Even more hostage notes from the 23rd Congressional District race

Warden, warden, please listen to me, be brave and set Geronimo free. Whoa boys, take me back, I want to ride in Geronimo's Cadillac

NOV. 13, 2009: The New York Times recently published a story about the 23rd Congressional District race and the reporter, Carl Hulse, noted that after Republican Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the race, Democrats “then pressed for the endorsement of the Watertown paper, winning a crucial stamp of approval (for Bill Owens) in the district.”

Nice story, except the “pressed for the endorsement” never happened. Our paper changed its endorsement from Scozzafava to Owens without hearing from anybody.

After a few emails from us, The New York Times printed a correction this week, which we appreciated. We would have been even more appreciative if the correction didn't refer to us as the Watertown Daily News.

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Our whatchamacallit newspaper is the smallest in the nation to have a Washington, D.C., bureau. The late Alan Emory our long-time correspondent there, was a member of the Gridiron Club, best known for its yearly black tie dinner and musical spoof on politicians.

For years, most of the words to the parodies sung at these events were penned by Emory. Our present D.C. reporter, Marc Heller, is not writing any of the songs for this year's show, but he does have access to some of the show's highlights.

He reports: “You'll be glad to know that Dede's name may make the winter Gridiron Club show… Steve Koff from the Plain Dealer just came in to sing his lyrics (ala Alan Emory).”

Scozzafava! She's a verb! She's a verse! She EVERYWHERE!

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If anyone thinks the Watertown Daily Times-News was on the take from any of the candidates running for the 23rd Congressional District, well, we'll be glad to open our books.

Zero. Nada. Goose egg. Our newspaper didn't receive one political ad from Scozzafava, Owens or Conservative Doug Hoffman. (OK, we did get an ad from Scozzafava thanking supporters AFTER she dropped out of the race).

Did they not know we were here?

Oh, they knew. If you looked at all the campaign advertising on television or in the mail, the Watertown Daily Times was splashed all over the place. Our stories and headlines were being used by all three campaigns to tout their candidate's qualities and tarnish their opponents' flaws.

So there you have it. Politicians believe newspapers and their Web sites have the most information you can trust. But in their perfect world, newspapers eventually won't have enough money to exist.

Thus, in any postmortem of the 23rd Congressional District race, it should be noted that this wasn't just a fight about social issues, local issues and the soul of the Republican Party. It was also a fight against our decaying brand of journalism that is atrophying into little more than candidate press releases, ethically bankrupt push polls and cable TV echo chambers masquerading as news shows.

We're trying to tell you: The Huns are at the gates.