Arkansas Blog

Even in the DG/Hussman editorial world, this is blatant. It's like Hussman/Greenberg told us they've opted to drop all pretense that their paper is a respectable journalistic endeavor. And I thought Greenberg liked to actually pretend that he's practicing the art of journalism rather than merely selling the politics of Hussman. Shame on them.

Setting aside the embarrassment the statement should reflect on the paper and the former governor, the content is ridiculous.

Documentation would settle this. If they the furniture was a gift to the Huckabee's personally, as honest religious people, they declared the value of the gift as income the year it was given. If it was a gift to the state the donor likely deducted it.

Each claim Huckabee made can be simply proved or disproved. Absent any independent verification, it's safe to assume he stole the furniture.

He should put up or shut-up.

Max, you're so right. It's always about poor Huckabee, so abused and unappreciated, while he's saving the world or tending to his sick wife. He's always the hero, any misteps are someone else's fault... a left-wing conspiracy to ruin him, as though he needed any help in his penchant for self-destruction. Simmons ought to write a response, defend his troops, and expose Huck as a pathological narcissist.

Max, you're so right. It's always about poor Huckabee, so abused and unappreciated, while he's saving the world or tending to his sick wife. He's always the hero, any misteps are someone else's fault... a left-wing conspiracy to ruin him, as though he needed any help in his penchant for self-destruction. Simmons ought to write a response, defend his troops, and expose Huck as a pathological narcissist.

Ah, Citizen Hussman and his faithful Paulie, the Doberman of editorial writers, have provided space in their home so that the poor, mistreated Huckster can threaten their own children, Seth and Bill, et al.
Grannie said that if you invite the Devil into your home, expect the temperature to rise and for mischief and discord to soon follow.
Oh, Gen'ral Lee....your worshippers are such idiots and hypocrites. I bet you'd like to ride off those editorial pages for good and avoid the ugly stain they attach to your austere legend.

Addendum

(Sorry, had to take a break and listen with me spouse to Will Shortz's The Puzzler.)

PV, I don't care if you came up double on your posts. It was worth it to read your fine response over again. I hope the Dem-Gaz guys and girls realize that the only higher powers Walter and Paul answer to are Mammon and Narcissus, both favorites of the Chosen One Huckaburp.

I wonder what the word "loyalty" brings to mind in those news offices now?

One thing is sadly evident: Seth Blomeley shouldn't enter the doors of the Dem-Gaz tomorrow.

Either Huckafree is correct and he is "dishonest" and he should be fired. Or, as his co-workers suggest he is just the opposite, and he should not continue to work for a publisher who does not support him.

Is the Democrat-Gazette really worth 50 cents. ??

To a Greenberg, darkly,

It was wholly a displeasure to witness the travesty of journalism committed in your pages this morning. You have soiled that great institution and its valiant champions with despicable coddling of a rank politician. You may chortle at the outcry and speak imperiously of the cretinous rabble, but in your heart of hearts (if such you possess) one day you will discover you were wrong. You had a chance to stand up for the public. Instead, you lay down with a dog.

Think your beloved Mencken would have given this hack Huckabee one line of unchallenged rebuttal? He'd have spiked it on the biggest spike around. May his ghost come down and wrest that tarnished Pulitzer from your craven hands.

You like referring to yourself as an "Inky Wretch." I hereby strip you of the inky and dub you merely "wretch." And demand, "Have you NO sense of decency, wretch?"

Signed,

Gentle Reader

SHAME on the Dem Gaz, Greenberg, and most of all, you Walter. JR Starr is atwirling in his grave. As Huck unravels under national scrutiny, and his political corpse twists slowly, slowly, in the wind, this will come back to haunt the innocent newsroom and the fatally tainted editorial page.

Huckabee's piece brings up more questions than it answers...

And what a whiner! I have never seen someone with a greater sense of entitlement. And for what? He didn't exactly catipult the state from it's ever present place at the bottom...

And shame on the editorial staff for allowing Seth Blomeley to be thrown under the bus...

I'll be curious to see how the news staff reacts. It would be easy to dissect RevBroGuv's bullshit piece by piece...

