Aug 5, 2008

Veteran journalist launches liberal and progressive blog/newspaper


I am pleased to announced I am now contributing to a new blog/newspaper called the “Opinion Artillery” operated by veteran journalist John Beckett.

According to the mission statement or description, Opinion Artillery “offers progressive commentary on U.S. policies and politics, and also keeps an eye on Michigan and Livingston County, the fastest-growing county in the state.“

The site is written and edited by Beckett. He, like me, is a Livingston County resident, but he is from Howell’s arch rival a few miles east down Grand River Avenue in Brighton. He reported and written for the then Brighton Argus - now the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus - for seven years and he spent 18 years at the Ann Arbor News, where he won numerous state and national awards.

It was while Mr. Beckett was at the A2 that I became aware of him. I worked for a few years at the bi-weekly Brighton Argus/Livingston County Press, and the A2 was our competition. It was the A2 work, combined with the decision by the Detroit News to open a bureau in Livingston County, that led to the LCP and the Argus to form the first new daily newspaper in Michigan in 50 years in September 2000. It was an exciting time, and I left a great job at the News Herald in Southgate to be a part of it.

The name of the blog is based on a quote by English journalist, political philosopher and novelist William Godwin: “Usurped powers cannot withstand the artillery of opinion."

Not only does the blog offer the work of contributing articles writers like me, Mr. Beckett accepts and publishes pieces from other writers.

I really like his take on the blog when he writes, “Because we're tired of how "liberal" has been turned into a dirty word. And because we believe our country needs a healthy dose of liberalism or progressivism or whatever you want to call it if we're going to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.”

I could don’t have said it better myself.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liberalism or progressivism makes no difference what you call a socialist. It's still a socialist.

Brett
Conservativelifestyle.blogspot.com

Communications guru said...

Liberalism and progressivism have absolutely nothing to do with socialism, and the former have made this country great.

Anonymous said...

Right CG,

Take money from someone who works for it and give it to people who do not work for it sure sounds like Communism, socialism, liberalism, progressivism.

Communications guru said...

It sounds like none of those things.

Like I said before, it is liberalism that has made this country great, and that’s why I am proud to call myself a liberal and a proud, patriotic American. To quote columnist Wayne Besen, “Liberalism encourages exploration and education. It reveres science and celebrates the inquisitive mind. Indeed, liberal values are often superior to those held on the right, because they are tenaciously subjected to rigorous examination. Beliefs that are questioned and still prevail are the ones that stand the test of time.”

Anonymous said...

“Liberalism encourages exploration and education."
-----------------------------------
Interesting. Exploration, yet the liberals in the House turned the lights out, the mic's off and the camera's of C-Span out rather than debate and vote on drilling for oil despite 73% of the people wanting drilling.

Education. Failing. Math comes in 16th behind countries that don't have indoor plumbing. Science fares even worse by coming in 29th.

Good jobs socialists....errr, liberals.....errr progressivists.

Brett
conservativelifestyle.blogspot.com

Communications guru said...

This happens every single summer; the House and Senate adjourn for the summer. The president, I believe, can call them back into session. He hasn’t. As for the energy policy, the Grand Oil Party controlled the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme for all but the last 18 months. Why no decent energy policy then? This is nothing more than a false campaign stunt. The oil companies should first drill on the thousands of leases they already have, but they will not do that because they want to keep the supply tight and the prices high,

What countries don’t have plumbing? What we need to do is invest in early childhood education and place more emphasis on science. I know the answer is not to just educate the rich and privileged. I prefer to be called a liberal, but progressive is the same thing.