I briefly considered responding to the comment, but had decided against it when another commenter did it for me and did it far better than I would have.
The comment, which is also on the earlier post, is printed below:
So Turner's "vendetta" is going to keep good people from coming to Joplin. Are you saying that people would be afraid to come to a city where there is someone who cares about the truth, exposes
Turner's firing no matter how many times Anson Burlingame and the CJ Huff apologists try to belittle his reporting by saying it all amounts to a vendetta makes it convenient for Turner's critics, but it raises an important question.
How many people does Turner have a vendetta against?
Did he have a vendetta against David Wallace when he began writing about his bankruptcies and lawsuits even before Joplin hired him as master developer. That also was at least a year before Turner was fired.
Did Turner have a vendetta against Mike Woolston when he was the only reporter who actually dug into the Lorraine report and clearly revealed Woolston's unethical dealings with Charley Kuehn and Wallace Bajjali?
Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head and none of them have anything to do with CJ. If Turner is operating on a vendetta maybe it is time that the Joplin Globe get a vendetta. It is not Turner's vendetta or vendettas that we need to be worrying about. It is the people who have the vendetta against Turner who are causing the most harm.
Joplin has a good thing in Turner and we should be showing him that we support him and thank him for sharing his vendettas. I know of many places where they wish they had someone like Turner. Let's show him our appreciation while he is still here.
Wow randy...great response you wrote
ReplyDeleteWow CJ, nice one!
DeleteRight. I suspect a Huff, Hufffite, or CARTer wrote that. But it could be just another frenemy of this post. (;
A concerned resident like turner is a welcome addition to any community. Todays newspapers have become fluff, with budget cutbacks, and the need for advertising revenue, investigating reporting ihas fallen to news releases and attending meetings and asking question after the fact. We should thenk turnwer for working for probably less than minimum wage, probably much less, and bringing light to the shadows of the Joplin operations. He has missed the $175,000 man being the highest paid chamber of commerce leader in missouri, but he cannot be expected to cover everything from an apartment...keep up the good work..
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous 2:59- When I was checking through the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce's 990 forms and picked up on O'Brian's salary, I did some checking of other chambers' 990 forms. I can't recall which one it was since it was several weeks ago, but I came across one that was well north of $200,000 and I never got back to checking. It was probably Kansas City's.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of MSSU, does anyone find the new Momentum ad a little creepy with the zombie like characters?
ReplyDeleteSocial media, particularly "anonymous" social media exposes the worst in America. It allows any and all to vent their feelings, sometimes raw, vitrolic feelings based on rumor, innuendo, and yes, "yellow journalism".
ReplyDeleteChris Wallace (Fox News) stated on national TV during the night of the election that he reviewed just front page news articles in the NYT rather extensively. He found many words or phrases therein over months of reporting that presented facts, but used descriptive words such as "lurking, bigoted, racist, etc." in reporting the news. Such is yellow journalism, not hard cold facts. As well reporting only one side of any story without offering countering facts is yellow journalism. I don't know how many times Turner has published some story about "sex" that lists the allegations in a law suit but has nothing to report in terms of views that counter the allegations.
I did not begin writing publicly until 2008. When I first embarked on that effort public education was, and remains, my deepest concern. The failure of our public education system is the single biggest national emergency confronting America. Want proof? Just read both sides of social media in big and even small incidents. Many, many people so engaged "publicly" are ....... (you fill in the blanks).
I engaged with Turner in this blog and my own blog for about 18 months, primarily over issues concerning public education as changes became evident. After the various elections were completed that resulted in our current BOE I stopped doing so. Turner won the votes, no question about it. I no longer write, publicly, about local public education, herein or anywhere else. Rather I simply express my views more privately.
I break my silence herein after well over a year of restraint in this single instance. My name was used above. I assure any and all of "you" that never in my life have I posted anything publicly without my name attached to it, newspaper, blog, comments on blogs, facebook (which I rarely read or use), etc. I despise "anonymous" public writing. It is the equivalent to someone throwing s sucker punch, something only done by weak and cowardly people.
Is Randy weak and cowardly? I have no idea as I don't know him personally and of course he puts his name behind all that he writes (though I have heard on the "crazy" rumor circuit he will post some comments herein anonymously)!! No I don't accuse him of that, but .... Call that "yellow journalism" on my part.
Do I continue to read this blog on occasion? Yes I do. It exposes what I consider to be the worst of (or in) Joplin, anonymous, whinning, moaning and groaning about other people, some people that I admire, respect and still support as long as they have the endurance and yes courage to face down the likes of "you" herein.
Anson Burlingame
For the record, I do not write any of the anonymous comments or any other comments. When I make a comment or respond to a comment, I do it under my own name. Saying that I write the anonymous comments appears to be the latest effort to undermine this blog. It is a strange method, considering that it requires me to print the comments in order for it to get anywhere. I find it interesting that two comments on this post accuse me of that. One of the comments is anonymous and if the other commenter had any sense, his would be anonymous, too.
ReplyDeleteAnson is a wonderful dilettante who amuses himself...
ReplyDeleteAnson has never read Alexander Pope's "Essay on Criticism", as he thinks being a terminated substitute teacher gives him the knowledge to critique professionals. Pope said "a little learning is a dangerous thing", which makes Anson's lack of knowledge almost lethal. Pope also said, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread", which also goes to Anson's qualification of criticism. The sheer number of "I" and "my" in his comments is comical, sounds like Trump.
ReplyDeleteAnson had promised to ignore this blog as the "underbelly" of Joplin at the time CJ Huff was "shown the door", not retired in his forties for goodness sake. Anson supported CJ, until his removal as superintendent and possibly still, and even after the evidence Turner provided proved Huff to be a costly fraud which cost our school district millions of dollars. I would prefer Anson honor his word and refrain from commenting on this blog or publishing his own.