Wednesday's DSM Media Targets

Here's today's media targets. Please call, email, or fax them so they can give the Downing Street Memo story the attention and coverage it deserves...

TARGETS FOR WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2005

1. Wichita Eagle, Editor Sherry Chisenhall
email: schisenhall@wichitaeagle.com
phone 316-268-6405
fax: 316-268-6627

2. Topeka Capital-Journal, Managing Editor Wayne Stewart
email: wayne.stewart@cjonline.com
phone: 785-295-1153

3. Knoxville News Sentinel, Managing Editor Lara Edge
email: edge@knews.com
phone: 865-342-6295

All the newspapers today are from states whose Senators serve on the Intelligence Committee. The stalled Committee hearings on the manipulation of WMD intel need to be re-opened if we are to get to the bottom of the DSM story. The Committee Chairman, Pat Roberts, represents Kansas, and the Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, is from Tennessee.

It would be advisable to urge all the newspapers to print the recent op-ed by Michael Smith from the LA Times. It is the best short summary of what is at issue, by the British reporter who originally published all the leaked documents.

The Wichita Eagle has printed less on DSM than most other Knight Ridder newspapers (perhaps because it has been pursuing the local BTK killer story, now wrapped up). They’ve had four short articles (all highly abbreviated versions of wire stories) that convey only a little information about DSM (or the briefing paper--none of the six other leaked documents has been mentioned). It would be a big improvement if the Eagle were to print Warren P. Strobel’s excellent June 18th article “British Documents Portray Determined US March to War.”

The Topeka Capital has published nothing on DSM so far. The Knoxville News Sentinel has published only a single op-ed by Jay Ambrose, which trivializes the issues and ridicules those who believe DSM is an important document (he ignores all the other docs). Both papers could certainly improve their coverage of the issues by publishing a few straight news accounts, of which AP has now produced many.

If you are ambitious today, there is a fourth (somewhat small) newspaper that is well worth contacting: the Hutchinson News (in Kansas). The Editor, Jim Bloom, often takes strong stands on principle, as he did in his May 24th editorial on DSM. It seems like it would be very possible to persuade him to run a further piece or two, such as Michael Smith’s op-ed. Here’s the contact info:email: jbloom@hutchnews.comphone: 800-766-5740fax: 620-662-4186.