George Rebane

Well, I guess this morning the local paper declared war on our county’s Board of Supervisors with a hit op-ed piece that garnered a lot of support from our progressive brethren.  Being a member of the accused ‘hacks of the Board’ and contributor to at least two of their campaigns, I immediately forgot all propriety, went into knee-jerk mode, abandoned my "watchdog status", and posted the (below) comment under the offending diatribe on The Union’s website.  It sat there in its full glory for about an hour, then it was gone.  Immediately, I thought the worst had happened and inquired about its fate.  Not to worry.  According to editor Jeff Pelline, the comment disappeared from under the op-ed and onto the "more comments" page due to a design feature of the website.  In any event, I did take the content of their well-honed piece to task and posed some questions about their "questions", which I would want people to see if The Union deems them worthy of addressing.  The holding of one’s breath is not recommended.

========= comment posted this morning

Be sure you really *question* authority

The Supes have made public statements and given data that supports their decision to move the DA’s offices to the Tintle-Robinson building. The decision is best evaluated by comparing the county’s specifications for new DA digs with the available alternatives. I have asked for and been promised the list of these specifications, and will then post them on Rebane’s Ruminations in a format that allows those of us who know of better alternatives to fill in the blanks. I’m sure the The Union will publish its own results – group decision making at its finest.

When I read the above op-ed this morning, I was struck by the nature of the posed ‘questions’. What possible satisfactory answers could be given to these three questions that are really the journalistic equivalents of ‘Have you stopped beating your wife, yes or no?’ Perhaps The Union could give an example of a satisfactory answer to each question that would resolve this issue, otherwise we are left to conclude that they are just thinly-disguised and unfounded innuendos. Professional journalists know how to ask questions without really asking questions.

BTW, I too have contributed to the campaigns of Sue Horne and Nate Beason, and plan to contribute more unless they screw up. And I am not a journalist.