Greenwald on Nystrom
It’s easy to forget that all news is local news somewhere; even a paper like the New York Times is just a daily rag if you live in one of the boroughs. Well, leave it to former Worcester resident and all around superhero, Paul Nystrom to lend a hand in bringing national news back down to a local level and vice versa. As pointed out by non-other than Glen Greenwald over at salon.com, Paul wrote a letter to the editor of the The Salem News which managed to successfully obliterate an earlier op-ed written by 2006 Republican congressional candidate Rick Barton. Paul successfully dismantles Barton’s FISA fear-mongering in a rather eloquent manner and Greenwald presents an equally eloquent summary of why local debate on what is regularly perceived as national news is so important, using Paul as an example.
Barton’s Op-Ed attempted to smear Rep. Tierney as endangering Americans by opposing the Senate FISA bill using all the standard GOP fear-mongering talking points, and Paul’s Letter to the Editor eviscerates every one of those arguments. I highlight this to underscore the fact that submitting such letters to your local papers, and especially submitting Op-Eds, can have a very substantial impact on how these matters are debated and understood, particularly where the submission is well-informed and well-argued. Many Americans still trust their local newspapers and have their opinions shaped by what they read there as much as, and often more than, national news outlets.
link (at the end of the column)
original Barton op-Ed
Nystrom letter
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That’s fucking awesome.