Columnist restored reader’s faith in journalism

Comments: Dear Mr. Walter Backstrom,

I was making a fire last night and stumbled onto your article about whether Martin Luther king would have hated George Bush.

Before I mention whether I found the article thought provoking or not. A little background.

I had made a decision two weeks ago amid the election mess of press coverage to stop reading all Associated Press articles. These characters had me believe that journalism was dead in this country. Articles about Scooter Palin’s second-grade teacher who once saw Scooter accidentally drop his lunch tray became more important than whether the other candidates received foreign funding for the most expensive campaign in the history of the world. The decision was helped along by an article by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, who described being handled by the media and gave the thought of filtering. I decided to give it a try after another dose of the AP’s latest decision to cover Palin’s distant cousin in the lower 48 who had seen an alien back in 1987 over something meaningful.

So there I am, making this fire, and I stumble across your article. The scary part is the article that almost became fire starter turned out to be the best article I have read in over a year.

You have shown that journalism is still alive and well and that independent thinkers are still around.

Keep up the great work!

Brian Giboney

Des Moines