Some thoughts about Liberty's big purchases

The blog, Media Nation, offers some thoughts on the announcement that Liberty Group Publishing, soon to be GateHouse Media, had become a major player in New England with the purchase of more than 125 newspapers.

Pull another string and Nodler will do backflips

In the second day of a three-day report on the money behind Sen. Gary Nodler, Joplin Globe investigative reporter Max McCoy pulls the curtain open and allows us to see the master manipulators who are behind one of the most powerful elected officials in the state.
It's a list of the usual suspects: Gary Duncan, CEO of Freeman Health, the bigwigs at Empire District Electric Company, Rudy Farber in Neosho, etc. My favorite part of the article is where Nodler Leadership PAC treasurer Nick Myers, a Joplin CPA, says the PAC was meant to promote the senator's leadership style. It may be the first leadership PAC designed to perpetuate bullying, petulance, holding petty grudges, blaming everyone else for your own problems, and out-and-out childishness.
Apparently, Nodler lends his name to this Leadership PAC, according to the McCoy investigation, but nothing else. Of course, the same suspects who are donating to the Nodler PAC are the ones who are donating to his regular campaign fund. Makes you wonder just how many decisions he makes in regard to his state senate duties, and how many are made by the big money men who are pulling his strings.
(Note: An apology is necessary for the headline to this post. It has been at least two decades since the senator has had the ability to do backflips. It is rumored however, that he can jump to attention in record time when one of his big contributors is on the line.)
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A sidebar to today's major story features a profile of Nick Myers, who is portrayed as the power behind the throne.

News Leader: Time to do away with fee office patronage

The Springfield News-Leader Editorial Board says it doubts that Governor Matt Blunt did anything criminal in his controversial awarding of license fee offices, but it suggests that the practice needs to stop.

Editorial: More ethics changes are needed

An editorial in today's Springfield News-Leader commends Governor Matt Blunt for his decision last week to ban those working in the state's executive branch from accepting lobbyists' gifts.
However, the move did not go far enough, the editorial says, and it also says it is time for the General Assembly to step to the plate and make some meaningful changes in business as usual.

Tribune publisher: Ban lobbyists' gifts

Columbia Tribune Publisher Henry J. Waters III, in an editorial published today, makes the same point I have made numerous times in this blog: It is time to ban all gifts from lobbyists to legislators.
He notes the claim by some legislators that more disclosure will take care of the problem is faulty. Waters writes:
"These days most gifts, even fairly small ones, must be reported, the idea being disclosure will solve everything. If the public knows, the public can bring pressure to bear. But, of course, it doesn't work except in the most egregious cases, like that of Jack Abramoff, the notorious buyer of favors on Capitol Hill with American Indian tribe money. The rest of the time, misdemeanors are routine. So, why maintain a system sure to create violators?"

Liberty expansion not limited to New England

The expansion of Liberty Group Publishing, owner of The Carthage Press, Joplin Daily, Neosho Daily News, Neosho Post, and the Big Nickel, has not just been limited to New England.
Overlooked during the transactions in which Liberty (soon to be renamed GateHouse Media) bought about seven daily newspapers and more than 120 New England weeklies, was its recent purchase of New West Newspapers, a company owned by a group which includes former NBC News President Michael Gartner. New West owned one daily newspaper, the Nebraska City, Neb. Free Press, three weeklies, the Syracuse Journal-Democrat in Nebraska, the Hamburg Reporter in Iowa, and the Ripley Star-News in West Virginia, as well as two Penny Press shoppers, a weekend publication, and printing plants in Syracuse, Neb., and Ravenswood, W.Va.

