Venice Florida! dot com
Message Board

WTF, why not? -- let the Herald-Trib in

From: JP -- venfl.com
Date: 05/08/08
Time: 02:38 AM

Comments

The Herald-Trib continues to try to redeem itself in this mess by digging itself in deeper. Which is OK. They are demanding to sit in on the city's meeting with the FAA, where they will be bored out of their socks and absolutely clueless as to what is being said, but that's not the point. They want to be included. The mayor is balking, stating that the FAA doesn't want the press at the meeting.

I, on the other hand, do not want to join this circus in Orlando. I can think of other, far more pleasurable pursuits.

Like root canal surgery.

Our advice to the mayor? Let them in, give them some toys to play with, just make sure they play quietly on the floor while the grownups talk.

Your best avenue of recourse is not to give the impression that this is a
closed door process and push the FAA to allow the Herald-Trib to sit in on
the meeting. Really, what can it hurt? As one attorney friend joked to me,
the stance is akin to "We did nothing wrong and we won't do it again," which
is a pretty good defense in this particular situation at this time.

As wrong as I think the Herald-Trib is in this whole mess, that does not
give you the moral right to act exclusionary, and, wrongly I think in this
case, the Herald-Trib believes that you are taking that stance. Marty
Black's memo of May 2 clearly and deliberately cut your throat and
roadmapped the Herald-Trib's stance here, giving them the official municipal
fuel to further foster their argument.

Black's memo:
http://www.veniceflorida.com/features/blackonairportsunshine.htm

Here is where you make an enemy or friend of the media, and if you make them
an enemy, it will be for life. If you make a friend out of them, it will be
until next week.

Let them in. You have nothing to gain by excluding them and everything to
lose.

All of this is particularly ironic and hypocritical of the Herald-Tribune
when looking at some of their editorials and articles of several years ago
during the FAA investigation into the VGA lease. At that time, a clear case
was made, both by Venice Florida! dot com and by the Herald-Tribune, that
Dan Boone and the VGA had taken over the role of the city attorney in
representing the city against the FAA charges. The Herald-Tribune's
editorial of July 8, 2004, took an uncannily similar, if not identical,
stance about the VGA then to the stance that they are taking now about the
two citizen groups.

[NOTE: The Herald-Trib published an article on July 8, 2004 and an editorial on
July 14, 2004, urging a public opening of the books at the VGA. Both items
are not available online now, but are referenced at
http://www.veniceflorida.com/faa-vga-index.htm]


The difference is that the Herald-Tribune, over the exact same
principal, couldn't be bothered to stand up for it then if it meant crossing
Dan Boone. If it means crossing citizen groups now, well, a whole different
matter. Conversely, an argument can be made that if it was the right thing
to do then, it is the right thing to do now.

Larry Evans should well remember that both I and Herb Levine begged (and I
mean begged, begged and begged) the Herald-Tribune to do then EXACTLY what
they are doing now -- call in the lawyers and open this bugger up. Evans
agreed with me in spirit, but for whatever reasons, either the editorial
staff or the paper itself the paper could not get fired up enough to give a
damn after that. No further pressing was made by the Herald-Tribune, either
legally or in print, after the [July 14, 2004] editorial. The end result is that
the VGA has a great sweetheart lease profiteering from taxpayers, Boone's
clients are raking in the bucks, and that was apparently OK with the
Herald-Tribune in 2004.

As to why the Herald-Trib folded their cards after that, -- my belief at the
time was outright cowardice. To actually do then what they are doing now
would have required the Herald-Tribune to go up against a pro-development
attorney, and the paper's editorial stance overall at the time was decidedly
pro-growth.

Suddenly they have found courage. "If I were king of the
for-essssssssst....." -- Bert Lahr

-- email from Venice Florida! dot com to Mayor Martin, 05/07/08