On Stopping Delivery of the Honolulu Advertiser

Today I submitted the following letter to the editor of the Honolulu Advertiser, one of two daily newspapers published on Oahu. My comments reflect a discernable pattern of editorial decisions concering the paper's coverage of the Iraqi war and related matters.

Perhaps they will print the letter. Perhaps they won't. It doesn't matter.

Regardless of their jaded coverage I will continue to be thrilled with the images of smiling, courageous Iraqis crowding to the polls, waving purple fingers high in defiance of those who would return them to political slavery; the enemy they despise; not the United States, but the so-called "insurgents" who threaten and kill the Iraqi people every day.

If the editors of the Advertiser are so blinded by their politically entrenched opinions to see what was so clearly revealed in Sunday's voting turnout in Iraq then how can I trust their opinions on anything less obvious?

To the Editor:

Monday I wondered why there was not a single editorial comment concerning the jubilant success of the Iraqi elections the previous day. One hint of a reason was found in the only reference to Iraq on the editorial page that day, a political cartoon depicting a suicide bomber in a car about to explode.

On Tuesday your editorial was split evenly between the Iraqi elections being a glass that was “half-full" and "half-empty." The only related news article was tucked away on page three with a deprecating front page lead reading "Victory, for a Day." Mr. Adair's editorial cartoon summed up the Advertiser's position best with a childish caricature of a loopy President Bush prancing like a giddy idiot with Condie Rice, shouting, "Freedom's on the march!"

I have come to believe that no success in Iraq will be enough to satisfy the editors of the Advertiser. And I suspect that only humiliating and catastrophic failures will continue bring forth any enthusiastic coverage on your pages in the future.

Enough is enough. I am canceling my subscription as of today and I ask others who share my opinion on this matter to do the same.