Open or Opaque? Opposing Opinions

[XLFD]

Take One:  Cruzin' for Abusin'

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week the opinion page of the local newspaper of record, the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) featured two editorials penned by Managing Editor Steve Begnoche.  To me, whenever that happens, page four becomes more than an opinion page, it becomes an entertainment page. 

No more better example than this was on Wednesday when Begnoche wrote a provocatively titled "Of New York Values and Dividing to Conquer", where he took exception at Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz appealing to the corn-fed voters in Iowa by saying his main rival, Donald Trump, had "New York Values".  Begnoche's point appeared to be that Cruz was pandering to a base of rural folks who have base fears of urbanites and their different mindsets. 

Begnoche indicated that the differences between Smallville and Metropolis really aren't that much, that there is a lot of variance among thinking within both areas, and that such classification by Cruz are divisive.  The underlying impression I got from the piece is that the editor was rankled that his own "New York Values" was somehow undermined, and how his mindset happens to differ from the vast majority of his reading public in Mason County who foster 'small town values' that he has never embraced.

Take Two:  Opposing State Transparency, While Defending Local Opacity:

A weird dichotomy exists in the mind of the COLDNews editor.  He has reprinted several other editorials from around the state praising FOIA and urging reform, has done the same himself over the years, and did another editorial about state transparency this Thursday.  

And yet, with my two FOIA lawsuits with the City of Ludington, and the three others I have initiated with the Mason County Prosecutor, the Michigan State Police, and the recent three count one with the Mason County Sheriff (not to mention all the administrative appeals I have made to the city council), he has either remained mute on the topic or impinged my integrity, technique, or motives.  Odd, since of the three that are not pending, I 'won' every one, getting back my court costs and the information I sued for each time. 

From Steve and the COLDNews, the offending public bodies who lost were always portrayed as victims of a litigious madman out for blood and money.  The truth:  1) The public bodies broke the law by withholding non-exempt public records  2)  The public bodies judged themselves administratively to have followed the law even when they obviously hadn't and 3)  I have lost countless hours and hundreds of dollars in these lawsuits just to get information that judges agree should have been made available within days of making the requests.

So I wasn't surprised when he had the following editorial:

Editor Begnoche plays a little bit loose with the facts of his local analogies.  He writes that "This is the same DEQ that is requiring expensive upgrades in the City of Ludington's water system because during summer water usage spikes as water is used for lawns."   If Begnoche ever did his homework, he would realize that the upgrades to water supply are due in large part to our agreements with PM Township and Michigan Power which we just got into, and DEQ regulations kick in with that much higher demand.  People watering their lawns are not the big problem, the City of Ludington not maintaining their water and wastewater systems is why the city is going into debt to the tune of $30+  million-- for now. 

The point that state agencies should be more transparent is well taken, however.  The Snyder Administration and the state legislature runs the most opaque state in the union, and it wasn't all inherited.  In 2013, they effectively made ALL state agencies immune to FOIA requests by making a law having all FOIA lawsuits with State agencies go through a newly formed Court of Claims with governor-appointed judges who had no real accountability to the people, just to state officials.  Guess who wins in that court?

Before you think that the COLDNews has a new outlook on transparency, you can easily refute that by checking out the previous weeks Friday edition.  On page three, COLDNews court reporter Brian Mulherin writes a piece which is generally fair, but wrong on a few counts. 

Mulherin skimmed through the lawsuit and then consulted the sheriff for his take on it; I was never contacted for Mulherin's story in either case even though I sent out press releases offering to answer any questions.  If he did he may have gotten more facts straight than he did.

The first count he mentions implies that Sheriff Cole said he only redacted the girl's name and her medical information, which is totally false.  The police narrative is totally unreadable and surely not just containing her name and medical records. 

The second count he mentions claims the report was not available 24 hours after the event, but fails to mention that the formal response from the sheriff was one week after the incident, when the situation had already been resolved and reports had surely been written, since the evictee had turned himself in four days before that. 

