What?
George Pyle, a member of the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, wrote an editorial Sunday that was very weird (and I'd be tempted to say offensive or perhaps even libelous, except that it doesn't fully lend itself to be understood).
Last Thursday, the Trib's editorial board basically called St. George a hole that shouldn't grow anymore. See here.
I invited the Trib's editorial board to come take a closer look. I wrote, "I am happy to arrange lodging and meals and put together an itinerary of some places that I think few spots on earth could rival." George Pyle called me that day and asked if I was serious. Good for him, I thought, responding that I was serious and that I appreciated his call.
Sunday George wrote that he googled my blog and that I had bribed the editorial board, but then he clarified that he didn't actually google my blog and that I hadn't bribed the editorial board. George can lecture all he wants about those lofty journalistic ethics, but that's pretty weird and inappropriate. Was that a shot across my bow for questioning the editorial board's wisdom, a failed attempt at humor, or just the product of a tight deadline? Whatever it is, it's awfully weird.
Regardless how its nose might be out of joint at the suggestion, the editorial board should do a little research on my community. If it wants, the board can book its own hotels and restaurants. Pay double or triple, for all I care. But to slop out base generalities about an entire community and then malign a representative of that community with criminal intent when it is invited to learn more about the community is small. The next time the Trib's editorial board dusts off one of its hackneyed pieces on allegedly shallow and thuggish behavior (by the Legislature), I'll have to remember that it has some expertise in the area.
Last Thursday, the Trib's editorial board basically called St. George a hole that shouldn't grow anymore. See here.
I invited the Trib's editorial board to come take a closer look. I wrote, "I am happy to arrange lodging and meals and put together an itinerary of some places that I think few spots on earth could rival." George Pyle called me that day and asked if I was serious. Good for him, I thought, responding that I was serious and that I appreciated his call.
Sunday George wrote that he googled my blog and that I had bribed the editorial board, but then he clarified that he didn't actually google my blog and that I hadn't bribed the editorial board. George can lecture all he wants about those lofty journalistic ethics, but that's pretty weird and inappropriate. Was that a shot across my bow for questioning the editorial board's wisdom, a failed attempt at humor, or just the product of a tight deadline? Whatever it is, it's awfully weird.
Regardless how its nose might be out of joint at the suggestion, the editorial board should do a little research on my community. If it wants, the board can book its own hotels and restaurants. Pay double or triple, for all I care. But to slop out base generalities about an entire community and then malign a representative of that community with criminal intent when it is invited to learn more about the community is small. The next time the Trib's editorial board dusts off one of its hackneyed pieces on allegedly shallow and thuggish behavior (by the Legislature), I'll have to remember that it has some expertise in the area.
posted by steve u. at 7/17/2006
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9 Comments:
The Trib's response is nothing more than grandstanding, which is hypocritical since they frequently accuse politicians of doing the same thing.
Editorial boards are not used to being questioned or challenged publicly. For decades, newspaper and TV editorial boards have been at the top of the political food chain. They've dished out the crap, but they've never had to take it, until now thanks to the Internet. So you can expect more of the same crap from the Tribune until they realize that the game has changed and they no longer have the control of public opinion that they used to have.
Also, no one is more sanctimonious or pure (in their minds) than newspapers. When it comes to ethics and morality, they think they walk on water. This is just their way of reminding the public. In reality, the newspaper folks are just as biased and opinionated as the rest of us.
As someone posted at the Tribune's site, the Trib could have called you privately to clear this up.
Keep up the good work. At one time, Santa Anna thought he was at the top of the food chain until a bunch of backwoods rednecks proved otherwise.
The column was one of the oddest things I have read in the Trib -- which is saying a lot. The writer needs a vacation in Washington County -- he really is wound too tight.
The tribune is full of leftist, yellow journalists and this is just another example. The ranting and confusing editorial is probably the result of global warming frying Mr. Pyles Brain...
What is Pyle's plan? Letting the Federal government rape our schools of funding? Make St. George so expensive that teachers, nurses, and police officers can't afford to live there? Maybe Pyle should go back into Plato's Cave so we can brick it up.
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Nice response, Steve. Too bad we can't trust George Pyle and the Trib's Editorial Board to act responsibly. Their first editorial was bad enough. The second one was beyond weird, and it wasn't a fair representation of what you had offered them.
Aren't we luckly to have such integrous, knowledgeable people at the Trib?
I just read the piece and I don't really understand what he is saying. Weird.
I haven't found anyone who is able to decipher it, but it seems that he wanted to say that journalists are very pure and politicians are not. Politicians receive campaign contributions, disclose those contributions, and it corrupts them when they deal with certain issues. Newspapers receive advertising revenues, don't disclose those revenues, but it doesn't corrupt them when they deal with issues. Must be that they're just built of better stuff.
I can decipher it for you, Steve! They said that Bennett and Matheson's proposal is not well thought out. Which part of that is vague to you?
A 'hole that shouldn't grow'? Where do you find that in the editorial? The closest they get to that is suggesting that growth should be the result of careful, intelligent, long-term planning, and that the past couple of decades of growth in Washington County (and Iron and Kane counties, on a lesser scale) has been the result of cash-starved cities jumping at anything. It's not a surprise to anyone who thinks about it - construction jobs pay much higher wages than ANY other jobs in southern Utah, and even the meagre permit fees most local cities charge are a significant part of their budgets. But the truth is that at this point developers are eager to do whatever is necessary to get a piece of the southern Utah pie, and they need to be the ones paying for ALL the increased infrastructure that new development will require.
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