Don’t blame filmmakers, blame Culver for not listening
In a recent edition of Cityview (“Duffy’s View,” Sept. 24), Duffy’s cartoon shows Gov. Culver as Mr. Incredible in regards to the current problem with the State Film Tax Incentives. Why don’t you try Mr. Incompetent? This portrayal, as well as other coverage, conveniently ignores the fact that the Film Office Director on several occasions tried to see the Governor about the needs of the program and was never granted an audience and that Culver and the legislators who are now so outraged about what has happened were complacently dozing during the time when they could have been monitoring how well the program was being administered.
For an “alternative” newspaper, this doesn’t seem to veer too far away from the point of view of chief rival The Des Moines Register. This similarity continues in the “Good Bad Ugly” column, where its mention of the “seedy side of Hollywood” infecting the Iowa Film Industry infers that all film production companies are slick operators out to pluck money away from gullible Iowans. What an image you are helping to create for the state! Following this kind of logic, we must then assume that all politicians cavort with prostitutes, and that all people in rural and small town Iowa operate methamphetamine labs. I think that all the film producers who did follow the rules and the people of the state of Iowa are due a public apology.
David Thrasher
Des Moines
Enjoyed pushing the pedal to the metal
I thought Jared Curtis did a nice job on the recent cover (“Pedal to the Metal,” Sept. 24) about one of my old haunts. Thanks for running the story.
Al Booton
Carlisle
Fall books review was a success
I just wanted to thank you for the nice review in Cityview (“Fall Book Review,” Sept. 17). I really appreciate being included in your fall book preview, which I thought was great. It’s wonderful that you’re doing this preview. I’m sure your readers enjoyed it.
John Shors
Author of “Dragon House”
What happened to the Cityview I knew and loved?
First of all, I am a long time fan of Cityview and I’m not writing to say something played out like “you’re losing your edge.” I still read the paper every week and enjoy it. My reason for writing is that over the last year or so, I’ve seen a noticeable decline in actual “news” in the paper. Maybe this is intentional — a reaction to Juice flooding the market with fluff. But it does make me sad to see the city’s alternative weekly producing a paper with no substance.
Having said that, “Civic Skinny” is still a must read, but other than that and an occasional “Our View,” the paper doesn’t even attempt to write about news or politics anymore. I enjoy music, movie and food reviews as much as the next person, but I expect Cityview to offer an independent and different take on the news of the day than I can expect at the Register. Anymore, that isn’t the case. You replaced your politics coverage with community sports coverage and fill “We the People” with feature stories.
I have never written a letter to the editor before, but I felt compelled to do so here because I think Des Moines needs the strong alternative voice Cityview could offer.
With so much scandal, and with important elections in 2010 and 2012, now more than ever Cityview must get back to being a ”news” paper as opposed to a “features” paper.
Sara Thomas
Des Moines
[Editor’s note: More political coverage coming soon. Keep reading.]
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