If he has trouble with the Arkansas press, the national press is doing chew him up until there is nothing left.

His '08 slogan should be "Gimme Gimme Gimme! That's me! Vote Huckabee!"

Can't believe the DemGaz would throw Blomley under the bus in this manner. I'd like to see a MATCHING response from Blomley to this entire self-serving "explanation" of Huckabee's. Seth deserved better by his editorial staff. Who is next to be publicly impugned because a politician didn't like the TRUTH being reported? The reporter who did all the research on the A&P Commission? They gonna let Kumpuris post his own rant about her? Disgusting.

The point that many of you are misisng is that if Huckabee had tried to get his point of view across by doing an interview with Seth he would not have had a fair hearing. He knows that, and Seth and Bill know that, so why pretend that was the choice.

Seth's style is to take the first eight graphs and rehash the negative allegation. Then there are two graphs with whatever the today peg is, then the governor gets a couple of sentences at the bottom of the piece for his points. Inevitably, these few sentences are off the mark quotes from late in an interview, rather than concise quotes that represent the overall point of view.

I guess I read a different paper this morning. I was expecting an over-the-top Huckabee rant and what I read was a quiet point by point summary of how he worked with Beebe on the transition. Frankly, I can see why Paul had no problem running it.

The implication on this blog was always that furniture was missing. It was not.

I have made the point here before and I will make it again. Those of you who are ranting continue to ignore the factual reality of how Tucker stripped the office upon departure and left the state in shame.

It doesn't bother me that most of you don't like Huckbaee. It bothers me when you ignore the facts and portray him as something he is not.

I have known a number of reporters who worked for Simmons and left the paper is disgust as they were pushed on late afternoon deadline to turn a story into something it wasn't. Rachael, you out there? Certainly there are many in the DG newsroom who have disagreed with Bill's tactics over the years. Come on Max...you have too. Bill and Seth don't get the moral high ground that easily in my book.

And finally, without turning this into a book. Huckabee makes a great point about crushing hard drives. The statewide media went into a frenzy about five years ago over a series of stories involving surplus state computers sold to the public. Turns out the drives were not destroyed and DHS type records about specific people were found. The media made the point that in a transitional moide the thring to do is crush the drive, so that is what Huckabee did...and now that is a headline?

Meanwhile Huckabee has another good day...intelligently using Meet The Press as a starting point while the Huckabee bashers back home rumble on about this.

This is really going to be fun.

>if Huckabee had tried to get his point of view across by doing an interview with Seth he would not have had a fair hearing. He knows that, and Seth and Bill know that, so why pretend that was the choice.<

Well screw fairness, who needs it.
Will the ADG give other prez candidates the opportunity to "explain" their views and actions? Did they ever give even the most remote chance or an unchallenged column to Bill Clinton after running half-truths on him for at least a decade? I realize as we transform from a "faith-based" media back into reality the re-entry can be bumpy.
The ADG is not beyond switching positions or postures regarding any candidate. They're somewhat joined at the hip with Club for Growth which has already flunked Huckabee.

I suggest everyone e-mail Bromley at sblomeley@arkansasonline.com and ask how it feels for his editorial page editor to throw him under the bus.

StrangeTimes,

I bet you also use the "It's all Clinton's fault" logic to excuse Bush as well.

Facts are, you're just another party hack spinning the message that sounds oh-so-logical.

Fox News, taken in a vacuum, sounds like that, too.

Seth Blomeley is a fine reporter with no discernible political bias.

Paul Greenberg is a tired old hack more enamored of third-rate memoirish prattlings than any meaningful contribution to Arkansas politics and ideas.

Shame on you, Paulie. Hang it up.