The third count mentioned suggests that Sheriff Cole still has the fatal motorcycle crash still open for investigation.  Mulherin doesn't want to press why the mandatory crash reports were still not available or why a simple yet fatal traffic  crash would still be under investigation six months later.  Are the MSP labs that behind schedule for toxicology results (which could have been formally exempted at the time for not existing)?  Cole  mentions the fourth request that declarative relief was sought was also under investigation still and thus unavailable.

Of course, this is simply hokum.  Most parts of any police report are available even while an investigation is still under way.  Sheriff Cole's obviously inept department that can't close an investigation of even a traffic crash for over half of a year, cannot hide behind the 'open investigation' exemption, because there exists no such exemption and what does exist for investigations is far from a cover-all and requires specific explanations. 

Only in the first three cases do I ask for punitive relief which would grant the state and myself $1000 from the MCSO.  In the middle two counts only, I requested the court to invoke 'acting in bad faith' sanctions which would have the MCSO pay the State $2500 to $7500, not me.  Mulherin is lazy on presenting the facts on record.

Faced with these obvious shortcomings of the sheriff, Steve Begnoche has not devoted a column to why the Mason County Sheriff should be held accountable to uphold the Freedom of Information Act even though they are legally bound to.  Unfortunately, he and his minions cannot rise above their personal biases enough to see the problem or have the character to admit that the Pauper from Dowland Street is only trying to get information that they also should be asking for, while encouraging their government official friends to comply with the law.

[Willy]

What's so damn funny about Begonche and the LDN is that he is so concerned with Flint's water problem and voices his concerns in an editorial while at the same time ignores Ludingtons own water problem, namely the PM bayou fiasco. Doesn't he realize how two faced and ignorant  he sounds? Then to lump in Flint's problem with FIOA in order to have State Government's higher ups subject to the FOIA really stretches the boundary of ignorance when right under his nose the FOIA, with his blessing, has been abused by his friends in local Government.
As far as the article by Mulherin and other articles by the LDN regarding Mr. Rotta, I can't recall in any of them where Mr. Rotta is quoted. Mulherin quotes the Sheriff so where's Mr. Rotta's statement regarding the FOIA's he has filed?  The LDN continues to violate a very basic  principal of  journalism and that is to investigate all sides of a story. How convenient that Mr. Rotta is never contacted in order to get his views brought to light. I have to ask this question " Mr. Begonche, just how stupid do you think people are and Mr. Mulherin if you can't report all the facts regarding important issues dealing with local Governmental agencies then I suggest you stick with writing about fishing lures and bear sh_t?"

[AQUAMAN]

Very well said Willy, and covers all points of any debate. Meanwhile, the LDN's editor and accomplices continue in the same fashion as always. It's not about true journalistic integrity and getting the facts out, it's about an arrogant and condescending stance against a local investigator that seeks the public records be open and available to the taxpaying public. And, as also pointed out, where's the PM Bayou information and editorial? It's covered up, just like Shay and Wilson want, to protect their egos and advance their warped agenda, the agenda of putting locals last, and tourists first. It really gets old, year after year, and very sickening should the public really wake up and see this outfit for it's true value, which is basically nothing more than social news, obits., classifieds, and biased progressively socialistic editorials that only help the crooks continue in their deviant ways. 

[XLFD]

Another interesting thing to note of that article is that the COLDNews rarely uses the word 'alleged' in their headlines when they're talking about regular crimes being done by regular people who have not matriculated through the justice system grinder yet.    As you can see from this Facebook heading, the crimes and the suspects involved rarely get the word 'alleged' used when they get held to account, as in last weeks MCSO report:

There is not alleged larceny, there is no alleged aggravated domestic violence, however, names are put out and on the off-chance they are found innocent, the public never hears of this, so all they remember is Sheriff Cole telling the paper that the pervert carried on CSC for years with an underage girl they coached, as they did with totally innocent Todd Lane Johnson.  Yet they use the term 'alleged' when they have concrete evidence of law violations in the 13 exhibits included in the lawsuit. 

Heaven forbid the COLDNews actually reports on environmental contamination documented and available showing astronomical lead, mercury, copper, zinc, etc. levels at the bottom of the PM Bayou, and wondering how they all got there and not insisting on further testing there and elsewhere around Ludington.  Begnoche and Mulherin will sit in their Hamlin Township homes apathetic about the issue until (maybe) it affects them.