Editor’s note: Blogging is a tough job, so I was pleased to receive kudos from Robert Speer, editor of the Chico News & Review, for questioning our Assemblyman Dan Logue’s ethics in naming a campaign contributer as his “Business of the Year.” Over the years, I’ve pointed to some sage reporting by the CN&R myself, including “The post daily world.”
Speer, whom I’ve never met, has been more respectful of my journalistic acumen than The Union’s editor/publisher jackerman@theunion.com (who is still sitting on this story) or the local “wingnut” bloggers, who enjoy touting their friendship with Jeff A. and mocked me for questioning Logue’s ethics.
Not only that but Speer did not raise the possibility that I might be a “complete dick,” as “Jeff” did the other day, a vulgar remark that led to the suspension of an MSNBC commentator (but not “jackerman” — sort of a vulgar email handle in its own right). The internet is changing the way we communicate in small towns — and apparently riling the “good old boys.” Here’s Speer’s report:
“Most CN&R readers probably aren’t familiar with The Territorial Dispatch, a free weekly publication based in Marysville and distributed in Yuba, Sutter, Colusa and Nevada counties. It’s full of press-release material (“Premier Mushrooms L.P. providing summer jobs to students”) and folksy columns (“Fishin’ Talk,” by Boots Johnson) mixed in with a smattering of local news and lots and lots of red-country claptrap.
Here’s how The Territorial Dispatch is described on the Yuba-Sutter Wiki:
“There is a decidedly right-wing political bias as well as a religious-right bias to this newspaper. Opinions of the editors suggest that global warming is a hoax. The views promoted by the Territorial Dispatch are consistent with those of the Christian Reconstructionist movement.”
I mention all this because I recently received a press release from our local assemblyman, Dan Logue, announcing that he’d honored The Territorial Dispatch as the “2011 Small Business of the Year” in his district. Logue is fulsome in his praise of the paper, calling it “a very important part of our rural news community, providing news and information services to many remote cities and towns.”
What Logue fails to mention is that the paper’s owners, John Mistler and wife Kitty O’Neal, have also provided him with major campaign cash—$14,000 in the 2007-08 cycle, for example.
Let’s get this straight: Logue takes money from the paper’s owners, then spends taxpayer dollars to fabricate and deliver an award to those same owners, casting their paper in a favorable light.
This leads Jeff Pelline, a retired journalist (he was editor of the Grass Valley Union, among other jobs in the trade) and avid blogger (“Jeff Pelline’s Sierra Foothills Report”), to ask: “How does that make all the other hard-working small businesses in Dan’s district feel? What gall!”
This is yet another example of Logue’s rather carefree personal ethics. Readers may remember that in September of last year I wrote that he’d once failed to pay some $28,000 in back taxes, resulting in 16 different liens on various properties he’d owned.
Now he’s publicly honoring his campaign donors—without mentioning the money they gave him. Pelline’s right: Other small-business owners in his district should be indignant, as should voters.
Robert Speer is editor of the CN&R.
The full article is here.
Let’s hope The Bee probes Logue’s personal ethics too.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Very cool, well done Jeff!
I love that mantra on the box above, but it sounds like a bad ad for a male brothel…..
LOL!!!!
Speaking of assorted Dicks and male ads, and since we have Weiner no more, did ya’ll hear the one about the 59 yr old Ohio family values teabag representative who got arrested after failing a field sobriety test three times in a car with “temporary” Kentucky license plates and in the presence of a 26yr old, uh, dancergirl about 2 miles from a strip club in Indiana? On Good Friday? And full of Viagra? Named Robert Mecklenborg? ….me neither…;) Kate…
The Chico News & Review brings back many old memories. I have enjoyed them over the years in much the same way that i have enjoyed this blog, but at least they are not afraid of the liberal label.
John
John,
At the risk of repeating myself in these forums, there is a gaping hole between where you and your allies stand politically and the majority of us Californians. I would be careful about any labeling. With all due respect, it is your kind of political extremism (along with some of the “electeds” whom you support — including Logue and McClintock) that brings moderates and liberals together (AGW, same-sex marriage, the Auburn dam, etc.), blurring the line from your end. This is California, not Kentucky, Alabama or South Carolina. Have a great Fourth of July and thanks for your civil commentary.
Jeff,
So what in your mind is the difference between a “moderate” and a “liberal” in California? That is an honest question.
I trust we all will have a great 4th of July and remember the sacrifices and wisdom of those who have gone before!
John
I still have a great photo a friend of our family took for the Chicago Tribune at the 1968 Republican convention in Miami of a pretty young blonde pregnant delegate under the sign, “Nixon’s the One”
Is this a voice we hear often on the radio?
“Kitty O’Neal,”
No.
President Obama simply stated what these schoolboys forgot: He’s The Man. And they are not.
Kate
This is terrific! Thanks Jeff for providing a reasonable voice in our community.
How very clever to quote the very liberal/progressive “other side” yubasutter.wiki blog.
Karol
“Karol,”
You’re kidding, right?
Checking all 50 states in Zabasearch, I got the following:
“No Results Match KAROLE WATERS
Check Your Spelling and Try Your Search Again”
Troll.
It is Karol Waters, named after my aunt. No “e”.
Do a search here: http://www.people-finders.ws/processor.asp many Karol Waters listed.
“Dave C,”
We are trying to enforce a respectful policy where people are accountable by signing their real names. You are not exactly setting a shining example.
Well, yes. Sorry for the misspelling.
There are 26 Karol Waters in the USA, the closest living in Utah.
Welcome Karol! Glad you are finding our burg so interesting.
Thank you!
Jeff. Done!
Thanks Dave Cranfield!
