Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Weird Op-Ed Piece From the Standard-Examiner

Odd advice from another green-behind-the-ears Ogden realtor, who hasn't even served a single day in the State Legislature yet.

Weird Op-ed editorial on the Standard-Examiner website today, from newly-elected GOP Utah House District 9 Rep. Jeremy Peterson, who somehow got elected to Neil Hansen's House Leg District 9 slot, during a really weird time, when asleep at the wheel Central City Ogden Democrats inexplicably failed to show up at the polls:
Standard wrong about repeal amendment
Gotta say it's WAY TOO FUNNY to have this 35-year old novice House Member, lecturing us suddenly on legislative policy, since he hasn't even spent a single day in the State Legislature yet.

We await our readers' ever-savvy comments with abated breath.

7 comments:

Dan Schroeder said...

This commentary is also an apparent violation of the S-E policy against printing commentaries that respond to editorials (with the exception of those written by people who are "the subject, or connected to the subject, of the editorial"). I suppose Mr. Howell could claim that as a future member of the legislature, Mr. Peterson is connected to the subject of whether state legislatures should be able to veto federal laws. But that would be quite a stretch. I could just as well claim that as a citizen of Utah and a contributor to political campaigns, I'm connected to the subject of whether the Utah should put restrictions on political contributions.

Bob Becker said...

Nice catch, Dan.

Your point --- This commentary is also an apparent violation of the S-E policy against printing commentaries that respond to editorials (with the exception of those written by people who are "the subject, or connected to the subject, of the editorial") --- seems right on the money to me.

Dan Schroeder said...

Here's another oddity from today's Standard-Examiner: There are two articles on the recent legislative audit that looked into whether UTA Board member Terry Diehl had an inappropriate conflict of interest by acquiring development rights to land around a potential UTA commuter rail station.

The Trib printed this story under the headline Audit: UTA member may have broken law.

But both S-E stories took a different angle:

Audit: UTA trustee didn't influence stop selection (Associated Press)

Audit: No influence by UTA trustee (S-E staff)

Bob Becker said...

All three headlines are accurate for the stories they head, I think. The different headlines just represents a difference in judgement regarding what the most significant element of the story was: that he may have committed a misdemeanor or that the report said the he absolutely did not influence the selection of the station location.

I could make a reasonable case for highlighting either one.

Dan Schroeder said...

Oh, I wasn't griping about the headline writers. But the difference in spin between the articles is quite remarkable, and I don't think it's an accident that the S-E took a more accepting view than the Trib toward this ethically questionable behavior by a public official.

It's also interesting that instead of one longer article, the S-E gave us two short ones, one of which was completely redundant and so short that it completely omitted the possibility that a law may have been broken. (I'm sure it was an oversight on their part to print the shorter article at all, given that the longer one was being printed in a different section.)

REC said...

Weird, indeed. Mr. Peterson will clearly fit right in with the boys on the hill...Go ahead and stick to the people of Utah Mr. Peterson!

Jon J Greiner said...

Mr. Peterson isn't someone I'd let represent me or anyone else on the hill. If he lies about one thing. what else will he lie about. the guy has no integrity at all.

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