Monday, April 05, 2010

Breaking: The Standard-Examiner Is Starting To Make Sense!

Kevin Garn's cancellation of the SE subscriptions speaks better than anything about Garn's character

By: Oldtimer

Hurrah for Mark Saal for having the guts to write his column on the hot tub:
We interrupt this column for a little schmoozing
And I also am encouraged that the SE editorials have started making more sense to me..I have been a subscriber since 1968 so I think I am a pretty good judge of the improvement.

Garn's cancellation of the SE subscriptions speak better than anything about Garn's character. Sounds like he is qualified to be somebody's Bishop.

21 comments:

AWM said...

Will call in the AM and order a subscription for a buddy. Not much of a dent in 50 but it's a start.

Dorothy Littrell said...

Hurrah for AWM for stepping up to the plate to help keep the Standard Examiner in business.

The internet will never take the place of a good newspaper for local and Utah news in my opinion.

And besides Saal and Trentelman there have been other challenging articles by locals lately.

It is nice to have the Letters to the Editor to have other readers vent their spleen occasionally as I do when I can't stand the local politics any longer.

The Grondahl cartoons are well worth a gander, too.

Besides the SE carries a daily crossword to challenge the little grey cells.

blackrulon said...

Don't they have a hot tub at the Davis County Hilton Garden Inn? All the grief he took and all he was doing was giving a lesson on cleanliness.

Bob Becker said...

Dorothy:

And it runs the Daily Cryptoquote, which I tackle each morning after the crossword.

Plus reading the SE adds spice to nearly every morning. Hardly a day goes by when it doesn't provide ample reason to kvetch over my coffee about a legislator or Hizzonah or one of his lackeys, or a councilman, or failing that, an SE reporter or columnist or letter writer or editor. One of them always come through. Get's the blood pumping and me off to a good curmudgeonly start, grousing aloud "what the devil was that miserable mis-begotten son of a sea snake thinking?"

Starts my day off right.

ozboy said...

I'll subscribe to the rag as soon as they start reporting fairly, honestly and accurately on the Godfrey administration.

In spite of the aforementioned excellent reporters and features the paper carries, they are still stooges of the mayor and routinely abdicate their fourth estate duties to tell their readers and the city's citizens the truth about the incompetence and corruption that goes on within city hall. By not reporting on it honestly they are in fact co-conspirators in the crimes being perpetrated on the citizens by the administration.

One case in point is where the editors called for full disclosure on the mayor's phony China trip, just to let the subject drop without any further investigation or reporting.

Another example is how they never once touched on the notorious FANURE scandal that was right under their nose for so long. They were given volumes of information on the scam by numerous citizens, yet they gave Godfrey and his fellow crooks a complete free pass.

The management of the paper routinely lets the mayor get away with lying to them. They virtually never follow up on any of the obvious shady and outright dishonest manipulations of the political process by Godfrey and the hacks he surrounds himself with.

There are many many more examples of their participating in the mayoral perfidy that is the hallmark of Godfrey and his sycophants.


If the Standard had been doing even a mediocre job the last few years the citizens of Ogden would not be in the deep financial hole they are.

Bottom line is that the Standard has some good people but incompetent and near criminal management. They deserve to die if they don't make some changes in their front office.

Bye Bye Garn said...

Garn exemplifies the worst about Utah politics. He is the poster boy for the arrogance and corrupt nature of our Mormon dominated legislature. Until that culture is changed, people like Garn will push and shove their way trying to bully the media. Good riddance to Garn!

Bob Becker said...

Oz:

Ogden will not be better off if the SE goes under. Far far from it.

Like the punch line to the old poker joke, "it may be a crooked game, but it's the only game in town."

And while we agree that the paper has not done a good job reporting on Hizzonah, Pureheart, Double-Dip and assorted cronies, its record has not been as unmixed poor as you suggest. It has done good stories on the Administration's gaffes [e.g. the expose on the deteriorating River Project properties]... just not enough of them.

But we would absolutely NOT be better off without an Ogden daily.

Dorothy Littrell said...

Scratch yesterday's favorable comment I made about Trentelman's column.

Trentelman, you have lost all credibility with me after your comments made today in your column regarding Bob Bennett.

You do a great job on everything except politics and there you do not have a clue.

Bob Becker said...

Interesting that Charlie's column gave reasons for the conclusions he drew --- fact, illustration, example --- e.g. the Tea Party sycophants like Rep. Bishop [R-Energy Solutions] denouncing socialized medicine [i.e. tax supported medical care] and then promising to restore cuts to Medicare and, of course, drawing cheers from those who just cheered him for denouncing government-funded medical care. Ms. Littrell's post on the other hand dismisses the column and its author as "not having a clue," in support of which claim she offers.... nothing.


Yup. She's a Tea Party Typical, fer sure....

Barry B said...

Oz the standard-examiner has written numerous steps regarding the adminstration's missteps and screw ups so I can't understand your contention that it regularly supports Godfrey. Also if you have evidence, hard evidence of criminal activity by anyone if the administration you should contact the paper or authorties pronto. Over the top rhetoric that's constantly espoused here is cheap but then again you never let facts get in the way of rumor and inuendo. And Curm what exactly do you want regarding Godfrey's trip to China? The Standard had a story on this long ago.

blackrulon said...

barry B., The standard didn't so much have a story on Godfreys trip to China as a rewritten press release. The management of the S-E has the unique and uncanny ability to hore reporters and editors who have no curiosity about local events. The end reswult of taking criminal and unethical behavior to the administration is city attorney will just announce "the problem is cured" and do not further investigation.