Sorry, Max, but no serious person thinks that Seth Blomely is any kind of exemplar of journalism. He's a reporter, and just like any other reporter, he has his good days and bad days. One of his worst days was when he got into a shouting match with Chris Battle last summer and starting yelling at Chris, repeatedly, that "you're gonna lose!" People who praise Blomely as "one of the most hardworking, fair and fine reporters that we have" are basically demonstrating a lack of understanding of Arkansas journalism as she is actually practiced. Seth takes out-of-context whacks at Huckabee from time to time, and it's a complex enough story to justify Huckabee writing an op-ed to explain his perspective. You seem to have your panties in a wad about a great many molehills (OMG! Huckabee called his op-ed "The Rest of the Story! OMG! He dared to criticize the fairness and accuracy of reporters! OMG! He accused a newspaper story of being misleading! OMG! He got upset when he lost all cell phone and email services!). Your other contributors that ease into anti-Semitic stereotypes about Paul Greenberg answering to Mammon really ought to make you wonder why you're frothing at the mouth at what normal people won't take a second glance at.

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Perspective/180250

Huckabee's piece is now up.
I'd like to see the national media get in on this and if Max hasn't already e-mailed Romenesko, I will.
Actually, I'll go ahead and do it anyway.
What I'm really looking forward to Fallone's tortured reasoning as to why it was OK to run the Huckabee story in the first place and will anyone - Lyons? - write anything in the D*G on it?

Actually I'm not a party hack. I'm just an individual who doesn't agree with the general tone of the postings here. Of course that must make me a hack. Kind of like my point that anyone who ever worked for Huckabee was always labeled a "hack" here, but that term is missing from posts about Beebe staff.

But, I stray off point. My point is that the quality of Seth's reporting has a great deal to do with this discussion. That screaming match with Battle was not his first over the line moment. Huckabee would get no fair hearing from Seth so he went with another option.

Perhaps my points sound logical because they are. And if you think I'm a blame Clinton for everything kind of poster you are certainly not paying attention. I'm the guy that keeps writing that Clinton was a political master and Huckabee is following that mode. Clinton built the prototype that Huckabee will follow....heck, that was one of the topics on Russert this morning. So no I don't blame Bill...but I sure think you have some massive amnesia about Tucker my blogging friend.

The D-G didn't give Huck that platform because they felt their reporter was dishonest. They gave it for political reasons.

Sorry I assumed your views on Clinton. I agree that Clinton was a political master. I think we all do. His results show it. Whether Huckabee is following in his shoes and is big enough to wear them remains to be seen.

I don't think we really want to compare or excuse Huckabee by bringing up Tucker. One might infer that Huckabee is also a felon intent on destroying evidence.

"...Seth takes out-of-context whacks at Huckabee from time to time, and it's a complex enough story to justify Huckabee writing an op-ed to explain his perspective..."

Oh please. The beef isn't that Huck was given a chance to write a DG op-ed piece explaining his oh-so complex version of why he ordered the destruction of those computer hard drives (aka destroying state property)...and other misc. exit antics. It's that he chose to address this 'complex' issue by circumventing DG reporters and using the DG opinion pages to present an un-questioned, one-sided story. (I'd ask who in the hell he thinks he is, but...that seems so redundant at this point.)

But then you really can't blame a politician for wanting to bypass all those nuisance questions. They only serve, after all, to undercut THE clarity of that day's chosen message/Talking Point. You can blame a newspaper, however, for allowing itself to become Huckabee's enabler rather than his questioner. My gosh...it was its OWN reporters who were doing the questioning.

Of course Huck (or any other politician in a similar situation) should have the opportunity to present his version of a story. But only after he'd answered the requisite questions that come with any story...any interview. It's not complicated.

"...if Huckabee had tried to get his point of view across by doing an interview with Seth he would not have had a fair hearing. He knows that, and Seth and Bill know that, so why pretend that was the choice..."

Another oh please. All Huckabee had to do to ensure that ALL sides of his story got aired was submit to the interview like everyone else (and record it, of course) and then pen a piece that DEMONSTRATED all those inaccuracies and biases he was so worried about. In fact, he could have come off smelling like the persecuted rose he so often claims to be...rather than the arrogant, thin-skinned politician with just another story to hide/slant that we know him to be.

Funny how Lover of Liberty tries to interject anti-Semitism into the argument. I missed any such implication in earlier discussion. Just who is foaming at the mouth here? And as to how Arkansas journalism is practiced, rational people can see how "she" has been used in this case. And a hack is a hack. Beebe's facing the same standards.

