, some of them were my own.
I also followed with a letter to the editor, which has not been published:
Editor,
At the bottom of Patrick Dorinson's May 2 column praising Ronald Reagan and slamming Barack Obama, Mr. Dorinson is identified as a "principal" of PD (for Patrick Dorinson) Communications. The company's website was not hard to find, and it turns out that Mr. Dorinson is a publicist closely identified with Republican causes, including the recent recall election where he worked closely with now-Governor Schwarzenegger. He describes himself as a "communications strategist specializing in media relations."
Is it really "news" that a GOP publicist doesn't like Obama? Shouldn't his bias and history of being paid to promote GOP causes have been identified for Chronicle readers?
(Repack Rider)
Finally, and somewhat related to the Chronicle's journalistic failures, I had this letter to the editor published on Wednesday, April 30 (second from top).
Editor - Apparently "the media" think that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is not running for anything, is the most important story of the day. Those of us who are not "the media" would like "the media" to examine how a bunch of retired generals, most well connected to defense industries and prepped by the Pentagon, used "the media" to sell the Iraq war.
We would like to see an in-depth examination of how the United States came to justify torture of prisoners at the top of the chain of command and what measures can be taken to stop this atrocity.
But all we get is Rev. Wright.
(Repack Rider)