David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register is coming to my class Tuesday

[RonPaulFever]

If I remember correctly, there was some controversy during the primaries regarding this paper's treatment of Ron Paul. I remember that they ended up endorsing McCain, but not much else. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Yepsen? I'll be sure to post his answers on Tuesday night.

[Kap]

I believe the Des Monies Register held a debate and Ron Paul was not invited to attend.

[yongrel]

Bring tomatoes.

[surf]

i have a question: have him explain the reasoning behind the McCain endorsement - what position of his, if any, do they believe in? If you know the Registers positions on war, the economy, or civil liberties, it could help to frame your question something like, "Given the Register has historically opposed to this war, why did you endorse a candidate that wants to expand this war and drag it out for 100 years?" Or, "Given the Register's editorial viewpoint that opposes the Patriot Act as an afront to civil liberties, what prompted you to endorse the man who champions trashing the Bill of Rights?" Or, you could simply ask, "what, if anything, do you like about [this duchebag] Senator McCain?"

Or, "what positions of John McCain do you prefer over Ron Paul?" Then blow Yepsen up if you're given the opportunity.

My paper - the Seattle PI, endorsed McCain as well in spite of the papers anti-war and pro-civil liberties positions. I had hope after exchanging emails with a few editors, and was bitterly disappointed.

Looking forward to your report. Knock him down.

[RonPaulFever]

bump

[mavtek]

I agree with others on the questioning of endorsement of John McCain.

I'd ask the how Ron Paul, who got 10% of the vote in Iowa was excluded from their sponsored forum.

[Knightskye]

"What do you think of the following statement: 'I don't think Americans are concerned if we're there for 100 years, or 1,000 years, or 10,000 years.' regarding the war in Iraq?"

;)

[John of Des Moines]

Where you at?

Ask him if the Des Moines Register is still part of Operation Mockingbird.

Ask him when he thinks his paper really started misreporting (and unreporting) of Paul's campaign. Was it before or after the June 30th Forum Rally when his paper stated that the crowd was 600 when in fact it was over 1100. (I was in charge of the door count.) Or, when the AP (published in the Register) reported on the August 11th Straw Poll results naming all the candidates' results - even candidates who did not show up at the Straw Poll - except for Paul who came in 5th and didn't get a word of ink. Or, was it when the Register continually misstated or failed to publish the Doctor campaign schedule numerous times.


I'll post this to my meet up for others to chime in.

[John of Des Moines]

I'd ask the how Ron Paul, who got 10% of the vote in Iowa was excluded from their sponsored forum.

What Forum are you speaking of? If it's the June 30th Forum that was the doings of Iowans for Tax Relief (Ed Failor) and the Iowa Christian Alliance - the Register had nothing to do with the event except for misreporting it as noted above.

[spacehabitats]

i have a question: have him explain the reasoning behind the McCain endorsement - what position of his, if any, do they believe in? If you know the Registers positions on war, the economy, or civil liberties, it could help to frame your question something like, "Given the Register has historically opposed to this war, why did you endorse a candidate that wants to expand this war and drag it out for 100 years?" Or, "Given the Register's editorial viewpoint that opposes the Patriot Act as an afront to civil liberties, what prompted you to endorse the man who champions trashing the Bill of Rights?" Or, you could simply ask, "what, if anything, do you like about [this duchebag] Senator McCain?"

Or, "what positions of John McCain do you prefer over Ron Paul?" Then blow Yepsen up if you're given the opportunity.

My paper - the Seattle PI, endorsed McCain as well in spite of the papers anti-war and pro-civil liberties positions. I had hope after exchanging emails with a few editors, and was bitterly disappointed.

Looking forward to your report. Knock him down.

Yeah, these are good questions.
Or you could ask him when he received word from his CFR handler that the time was right to start the McCain bandwagon.:D Just kidding,.... I think.

[nevesis]

The Register did a week-long editorial page candidate profiles thing.

Guess who they left out?

Supporters offered to buy a full page ad next to the editorial profiles. The Register wouldn't let them.

[John of Des Moines]

bump

[No1ButPaul08]

Ask him why the Register propped up Kerry and Obama in their 2004 and 2008 pre-caucus polls. Kerry and Obama had very late surges in Iowa after the Register released their final polls. Edwards should have won Iowa, he lost a lot of support after the poll. Here's an article and video talking about it

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24392
http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/webcasts.aspx?wid=117

[IDefendThePlatform]

David Yepsen is a liberal shill and a piss-poor representative of the state of Iowa. Go get him RonPaulFever.

[RonPaulFever]

I think I'll go after him about the exclusion from the debate and from their candidate profile series, as well as the McCain endorsement. I can't wait to hear him answer.

Luckily for me, I have two very outspoken members of my meetup group in the same class. I'm sure they'll chime in :D

[RonPaulFever]

OOPS! I got my dates mixed up - apparently Mr. Yepsen won't be visiting until April 1st. The upside of this is that I'll have more time to prepare questions. Fire away, you crazy revolutionaries! :)

[John of Des Moines]

Please tell me what DM Register debate was Doctor Paul excluded from?

[NEPA_Revolution]

Make sure if he dodges a question you have some of your friends asking the same thing so he cant get away. Most likely his tactic will be escape, so dont let that one work.

[surf]

As I said earlier. I really think you should research and determine what editorial positions the Register has taken that seemingly call out for an RP endoresment, and ask him why they endorsed McCain when his public stance runs counter to these. I believe most newspapers are against the war, against the Patriot Act, and most papers have publicly taken timid positions against the abolition of habeus corpus and for fiscal responsibility.

But they all support the 1st amendment while McCain/Feingold throws it out the window.

I'd suggest trying to be respectful and don't call him out personally (it was an Editorial Board that he is a member of and somehow the group - not just him personally - arrived at this decision), but rather to point out the inevitable inconsistencies in the Paper's endorsement and ask him to explain how they arrived at their [pansy-ass] decision to endorse McWar when his positions clearly run counter to the Registers. But that's only if they do run counter.

Otherwise, perhaps focus on the economy.

[RonPaulFever]

Update:

Mr. Yepsen started off with an interesting historical analysis of the Iowa caucus, then took questions. I asked him why the Register excluded RP from their candidate profile series and he replied by saying that he "wasn't a serious candidate" and didn't have a national presence or a strong base, etc. etc.....I went back and forth with him for a few minutes, but in the interest of time and being respectful I allowed him to move on to the next question.

Later I asked him why the Register endorsed McCain which, after my initial question, drew a hearty laugh from the class (I shill for Ron quite a bit in there, lol). He said something about electability, McCain's "fiscal policy" (apparently he has one...who knew?) and his character.

The answers I got were what I expected, but he did point out that the paper never went so far as to label Ron a kook like others had, and I acknowledged that local media were generally more fair to him than the national news organizations. He actually half-apologized to me after the class, but I told him I hadn't taken any offense and that I enjoyed the back and forth. I would have liked to talk to him more; he seemed very intelligent and passionate about politics.