Liberty Group Publishing to move headquarters to New York

Liberty Group Publishing, which has been headquartered in a Chicago suburb since its inception, will move its corporate headquarters to Rochester, N.Y.
The change will take place at the same time the company is changing its name to GateHouse Media, according to an article in today's Quincy Patriot-Ledger. Liberty bought that newspaper as well as more than 100 others, according to announcements issued Friday and Saturday. The Patriot-Ledger, with a circulation of 55,000, is now the largest newspaper owned by the company.
In addition to two daily newspapers, Enterprise NewsMedia, which owned the Patriot-Ledger, owns another daily newspaper and 23 weeklies. GateHouse, which had no presence in New England before these transactions, immediately becomes one of the biggest players.
The moves also set up a battle for dominance in New England between GateHouse and the New York Times, whose Boston Globe, is now totally surrounded by the new player. In addition to the newspapers bought by GateHouse, it has a business arrangement with the Boston Herald, the company which sold it more than 100 community newspapers, and the chief daily competition to the Globe.
Liberty Group Publishing, soon to be GateHouse Media, owns The Carthage Press, Joplin Daily, Neosho Daily News, Neosho Post and the Big Nickel.

Joplin Globe investigates Nodler

What can the Joplin Globe expect now that it has turned its investigative reporter Max McCoy loose to examine the growing power of State Senator Gary Nodler?
Perhaps their experience will be different from mine, since the Globe is a powerful, well-financed media outlet, and is part of one of the largest newspaper chains in the United States, but if my experience is any indication, these things will happen:
-Nodler will find some forum through which to launch an attack on the Globe since it is far easier to blame the media than it has to answer embarrassing questions raised by reporters.
-Nodler surrogates will anonymously flood the comment section to the Globe's articles, picking some minor point, taking it out of context, and making it appear as if the Globe has some vendetta against Nodler.
-Max McCoy will be personally attacked, with claims of bias coming from the Nodler camp since McCoy, as is noted in the Globe article, was the reporter who wrote the story about the senator's movie meltdown last year.
-Somehow, somewhere, it is certain the charge of "liberal media bias," will be bandied about, and there will be those people who see that and will immediately sympathize with Nodler, though there won't be the slightest bit of evidence to back up that charge.
Part one of the Globe's three-part series makes for fascinating reading, and hopefully is building up to something a little more in depth on Monday and Tuesday. This blog has been examining Sen. Nodler's money trail for the last couple of years, so if you need a little more background on the subject, you might try the following links:

Lobbyists funnel money into Nodler campaign chest
Portrait of Nodler beginning to emerge
Nodler campaign account overflowing
More lobbyists contribute to Nodler
More about Gary Nodler and ethics
Nodler campaign war chest passes $100,000
Lobbying firm funneling money to Nodler campaign, PAC
More MOARK money connected to Nodler
More about MOARK, committee shell games
Nodler still raking in the bucks
Home school proponents donate heavily to Nodler PAC
Nodler sings praises of virtual school

Voter ID bill headed to conference

Sen. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City, will serve on the conference committee that will attempt to iron out differences between the House and Senate on SB1014, the so-called Voter ID bill.
The bill was sponsored by Scott and was handled by Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City, in the House, where it passed by a 94-65 margin Thursday. Area representatives Stevenson, Ed Emery, R-Lamar, Steve Hunter, R-Joplin, Ron Richard, R-Joplin, Marilyn Ruestman, R-Joplin, and Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, voted for the proposal, which Scott says will reduce voter fraud. Opponents, including southwest Missouri Democratic representatives, Charles Dake of Miller and Sara Lampe of Springfield, who opposed the bill, say it will disenfranchise poor and minority voters.
In the Jefferson City News-Tribune's article, Stevenson said, "It's a sacred right that every legitimate individual have the right to vote.What is also very sacred is that every legitimate vote have its proper weight. And if a legitimate vote is watered down by a fraudulent vote that is cast, it will lose its proper weight."
As with the legislature's increase in driver's license requirements, it appears our Republican majority, belonging to a party that has always stood for limited government interference in people's lives is instead doing its best to increase that interference as much as possible.

Times editorial: Lobby reform effort is pitiful

The watered-down lobbying reform bill passed by the U. S. House this week promises to be further diluted when the Senate gets through with that. That, according to an editorial in today's New York Times, virtually guarantees all we will get out of this legislation is no reform and a few campaign slogans.