As the one who penned it, LIver of Libertines, the definition I was raised with was that Mammon was a biblical word to substitute for Money. How you come up with this as being anti-Semitic is beyond me. Never heard it used as a reference to Jewishness in my entire life but heard many a preacher use in context with the scripture about the love of money is the root of all evil.
Mostly what I noticed was that you attacked the messengers more so than you attacked the message, a ploy that we have seen the Huckster use to deflect criticism.
Also, I seem to remember from my short days on a newspaper down in Texas, that nothing got onto the pages without going past the all-seeing eye and red pen of your editor. Don't you think that Greenberg & Simmons would've stayed his hand if something was amiss, both factually and journalistically? In fact, I remember that Seth often cited Huckabee's response to these charges when said stories came out.

Huckabee remains a coward in my book. He refuses to meet with those who disagree with him or question his judgement. He misquotes and falsely portrays such folks. He takes credit for other people's work but will not stand accountable for some of his questionable activities.
Huckabee wants to strut about on the public stage but is afraid of criticism. If he can't handle the rotten tomatoes being tossed back at him from his own garden then he had best take his bad act to another venue.

Such a nice nap! I don't get the D-G, I never got it and I never will. But I can see from a pretty good distance that it is no Arkansas Gazette, never was, never will be.

One of these days one of the Stephens will wake up and swallow it whole and few will mourn. Hussman can then spend all his time trying to insert Jesus into our school system.

Giving Huck free rein and slapping one of their own smells like payback or deep deep Republicanism...none of that being a good thing for the sanctity of journalism. The chips good and bad will fall on down the road.

Arkansas law and order is right, every allegation against Huck could be settled by an airing of the facts. Unless those facts were only contained on crushed hard drives...somewhere buried in a file cabinet is the proof of Huck's guilt or innocence. Let the facts speak for themselves.

Somewhere it is recorded if Jim Guy Tucker trashed the office and made off with the furniture. Somewhere are records that show who footed the bill for an office full of new furniture....start digging.

We don't need to paint Huck with an unfair brush, he sucks enough on his own to slowly float to the bottom like you know what over this next year. I would like our money back for the unwise actions that resulted in 400 thousand tax payer dollars being spent like it was just chewing gum money. An airing of the facts will show who owes us what and who needs to be fired, if not thrown in jail.

Like the Runaway Bride, Huck will soon be old news and off the radar. We really should be putting all this effort in bringing our troops home from Iraq. We have a gallows to build for Bush and Cheney and lots of our kids to bury and mourn. Time pretending Huck is a contender is time wasted.

"The Democrat-Gazette news staff is not happy about this unanswered slam on its hard-working reporters and editors."

This type of lack of support from upper management unfortunately is par for the course at the Dem-Gaz. (Disclaimer: to perhaps head off Hussman investing in spyware to check his employees' blog postings or instituting a loyalty oath system, I don't work there).

Those in the know are well aware that top editors at the Dem-Gaz have a selected few favorite "star" reporters who are fawned over, paid the big bucks and allowed to coast, writing a handful of stories a year. Generally, the chosen ones aren't the best or the brightest but have some educational pedigree (i.e, Ivy League) that for some reason dazzles those in charge. One year, the newsroom intern was (I kid you not) a chemistry major from Harvard.

Toadying to those at the top gets brownie points galore while actual reporting ability and work ethic typically are given short shrift. If you look at the byline count, you'll see that the Capitol Bureau reporters far outproduce any of their colleagues in the main newsroom, and break more than their share of stories, but their work generally is greeted with a ho-hum by people whose new judgment is seriously deficient. Their decisions on story placement are often head-scratching and sometimes asinine.

The decision by Walter Hussman to give Huckabee an unchallenged, front of section op-ed that presents no new facts of substance and essentially calls one of Hussman's long-term employees a liar is-and there's really no other word for it-despicable.

This should be a case study in journalism school about how journalistic integrity can be sacrificed to cater to the petty ego of an ambitious politician who just happens to be running for president.

