An Open Letter to the Editors of the Buffalo News
Oct 18, 2024
Dear Sir or Madam,
As a registered Green in New York State, I read with interest Jon King’s piece “DNC ad says Jill Stein is a ‘spoiler’ candidate trying to help Trump regain the White House,” which the Buffalo News republished in its print edition on Oct 15th or 16th from michiganadvance.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange. The decision to recirculate mis-informative, low-quality content, despite Mr. King’s coy use of scare quotes in the headline, seriously calls into question the integrity of the Buffalo News and its senior editorial staff.
As an academic, teacher, and informed voter, I am well aware of the pressures newspapers have faced since the dawn of the digital revolution. Those realities, however, in no way justify republishing content that renders the Buffalo News a mouthpiece for the political establishment, an assessment I make based on the ‘insights’ provided by Mary Beth Cahill, the senior DNC adviser quoted in Mr. King’s piece.
Michigan Advance (MA), the originator of the article, claims in the “About” section on its website that the outlet publishes “top-notch progressive commentary” that is “free of advertising” and, thus, “free to our readers.” What MA does not disclose, however, are its funding sources. Judging by this particular piece, which is clearly DNC propaganda, one must assume — safely, I think — that the Democratic Party supports this media outlet through a dark money organ. Perhaps it is less shady than that. Maybe the DNC simply has an operative embedded in the outlet. I say this because nothing in Mr. King’s piece qualifies as progressive. Instead, it regurgitates the hackneyed trope of spoiler candidates. To be sure Jill Stein and Rudolph Ware, this year’s Green Party ticket for the White House, might be spoilers, but not for average citizens like you or me or anyone else in Western New York. In actuality, Drs. Stein and Ware spoil the petulant view that Democrats are entitled to votes, a notion that must be dragged behind the barn and put down for good. Because that is not how democracy works, not even a little — in fact, not at all.
As Mr. King reveals, neither he nor Michigan Advance serve democracy by parroting the idea that voting for anyone other than Harris or Trump inadvertently helps them. Newsflash! In actual democracies voters have choices, and very often more than two. A vote for the Greens is a vote for the Greens — nothing more, nothing less. Such elementary mathematics might come as a shock to many Americans, and it clearly makes Ms. Cahill uncomfortable, for her position as a top DNC strategist is on the line. But maybe I should cut her some slack. After all she is just doing her job, and everyone knows how precarious the job market is today. Does someone expect her to actually work for a living? Egads!
To be clear, the editors of the Buffalo News are not responsible for the editorial decisions made at the Michigan Advance. Nonetheless, you are culpable for reprinting content that upholds the inanity of the unipolar establishment which continues to characterize itself as ‘democratic’ in the legacy media, of which the Buffalo News is a staid member, despite manifold examples to the contrary. One needn’t look far nor wide to understand what I mean.
Despite a majority of Americans opposing the heinous slaughter of innocent women, children, and men in Gaza (not to mention Israel’s unmitigated offensive military actions, all illegal under international law, in numerous countries across the Middle East), elected Democrats and Republicans gave Benjamin Netanyahu more than 50 standing ovations during his joint address before Congress at the end of July 2024. With near unanimity his ghoulish congressional hosts signaled their support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Their policy of endorsing mass murder is not progressive and your readers, regardless of their political persuasion, should be reminded of that fact at every turn — if the Buffalo News is interested in actual journalism, of course. Too few media outlets, print or otherwise, seem willing, or even capable, of doing that today.
It is astonishing, but hardly surprising, that the Buffalo News would continue down the well worn path of partisan hackery enabling the genocide in Occupied Palestine — the very same path, incidentally, that has led us to the brink of nuclear armageddon thanks to the failed US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Contra US Poet Laureate Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” this is the path too often taken. It is the very crux of the problem we face as a nation.
Given the sad state of journalism at your newspaper, I suspect former Buffalo Express editor and avowed anti-imperialist Mark Twain is rolling over in his grave, but there is no need to trust my instincts. Send one or two plucky young Buffalo News staff writers down to Elmira, NY to investigate. Social media posts indicate that locals there have heard low rumbling noises emanating from the cemetery at night. And why wouldn’t they? Halloween is upon us, and the silly season is in full swing.
In closing, you should be ashamed for reprinting Mr. King’s anti-democratic tripe. I suspect, however, that this will not be the case because your paychecks rely on redistributing material that garners clicks, likes, shares, and, amazingly enough, actual print subscribers. Rest assured I will rethink committing to a subscription, either digital or print, to your newspaper in the foreseeable future.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Terence Kumpf
Alden, NY
