Fodder for righties who believe in the "librul media"
Just off the phone with Seattle Times reporter Florangela Davila, who's at the Unity convention in Washington D.C.
Unity is a conference of 7,000 journalists of color.
She reports that more than half the journalists gave Sen. John Kerry, who spoke to at least 2,000, a standing ovation. If you ever see us at campaign events or reporting on someone making a speech, you'll note we don't applaud or heckle, because it's unprofessional. Giving a presidential candidate a standing ovation during the height of the campaign is as unprofessional as it gets.
"It was so offensive and awful, and I hated it. It was clearly inappropriate. It was ridiculous," an exasperated Flor said.
As for the speech, Flor says it was Kerry's typical stump: criticism of President Bush for giving tax cuts to the wealthy and mismanaging the war in Iraq, as well as promises to roll back tax cuts and to bring the international community together to fight terror and clean up Iraq. He also offered a little something for everyone: legalize illegal immigrants, increase sovereignty of Native American tribes, give more money to inner city schools. And he used Barack Obama's line that there's no red states or blue states, only a United States of America.
And he's against media consolidation.
The standing ovation at the end of the speech was less robust, Flor reports.
What will the reception be for President Bush tomorrow at Unity? Flor promises to call to let us know.
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