Good Editorial, Michael Bates

[Rico]

Clear as crystal Mike... Any thing you say....

You supported Medlock... But, when he lost, were able to find it within yourself to prepare a resume for LaFortune....

That you had spent so much time pointing out that he was incompetent and didn't amount to a hill of beans was then somehow irrelevant.

just climb down the tree and assume the position eh...


Maybe you should make it a tad more clear....

You support whatever Republican happens to be on top of the "Dogpile"....

Regardless of what you know and what you can prove about them...

I seem to have gotten 2002 confused with 2006... I admit that.

Will you ever be able to explain how those pages and pages of blog entries, regarding the quasi illegal, LaFortune motivated you enough to drop all that belief? and join him.

Damn..!  I am so glad my mind does not think along party lines..

[tim huntzinger]

And remember the Great Satan, Great Plains Airlines? Who pointed out that Sullivan tried to secure something like $10 MILLION in Federal funds for that in his first term?  Who has 'blogged' that? And when McCorkel was being sued for his role in Great Plains did you 'blog' that?  Who did?

Did you 'blog' your scurulous accusation uttered on-air about Randi Miller?  Or is the dissociation so complete you forget what you mutter and what you write?

[rwarn17588]

I think I can distill Rico's questioning:

How much incompetence can you tolerate before a candidate like LaFortune no longer earns your endorsement?

[David Arnett]

From multiple sources and my recollections:

Bill LaFortune lost his race for a second term as mayor when Michael Bates, Chris Medlock, and the Tulsa County Republican Chairman (whatever his name was) at the time used a significant campaign donation to the party to pay (Bates or associate thereof) to run a survey designed to convince Michael DelGiorno that Ben Faulk could not win.  The final nail in the LaFortune coffin, however, was strictly LaFortune's attitude when he did finally did go on the DelGiorno show.  He sounded so timid.  He pandered for votes from these fruits, flakes, and nuts that had personally and professionally lied about and slandered him during his entire term.  It sounded (whether he intended to do so or not) like he was going to let Medlock and Bates play an active role in his second term.  At that point, mid-town Tulsans, who carried LaFortune to success in the primary, abandoned him like a cheap floozy.  

Kathy Taylor has three things going for her that Bill LaFortune never had: 1) Basic intelligence, 2.) High work ethic, and 3.) Interest in public policy.  I may disagree with her policy positions, but I will give her those three.  I was loyal as a friend and fellow Republican to Bill LaFortune until the end of his term of service – the operative word there is end.  I will not support him again for any elected position.

Both the Democrat and Republican parties are undergoing significant leadership and policy issues.  Media is also fragmented locally as vanity publishing melds with pure profit publishers and broadcast stations lacking coherent editorial judgment.  

We are living in interesting times.

[Chicken Little]

quote:Originally posted by David Arnett

Media is also fragmented locally as vanity publishing melds with pure profit publishers and broadcast stations lacking coherent editorial judgment.  

We are living in interesting times.

An interesting observation.  Why is it, in your view, that so many media outlets lack this judgement.  I do not often agree with yours, but at least you have reasoned opinions.  Are the issues too complex for editorial types?  Or, do they simply underestimate our ability to understand complex issues?  Or, are they just plain scared of having an opinion?

[MichaelBates]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

I think I can distill Rico's questioning:

How much incompetence can you tolerate before a candidate like LaFortune no longer earns your endorsement?

It wasn't LaFortune vs. the Platonic ideal of a Mayor. It was LaFortune vs. Taylor vs. Tay vs. Faulk. Tay and Faulk were did not have a chance of winning, as a survey which I developed (as a volunteer -- I received no compensation for it) clearly showed. The real decision was Taylor vs. LaFortune. And Michael Dukakis's slogan notwithstanding, both ideology and competence matter to me.

LaFortune was not cruising to victory prior to his appearance on DelGiorno's program. The survey had LaFortune at 31%, and he had committed support from only 41% of Republicans. 24% of Republicans were supporting Taylor and 35% were undecided or backing other candidates. On election day, his actual vote total was 47%. Support from DelGiorno, Medlock, and others convinced Republicans who were inclined to vote for Faulk or just stay home to show up and vote for LaFortune.

The upper-crust midtown Republicans (not all midtown residents are upper crust) who supported Taylor in the general supported her all along, as her list of contributors clearly shows. LaFortune lost that group as soon as Taylor entered the race. They voted for LaFortune in the primary with no intention of supporting him in the general. To them, LaFortune was preferable to his primary opponents and was a fallback in the unlikely event that Taylor lost her primary.

