The good Senator Shamrock over on Rock Town Blog gives a starter course in how to write editorials for the D&C. Man, I needed a good laugh this morning:

…let me crack the template for one of their op-ed pieces (if you can play Mad Libs, you could be a writer for the D and C). The topic doesn’t matter, but it could be the way Albany works or it could be the way the County works. It starts by identifying the problem. “We have know for years that…” Then it usually tells why it is a problem, and who is to blame for the problem. Here is where it gets tricky. They blame both sides of the issue. So if it is workers comp they are angry about that day, they blame business and labor. “To be sure, you can find fault with both sides…” Then, they suggest that the two sides compromise. And they feel smug for having helped us regular schmoes wrap our brains around a complex issue. As a new wrinkle, when things are worked on or fixed, they have added a new part to this. It goes like this: “Spitzer kept his promise on reforming workers comp, and that is to be applauded, but it doesn’t go far enough…” All they ever do on that page is cover their, uh, bases. The only time you get any real thoughts is from the guest essayists who themselves range from thoughtful to deranged.

Don’t hold back senator, tell us how you really feel.

I assume it’s tough to write editorials. I assume they have the same issues with well-organized conservative attack dogs that news anchors described in a Harvard forum on the media (7/25/04). From Fairness and Accuracy in the Media:

The Harvard forum revealed even more reasons why news media might not dig deeply into dubious claims promoted by a conservative White House. In a discussion that included several nightly news anchors, there was general agreement that media were under increasing pressure from well-organized right-wing activists. ABC anchor Peter Jennings described the impact of conservative activists:

I think there is this anxiety in the newsroom and I think it comes in part from the corporate suite. I think that the rise, not merely of conservative opinion in the country, but the related noise being made in the media by conservative voices these days, has an effect on the corporate suites…. This wave of resentment rushes at our advertisers, rushes at the corporate suites and gets under the newsroom skin, if not completely into the decision-making process, to a greater degree than it has before.

Rather’s admission that many, himself included, share a presumption in favor of the president’s truthfulness, and Jennings’ acknowledgement of an ever-present conservative pressure on newsrooms, may help to explain why George W. Bush has gotten away with so many deceptive declarations.

Replace Bush’s name with our current county exec, and you get: “an ever-present conservative pressure on newsrooms, may help to explain why Maggie Brooks has gotten away with so many deceptive declarations.”