Tag: John Locke Foundation

Locke Foundation unleashes Obama haters on Charlotte

September 5, 2012 at 9:28 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Wow!  It’s good to see that the nonpartisan John Locke Foundation is coming through with some more high quality convention coverage. Last week, as you will recall, the Locke people had a breathless, cheer-leading ”liveblog” of the final night of the RNC in Tampa.

Now, this week, they’ve turned ”Director of Regulatory Studies” Jon Sanders loose (among others) to claim that Obama is being “deified” by the Democrats because some vendors in Charlotte are selling or promoting various bits of laudatory kitsch. (Has this guy ever been to a Washington, DC tourist site?) This concocted narrative has, in turn, provided Sanders with license to link to all sorts of other articles and claims about the President (some from years ago) of which he disapproves along with some amazingly vicious attacks.

Meanwhile, Read More…

Top of the morning: Different kinds of convention coverage

August 31, 2012 at 8:21 amCategory:Uncategorized

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There are obviously lots of different ways to cover a big and complex news event like a political convention. Some journalists focus on the scripted events on the podium, some interview delegates, some look outside of the convention hall. 

Here’s one kind of “coverage” you will not find on our site next week: a cheer-leading group of “livebloggers.” Last night, the Locke Foundation had several staffers set up to “liveblog” the final two hours of the Tampa convention.

Okay — I get it when people tweet or live-blog with contemporaneous commentary. I often wonder who the heck is reading it in the middle of the evening when, if they care at all about the event at all, they’re probably watching it themselves on TV, but I get it.

But can someone tell me what the point is of having — as the Locke people did last night — three of your staffers do a real time narration of live events that once can watch on TV?

Examples: Read More…

The Locke Foundation’s Fox News “journalism”

August 15, 2012 at 8:33 amCategory:Uncategorized

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“Never let the facts get in the way of a good story” — this appears to be the motto not just of Fox News, but of one of Fox’s most obsequious local outlets, the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation.

Check out, for instance, this post from yesterday afternoon on ”The Locker Room” blog. The story is about some township officials in a Philadelphia suburb who want a local woman to get a permit ( a permit that costs a lot of money) before she hands out food to hungry kids from her home. Sounds like a classic case of officious government bureaucrats messing with private charity, right?

Well, it may well be (though one has to wonder if the Fox/Locke people would be yelling if the poor kids were lining up next door to Art Pope’s house and trampling his roses rather than doing so in a lower income, minority neighborhood), but here’s the interesting part: The Locke post inaccurately gives the impression that the food is from private donors. Read More…

Local conservative group should apologize for staffer’s attempt at “humor”

July 31, 2012 at 2:08 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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In keeping with the theme in today’s Weekly Briefing and the call therein for less know-it-all commentary, this post will not pontificate at any length about how offensive and troubling the “Random Thought” published today in the “Education Update” newsletter of the John Locke Foundation was. We all make dumb mistakes and have told “jokes” we’d like to have back.   

Let’s just say that the “thought” (which is reproduced below) was and is NOT funny, displays a remarkable level of insensitivity and lack of class and ought to be retracted ASAP.

“Random Thought

The most “American” Olympic sport is Modern Pentathlon.  I mean, it sounds like your average summer day in Detroit – swimming, running, riding, shooting pistols, and trying to stab a complete stranger with a sharp object.”