Karol, if you dispute the facts in the CN&R piece, please do so. Kate
Our tea party activist, hard right and CABPRO sympathizer Barry Pruett (whose wife is on McClintock’s payroll, who lost in all the precincts in the clerk-recorder race against Greg Diaz and who lost another political race in Indiana) is now going apoplectic on his blog about the report here and on the Chico News & Review questioning Dan Logue’s ethics. He has also resorted (again) to personal attacks and libelous innuendo as he lashes out.
http://barrypruett.blogspot.com/2011/07/dan-logue-honors-territorial-dispatch.html
I also couldn’t help but notice that Barry used the term “very liberal/progressive” to describe Yubasutter.wiki.blog — exactly the same wording used by “Karol Walters.”
Is Barry Pruett “Karol Walters”? Is Barry Pruett a “troll”?
Kate, Logue has a right to honor whomever he selects, and on what ever basis he chooses to use. The CN&R has a right to express their opinion. Did he break any law? We may not like what he did, but I believe he has every right to give an honor. It is mentioned tax payer money was used to honor these people, do you have any idea how much ANY honor an elected person bestows cost taxpayers?
Karol,
One of the better arguments for a part-time legislature is that they would have far less time and money to do such things
John
I presume taxpayer money was used to issue the press release that came out of Dan’s office: http://arc.asm.ca.gov/member/3/?p=pr
I hope the Sacramento Bee investigates Dan’s ethics as well. Let’s see how Barry Pruett slimes them for being a “messenger.”
The community needs to rise up against attacks and personal innuendo directed at people who scrutinize our elected officials. It’s dirty pool.
Jeff,
What exactly are you saying needs to be “investigated” regarding this press release: It looks about as exciting as those announcing ground hog day.
John
Dan’s ethics need to be investigated. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that it’s right.
Jeff,
I don’t see anything in that press release that even smells like an ethical problem.
If Dan was trying to get them a huge federal subsidy to encourage more local papers [the kind of thing you and others have fought for on this list with regard to rural Internet access] THEN I would say we have an ethical problem.
John
Karol,
Welcome to one of the most spirited blogs that I have found on the Internet.
Jeff keeps things civil by required real names, but you have to ready to take your lumps if you are a conservative and especially if you are Christian conservative. Most folks here are liberal and know how to defend their positions well. This is why I enjoy the discussion even if they can be a little frustrating at times. There are some on the right and the left who drop in to just call names occasionally but they are largely ignored. Jeff, and many others here seem genuinely interested in real discussion of the issues. I don’t know that many minds are changed, but it certainly does stretch us all.
So I would hope that you will come on in and join the fun. I am currently preaching through Paul’s confrontation of the Greek intellectuals on Mars Hill in Acts 17, so it is very valuable for me!
John
John,
“Karol”‘s email address could not be confirmed. This troll has been put into moderation. Again, people, please sign your real name with a verifiable email address. John, thanks for you honesty. Seems that calling out Logue’s ethics brought the trolls out of the woodwork. Does this mean I am going to get more fake magazine subscriptions and a parody Twitter account? LOL.
Jeff,
My grand kids would be happy to supply all the magazines that you need!
John
Uh oh Pelline, Pruett sounds testy. I guess slapping you with the dreaded libruuul smear has done nothing to shut you up. And, even worse, it looks like you’ve become “very popular”,….all over the STATE. ;o Kate
Why, heaven forfend…
Kate
Kate,
Perhaps you could explain why conservatives have no problem being identified as conservatives while most liberals run from that label?
John
Pruett has established himself as the Michele Bachmann foil for the area. The moderate GOPers loathe him. You could hear the clinking glasses when word went out that redistricting will push this little cabal to the southernmost tip of NC.
John I am a liberal and I consider myself progressive. Speaking just for myself I never run from the “label” of liberal. I detest the form that conservatives use to describe liberals. It is cowardly and disingenuous.
You don’t seem to have a problem painting others with such a wide brush.
Ken,
Labels are only handles we try to use to understand where folks are coming from and we do need to be careful because one person definition could be quite different from another:
I use conservative to describe those who support God-given rights, believe that man is fallen and thus cannot be trusted with power, as a result we should have limited government and maximum opportunity with everyone taking responsibility for their own actions.
I use liberal to describe those who believe that we have universal natural rights, that man is innocent until corrupted by his environment and thus they look to wise men who can be trusted with the power to keep everyone on the right path. As a result they believe in expansive government, limited opportunity [IE tax the rich] and society taking responsibility for the bad actions of its citizens.
That may be the broad brush to which you referred but it gives us a place to begin discussion. The difficulty is moving on to particular issues: Today it is not considered “conservative” to want massive reduction in the military budget, but that is my position because I do not believe we should be building empires. Nat Hentoff at the Village Voice believes that defending the unborn is the proper liberal position because they are the most inocent among us… He would not want anyone calling him a conservative because of that stand.
Hope this helps and yes I think we all need to be more honest AND more careful with our use of labels, myself included.
John
From what I’ve seen on the Yubasutter.wiki.blog it doesn’t seem as Liberal/Progressive as it is being made out here (with an underlying tone that it is extremist). Granted I’ve not read everything that was ever stated. Had I been a business owner in that vicinity rather than here, and donated to Logue’s campaign, I would feel snubbed that I was overlooked for an honor.
Since the GOP are so busy financially blackmailing 98% of American citizens, I suggest paying their ransom: Give Rick Perry, Bryan Fisher, and Glenn Beck Texas. Give Jan Brewer, Russell Pearce, Sheriff Joe and Bristol Palin Arizona minus Tucson, then abolish all private plane, oil and gas subsidies and corporate welfare…including hedge fund fees for the Banksters that engineered this debacle in the first place. Most importantly bend over for noone with a portfolio that is larger than what a middle class family would earn in 100 lifetimes. That’s a good start…Kate