Truth be told said...

I remember when the Standard Examiner had a bright, young reporter who did some stories on the conflict of interest regarding Powder Mountain and a certain local appointed planning commissioner. Within a short time the reporter was gone from their newspaper.

When anyone on the Standard Examiner gets too close to the truth regarding prominent Mormons and their major mistakes, they disappear.

marion said...

Barry

Perhaps you have not followed Ogden city events the last several years.

What Ozboy wrote is pretty much what a lot of people around town have observed during that time. The Standard will never go any where close to the truth when it comes to reporting honestly and accurately on the mayor and his administration. Instead, they resort to the very inadequate press release journalism of Schwepke, possibly the most incurious reporter in the history of Utah.
There have been numerous people, me included, who have given the Standard many leads about what is really going on in Ogden. The Standard always ignores any information that goes to the heart of the matter.

Perhaps you could enlighten us as to the truth on the FANURE scandal and tell us why the Standard chose not to report on it in spite of having all the details?

Bob Becker said...

BB:

When the public and the Council discovered Hizzonah was off to Red China [only after he'd left] on the public's dime, the SE did an editorial in part on his going and the manner thereof, and said the paper was sure Hizzonah would provide "a full accounting" of his trip.

Since then, all we've gotten is the "news" [politely so called] that he spoke to some people he said he couldn't name representing companies he said he couldn't name about their interest in perhaps selling high end goods and high end jewelry in Ogden, in what venues he couldn't say beginning he didn't know when. Period.

Since then, the paper has not called on Hizzonah for the "full accounting" the editorial board assured us he was going to provide. Seems to me some editorial note that (a) he has not provided anything like a full accounting of his trip on the public's dime and that (b) it's well past time when he should have is now long overdue.

As an occasional dropping of the ball, the SE's letting this matter go would not be a big problem. But the paper makes a habit of reporting Hizzonah's press releases as real news, without bothering to check out much of anything. The SE reported before the election that Hizzonah expected factory outlet stores to open in the city rehab venues on Washington, in time for Christmas. What outlets? He couldn't say. What companies? He couldn't say. No company outlet stores appeared and the venues are still empty.

Hizonnah's just come back from Mexico, where he spoke to people he would not name, representing companies he wouldn't name, about selling high end Mexican products in Ogden in venues he couldn't name beginning he didn't know when. And the SE printed it as "news" without fact checking anything.

So the forgotten "full accounting" the SE assured us was coming does seem to be of a piece with much else, and in general, of a piece with the SE's unwillingness to fact-check Hizzonah's press releases or hold him to account for things like his China trip about which we today know very nearly nothing.

The SE has run stories I'm sure Hizzonah would have wished had not run, and occasionally taken editorial stands mildly in opposition to Hizzonah's obsession du jour, but overall both its reporting and editorial treatment of Hizzonah has been less than what we ought to expect from a good urban daily.

Hope that answers your question.

AWM said...

"high end Mexican products" that has to be an oxymoron...unless of course, we are speaking about tequila

Stanley B said...

Hopefully Curmudgeon will also see fit to give us an analysis of the FANURE matter in the same excellent manner as he has done above with the China and Mexico trips of the mayor.

No where else can one get such a well articulated explanation of the doings of the mayor and his minions than here at the Weber Forum - especially when delivered by the intellect Curmudgeon

Bob Becker said...

Stanley B:

Thank you. But the person who was all over the FNURE matter when it happened [as the SE was not] was Dan S. He knows, I think, more about the matter, much of which he tracked down, than anyone else not in Hizzonah's Cronies Club [and they're not talking]. Much of the story the SE considered, to its shame, to be beneath its notice.

For details on this one, Dan S. is the go-to guy .

marv said...

What about it Dan, how about a recap of the FANURE scandal lest we forget the criminal manipulations of the political process by our very own high priest leader Godfrey and his minions?

But at least he didn't do the hot tub thing with an underage girl - that we know of yet anyway.

And That's The Truth said...

Truth be told:

You have to go back in Ogden history of how the SE traded their downtown Ogden property which was appraised for less than $500,000.00 for the present location at Defense Depot Ogden which was worth millions.

The TAXFREE transfer took place in Godfrey's office about 10:00 o'clock in the morning on a Friday without any notice to the public for competitive bids about the transfer.

The SE sold their soul to Godfrey and Ogden City in this maneuver. They will NEVER report the true facts about Godfrey's regime.

old timer said...

There is also the speculation regarding the Standard Examiner tax-free transfer that Ogden's Mayor Godfrey will wind up being a Boyer Company employee one day because of his participation in their acquiring some of the Defense Depot property.

Just remember that you read it first on the Weber County Forum when that does happen.

ozboy said...

Old Timer

Well if Boyer does hire the little pecker head they sure are gonna have a piss poor employee on their payroll. The little arrogant dude couldn't make a success of anything so save his skinny little patootie. Without free tax payer money to squander on stoopid ideas he wouldn't make a pimple on a decent executive's ass.

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