To kick off this morning's reader discussion, we'll highlight a pair of Ogden City municipal election stories provided by the northern Utah print media:
First, we'll provide a link to this morning's Salt Lake Tribune story, wherein we believe reporter Chris Smart got the facts mostly right:
• Candidates opt out of city-sponsored debateAlthough Mr. Smart does report that Ogden City officials have offered to move Channel 17 cameras to wherever alternative venue the candidates choose, he misses the boat in failing to tell his readers about "the catch": that any agreed venue outside the ninth floor studio (across the hall from Boss Godfrey's throne room) would require somebody other than the city to pick up Channel 17's "travelling expenses".
We won't gig Mr. Smart for this minor omission however, inasmuch as he does get the main point right:
Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey isn't up for re-election this year. But that doesn't mean he's not at the center of campaign-season rancor.And on the heels of yesterday's WCF report that the council candidates are themselves setting up a non Boss Godfrey-sponsored debate, we receive this encouraging news this morning from the Standard-Examiner, whereby Mr. Schwebke reports that all eight council candidates are set to meet today, in an attempt to work out their own alternate debate venue and ground rules, and possibly cut the meddling Godfrey administration entirely out of the deal:
Three candidates running for Ogden City Council opted out of a recent debate sponsored by the municipality, citing concerns that a government forum is improper for election campaigning.
While a Godfrey spokesman said the mayor wasn't directly involved in setting up the debate, his shadow seemed to fall over it...
• Candidates discuss logistics - Debates, forums, sponsorships and formats on minds of hopefulsWe see lots of interesting possibilities here. Will the candidates themselves succeed in amicably working out the necessary details in the this single meeting? Will there be holdouts for a Channel 17 broadcast? Council challenger David Phipps has candidly expressed his preference that these proposed debates be featured on the Godfrey Propaganda Channel. Will he and his Godfrey Ticket comrades then refuse to debate at a neutral forum such as WSU, for instance? Will the citizens of Ogden City be treated to another set of "empty chair" debates? Or alternatively, will Emerald City voters finally get the legitimate and robust question and answer sessions that they deserve? And tangentially we'll ask this question: Does WSU or any other reasonably available neutral party or entity even have the technical capability itself to tape and broadcast a new set of debates? Is Channel 17 the only practical alternative, if the voters are to see a video broadcast at all?
Lots to discuss this morning as we said; so we'll thus turn the floor over to our readers without any further ado.
Don't let the cat get your tongues, O Gentle Ones.