LaFortune's only hope of winning the general election was to win back the majority of Republicans who had voted for his opponents in the primaries, and that meant convincing his critics that his second term would be closer to what they thought they were getting when they voted for him in 2002.

But I believe the topic at hand is Michael Patton's assertion that I and others are criticizing Kathy Taylor simply because she's female and a Democrat. I think we've established that most of Taylor's male Republican critics have been just as critical of their fellow male Republican elected officials.

[rwarn17588]

<Michael Bates wrote:

It wasn't LaFortune vs. the Platonic ideal of a Mayor.

<end clip>

We're aware of that. But it was obvious that no matter how pure LaFortune's ideals were, his track record showed he had problems with basic fundamentals and execution during his first term.

It's like enduring a .220 batter in the cleanup spot during baseball season. No one in his or her right mind would put that person in the cleanup spot again the next season.

Many, many voters thought it was crazy to re-elect a failure of a mayor. So they decided to jump parties. It was clearly a case where the incumbent's lack of competence was trumping partisanship.

If you didn't like LaFortune or Taylor in the general election, you simply could have said "no endorsement" instead of giving the nod to a known failure and thus damaging your credibility.

[David Arnett]

quote: An interesting observation. Why is it, in your view, that so many media outlets lack this judgement. I do not often agree with yours, but at least you have reasoned opinions. Are the issues too complex for editorial types? Or, do they simply underestimate our ability to understand complex issues? Or, are they just plain scared of having an opinion?

I will do my best to answer.

First, media is a business funded by advertising and subscriptions.  For this discussion, let us set aside blogs and other self-funded expressions in print or broadcast.

The most common approach for media in mid-size and smaller markets is to avoid controversy in the fear that it will drive away advertising.  Crime news is king and "if it bleeds it leads" in broadcast.  Also, broadcast has no more than 45 seconds to explain the Federal Budget, so bullet points are about as substantive as the format allows.  There are, of course, exceptions and special "in-depth" material produced that is outstanding.

Another approach is to seek controversy for controversy's sake under the operating belief that controversy generates readership and readership generates advertising impressions which generates sales thus funding more advertising.  This approach fails when respect for the presentation becomes so low that business owners and managers are embarrassed to be affiliated.

I established www.TulsaToday.com in 1996 after; publishing 32 print editions (half million copies) of various community publications, employment as the city beat reporter for The Tulsa Tribune, and a long professional free-lance career for regional and national newspapers.  From the beginning, the mission was to provide a platform for diversity in public discussions – as the Tribune editorial pages had been – as opposed to the Tulsa World editorial philosophy which, as told to me by Joe Worley, "our editorial pages exist to convince people that what we believe is right is right."  That was also the day he told me, "you will never work in this town again" thus beginning an economic war upon my family that has lasted to date 13 years – all because I disagreed with an editorial position of the Tulsa World – not their news integrity mind you, but their editorial opinions.

With the arrival of blogs and forums like this one, the need for diversity in public discourse, in my opinion, has been fulfilled and part of Tulsa Today's mission achieved.  

However, this new media evangelicalism means that anyone motivated with a little pocket change can launch a continual stream of opinion – reasoned or not, true or not, evil or not.  The advantage professional media has in crafting editorial judgment is the internal discussions, conflicting perspectives, diverse backgrounds, wisdom earned by years of experience that should, in the ideal, work together for the greater good.  (I have always appreciated copy editors – the benefit of which this work has not received.)

Old think in the newspaper industry says you must write to the ninth grade level – average education.  However, the masses do not read newspapers so writing to the average is pointless and condescending.  Only newspaper readers read newspapers and they are an elite group getting smaller each year.

In Tulsa, we have the Urban Tulsa which has made a career off the "angst of youth" in criticizing Tulsa for no good cause other than they think that is "hip."  Now with the "Batty Mr. Bates" they truly demonstrate no coherent editorial philosophy, principles, or purpose.  As the last executive editor of the Tulsa Tribune said of Urban Tulsa's publisher, "The worst thing that ever happened to Keith is that he got his own publication – the boy can't edit himself or others."

By the way, in Republican circles, my battle with Michal Bates, Chris Medlock and the Nazi wing of the Tulsa County Republican Party is a long and storied effort.  I believe they are not what they represent themselves to be – spokesmen for the grassroots, but more like dandelions – harmful, pointless, and difficult to remove.  My eyewitness story stated in brief above on Bill LaFortune's loss is far more accurate that Bates' reply that follows.  I consider Bates a journalism apostate – one that knows the truth and how to report it, but has deliberately turned away to serve his own unjustified ambitions.