I've worked at the DoG, and I can tell you that publishing the Huckabee drivel demonstrates two basic facts about that rag: 1) The people who run the paper like the Huckster. 2) They do not like their own staff.

I can guarantee you that there are no favored "star" news reporters. Name any one of them, and I can guarantee you that he or she has been insulted and demeaned by at least one editor within the last two weeks.

The paper is divided like feudal Japan - each assistant city editor acts like a little feudal lord, launching attacks on the other editors and their reporters to make sure no one gets too popular or too successful. But each ACE also makes sure to bash their own reporters too, less they get too uppity and too popular with the top brass.

No reporter - and I mean not a one - is free from this kind of abuse. Everyone I know there is actively looking for work someplace else - and I know a lot of people.

It is sickening and maddening, and I thank God every day that I got out with as few scars as I did. This paper is a house of cards, just waiting for a slight breeze to blow it down.

The people who run the paper love the Huck, that adorable dope - they just can't help themselves. They like his religion and they like his political ideas and most like him personally - if he wasn't such a bumbling thin-skinned goof, he would have had a much easier time with the paper over the past 10 years.

Well, between Muckraker and Journalsm4Dummies we get a completely unclear picture of whatever goes on at the Dem-Gaz.

But just goes to show, when a powerful entity makes a misstep like this, lots of people get out their axes and start grinding.

Begining to sound like Mitch-Gus vs. Frank-Nutt ... Lawd help us.

ANOTHER outrage! Did you see the editorial this morning in which the editorial criticized ITS OWN EMPLOYEE Bryan Hendricks -- and, worse yet, explicitly and not implicitly!

Why isn't the editorial staff following the time-honored code of omerta? Journalists should NEVER criticize other journalists in any manner, shape, or form. We need a wall of silence so that the public will never be able to see any differences of opinion between us.

What is wrong with these people at the ADG editorial page? Don't they know their place in the hierarchy? If we permit OUR OWN NEWSPAPERS to start having public discussions of what constitutes good and bad journalism, God only knows what will happen! It's much better to emulate my role model Max Brantley and do our best to stigmatize any public discussion of how well journalists are doing their jobs.

Well, I went and read the editorial, Lover, and you failed to note one important distinction:
Today's editorial disagreed with Hendricks' opinion about Youth Hunts and their timing. What has an opinion piece got to do with straight news reporting?
No sir. You've taken a little stringy piece of logic and tried to make it into a three-piece suit. Huckster's piece tried to whitewash facts presented in a news article.
Surely you know the difference between opinions and facts. You mainly seem to be differing with opinions in all your posts. I think the facts about Huckabee speak for themselves and you'd like us to ignore them.
You know the old saying 'bout opinions: they're like a--holes. Everybody has one, including the editorial writer.

"I can guarantee you that there are no favored "star" news reporters. Name any one of them, and I can guarantee you that he or she has been insulted and demeaned by at least one editor within the last two weeks."

Yes, at one point or another everyone there probably gets treated like dirt by some pointy-headed editor or another, but there are still favorites played. Selected people are given the time and opportunity to write perhaps no more than four "big" stories per year aimed at winning contests, while many of their colleagues are under the gun to both keep up a daily grind of copy while also producing enterprise stories every week.

Plus, it's a lot easier to swallow getting insulted when you're making $10,000 or $12,000 more a year than the slaves to the grind.

Nothing necessarily against those who make more and produce less--that's an understandable byproduct of playing office politics well--but there is definitely a caste system in place at Capitol & Scott. Unfortunately, many of the talented folks who work the hardest aren't appreciated and perhaps hang around because of the mentality that the Dem-Gaz is the only statewide game in town.

A thought: if the Dem-Gaz was unionized like the AP, Hussman wouldn't have been able to get away with the giving-Huckabee-free-space-to-distort-the-facts-outrage. But given that the Dem-Gaz was busted during John Robert Starr's tenure for forcing employees to work off the clock, and Hussman's "unions-are-evil" mentality, that's not ever going to happen.