The Standard-Examiner and Weber County Forum fess up and apologize for leaping to unwarranted conclusions
We're only human, except for your blogmeister, who is a bona-fide and admitted space alien
By Curmudgeon
Since the topic in the lower article comments thread seems to have turned to a discussion of the Standard-Examiner's various policies, this seems like a good spot to point out the lead editorial in today's, Thursday's Std-Ex. It is a mea culpa and retraction of the Standard's editorial a couple of days ago blasting the state legislature for cutting the time allowed to submit petitions for referenda by six weeks. Only problem is, the legislature did not do that. The new dates do not apply to state referenda, only local ones. Mr. Porter's retraction and apology can be found here.
The correction and apology are fulsome, straight up, and appear in the most prominent slot of the print editorial page. [More on that in a bit.] And the apology is signed. Kudos to Mr. Porter and the Std-Ex for not burying all this in a brief note under "Corrections." Better not to have muffed it at all, but having done it, best to get it fixed, fess up and do it fast and visibly. The Std-Ex and Mr. Porter handled their gaffe well.
Except... when I went onto the free web page and clicked "Opinion" to get a link to the editorial, all that came up was today's second editorial, not the lead one, which was Mr. Porter's retraction and apology. Why the Std-Ex should have included that prominently [and rightly] on the pages of the print edition, but not on the web edition [except behind the subscription wall] escapes me.
Speaking of apologies and retractions, now it's my turn. Based on Mr. Trentelman's original reporting that the legislature had chopped six weeks out of the time to file referendum petitions, I posted a rant... and it was a rant... here denouncing the Republican legislative majority for having done what, it turns out, they had not done. The rant, which was wholly unwarranted, is hereby retracted and my apologies to the Republican leaders, and members of the House and Senate, for criticizing them unfairly.
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12 comments:
Dang, Curm! Dontcha just hate it when you have to retract a really excellent rant? It was truly a thing of beauty, too.
Rudi:
Yes. Absolutely. But fair's fair, they didn't do it, so no real choice. However, I have complete confidence that the Republican legislative majority will soon provide fresh [and wholly justified] opportunities for new rants galore. Count on it.
They didn't do it yet.
Your rant is correct; it's just a couple years early. The basic concept is already bad: making the deadline months earlier when the state-wide petition requirements are already so high. We've had one state referendum in 30 years, and I can't recall ever hearing of any county or municipal petitions. Any examples you know of? I do remember a few initiatives in SL County.
The implementation of SB 54 is sneaky. They institute the tighter deadlines for state, county, and municipal initiatives, and county and municipal referendums. The purpose of the bill is ostensibly to make things easier on clerks (just like the omnibus bills were meant to help the poor legislative staff like Sen. Stephenson claimed) and make all of the deadlines uniform.
So for what possible reason would they leave out just state referendums if they want to make everything else uniform? Answer: political expediency. They have made citizen redress through initiative and most referenda more difficult and are just waiting a year or two to adjust state-wide referendums in the name of "uniformity."
utah:
Certainly a plausible scenario, based on past performance. We'll have to keep watching them closely... which is a good idea in any case.
That omnibus education bill was as raw a piece of power politics as I've seen in a state legislature. Happily, they didn't get away with all of what the defeated bills they stuffed into it would have done. Only part of it. Be thankful for small favors, I guess.
The way to combat this is to organize and collectively fight the battles. With the internet, blogs and e-mail, we can pool our forces as was done on the PM petition. Almost 600 signatures on a single issue is a daunting lesson for local politicians. It is time for the citizens of this county to stand up and demand better leadership and if we don't get it, work to replace the elected officials at every level.
Zeke
You are certainly correct about that!
I would like to add that we need to identify and support candidates that will run against the established and arrogant members of the Legislalture. The top five to ten "leaders" are especially in need of replacement.
This needs to be done at the neighborhood - caucus level. Get active in either party in your neighborhood and make sure that delegates go to the convention that agree we need a serious ethical overhaul in State Government.
We need to find support candidates that are not afraid to stand up and call it the way it is. We need to support people like the pilot from Huntsville that has called Republican Froerer on the carpet for his failures and conflicts of interest.
"Count on it."
That I will. But since the legislature's now adjourned, I'm hoping you won't ask me to hold my breath until the next ethical lapse.
BTW, Curm, I too leaped to the conclusion that the shortening time bill was a last minute bitch slap @ the lumpencitizens for overruling the ever-enlightened State Legislature. In fact, I'll reveal that I'd mentally composed a cranky rant similar to yours; but you beat me to the punch by submitting your most excellent rant, before I'd sat myself down to put pen to paper, so to speak.
That puts me in pretty good company, with smart guys like you and Porter... I think[?}
And Utah teacher is right. We need to keep our eye on this, and await somebody's attempt to apply this legislative tweak to "statewide issues," under the pretext of "uniformity."
I thinks Porter's self-critical article went way overboard.
He missed the main story, which is excusable for a human being who relies upon the accuracy of his own seasoned reporters... like Trentelman.
Hey, here's an idea, Porter, Curm and Me... Howbout we blame the whole problem on Trentelman?
Ha HA! Just kiddin'.
Curm, Rudi and Don Porter:
You guys are all being too hard on yourselves. The last person who was perfect...we nailed to the cross. Everyone else makes mistakes. It takes real men, like Thoreau's "men of conscience", to have the phallos and character to properly apologize in the correct format and medium.
I for one find my personal respect for each of you heightened by your honesty and integrity.
rudi:
Well, we don't know enough to conclude that. For all we know, Mr. Porter was talking his idea for the editorial he wrote about shortening the time for referendum petitions around the newsroom, and that that's where Mr. Trentelman heard it, and so put it in his column, which ran before the editorial. [If reporters and editors are half as gabby as professors, they talk with each other about what they're up to around the water cooler. And often they run their stuff past their colleagues for comments before submitting it. Just like professors. That could have happened too. Who knows?]
In the end, it matters little. Nobody bats a thousand. Every newspaper drops the ball now and then. What matters is, how the paper deals with it. Does it deny deny deny? Does it shunt the correction off under a "Corrections" box somewhere back with the girdle ads? Or does it fess up, apologize, correct the error promptly and prominently, as it should? That's what matters. The SE handled it well.
While there is plenty of blame to go around at the legislative level, "all politics is local" The people of Weber County need to get involved in the grass roots Caucus level meetings coming this month. This is the starting point for all political action in this state. Show up and make your feelings known about taxes, the sloppy partisan legislative process, and any other issue that is important to you. If you are all going to sit around and let someone else do it, you can forget about changing what needs to be changed.
Zeke:
Exactly.
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