I have placed ownership of Tulsa Today, Inc. in a trust for my grandkids and I seek a publisher, editor, and other team members to carry on that effort.  I don't care if my friends or total strangers agree or disagree with my opinions, but I don't make mistakes of fact.  We write without regard to the average, but try to produce the best work possible each and every day.  

I will also speak to any church, social, or civic club in the area and have done so for many years.  I would even debate Bates if he has the courage – on neutral ground of course. Would Tulsa Now host such an event or would that be too ...

I hope this answers some of your questions or at least sheds some light in areas you may not have considered. All the best, David

[Chicken Little]

Nice post.  Thanks for keeping our gears whirring.  And thanks for the dandelion simile.[]

[Conan71]

Hey David, what ever happened to your effort to get part of northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas to secede from the states?  You did a great job promoting it, even getting air time then it vanished like a fart in the wind.

[MichaelBates]

quote:Originally posted by tim huntzinger

And remember the Great Satan, Great Plains Airlines? Who pointed out that Sullivan tried to secure something like $10 MILLION in Federal funds for that in his first term?  Who has 'blogged' that? And when McCorkel was being sued for his role in Great Plains did you 'blog' that?  Who did?

Did you 'blog' your scurulous accusation uttered on-air about Randi Miller?  Or is the dissociation so complete you forget what you mutter and what you write?

Tim, if your memory is so sharp, please name the date on which I uttered a scurrilous accusation against Randi Miller and the date on which I accused Bill LaFortune of being bankrupt. I don't believe I did either one.

I wrote about the lawsuit against the Great Plains board when McCorkell's name first surfaced as a candidate for Mayor. It's easier to find the blog entry if you spell his name with two Ls.

http://www.batesline.com/archives/002169.html

Great Plains, like every other airline, sought post-9/11 Federal airline aid, specifically loan guarantees in compensation for financing it lost when financing for airlines dried up after the attack. Sen. Inhofe and five of Oklahoma's six congressmen (all but Istook) signed a letter in support of Great Plains' aid application. That happened in July 2002, and I didn't start my blog until May 2003. Even if I had been blogging, I don't have time to write about every news item, and I doubt I would have thought a courtesy letter from a company's home state congressional delegation was worth writing about.

[tnt0916]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder



I'll be shopping for a new mayor in 3 years.  I hope we can find someone better.

Can Tulsa afford 3 more years of Taylor?

[tim huntzinger]

That is why I am no longer one of your pinko pachyderms, because my memory is not that sharp.  But I believe I remember about the kid-taking-car-incident, someone called in to the AM show did he not?  I know I am not simply fabricating this.

Nope, cannot recall the exact date you dragged Miller's name into the gutter with you.  Funny thing is, no matter who the Dem is, no matter what foolishness she has foisted upon Tulsans, you will be in the bag for her in the General.

Oh, you started to dig into Mc until Kathy Taylor jumped in, alright.  But of course your Googling and scurulous interest ended well before the primary.

On principle, despite the circumstances, why would any true conservative even ask for a hand-out for something that was so abysmally bad like Great Plains?

[David Arnett]

quote: Hey David, what ever happened to your effort to get part of northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas to secede from the states? You did a great job promoting it, even getting air time then it vanished like a fart in the wind.

Conan71

Thanks for remembering that multi-level tongue-in-cheek effort from the early 90s to draw attention to both historical fact and current government policy inequalities.  

Before we became the State of Oklahoma, what was once known as Indian Territory (Eastern and Southern Oklahoma) proposed to be the State of Sequoyah.  There was a constitutional convention and a well-written document approved by a vote of the people 6 to 1.  Against our will, the U.S. Congress combined us with the other "Twin Territory" of Oklahoma.

The policy inequality is the lack of State and Federal investment in this area and the government payrolls that could greatly help raise the standard of living and moderate economic downturns.

However, after the Murrah Building bombing, that is not an argument I will forward – it ceased to be amusing.  I do continue to believe that Oklahoma government is more harmful than helpful to Tulsa, but we as Tulsans also have an obligation to become more informed and involved in the business of the entire state.  Simply said, the evil corruption of the "Gene Stipes" here has gone on long enough.  


http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing

[tim huntzinger]

Simply said, the get-along-to-go-along sychophantic GOP of DeLay and Abramoff is alive and well in Tulsa.