Russ Steele
Notice: All court docments referenced in this blog post are public documents and have been redacted appropriately by counsel, according to the provider.
Our local lefty blogger, who is a former editor at The Union, never misses an opportunity to bash his former employer by posting mini-scoop that an understaffed newspaper could not ferret out as timely as local blogger who has time to wander about town, or spending hours in front of the TV watching city council and board of supervisor meetings. The Union latest offense is publishing old news that Weaver Auto owes government agencies about $700.000, facts that appeared on his blog a month ago here. Regardless of his motivation, he makes an important point, local blogs are having an impact on how local’s get their news and commentary.
Local blogs broke the news, and have been following, the on going corruption in the Clerk Recorders Office at the County Rood Center. However, The Union has yet to publish any of the Federal Courts findings against the County for failing to provide requested evidence, and then for destroying the very evidence that was requested. You can read the sequence of events here. This is a clear case where our local newspaper is not keeping the community informed. Citizens are turning to local blogs here for up news dates and debate of local issues.
While The Union is promoting it’s Town Talk open forum and the ability of reader’s to comment, they are censoring the questions submitted to Town Talk they are uncomfortable answering. The Union is also now limiting how long readers can now comment on a column, letters to editor, or news stories to 48 hours after an item is published. On the other hand , local blogs are discussing local issues and providing open forums for the discussion of local and national issues that have an impact on our community. Blogs are filling the gaps left by the newspaper.
My concern that this corruption story has been on KNCO and in the blogs, but The Union seems to be ignoring this important story. How could The Union have missed this story about how the county willfully destroyed evidence in the AdPac case? Or, do they have a selective news policy that lets them pick and choose the news. If they get to pick and choose what they report on Rood Center activities, this casts doubt on the other news in The Union about local government actions. What other local government corruption might The Union be ignoring? Losing the trust of readers can result in a damaging economic blow to any newspaper, or even a blog that pretends to write about the news.
I guess the other surprise in this story, with a mission to scoop The Union, why has our lefty blogger has not written about this troubling situation in the Clerk/Recorders Office that the newspaper is ignoring? Could it be because he was one of Diaz’s very vocal political supporters? When is government corruption not news?
Note: This not a news blog it is a commentary blog, as is Rebane’s Ruminations.
