If I owned a newspaper, I would not hire anyone to write news or editorials if they were overly trusting in abusers of authority.
That would apply to MARGO POPE.
Her editorial (below) is the latest of several insipid editorials that have led people to believe it is time for her to retire.
MARGO POPE is easily led by RONALD WAYNE BROWN (City Attorney) and WILLIAM B. HARRIS (City Manager), expressing herself in logical fallacies:
1. "{i]t's time for the state of Florida to enforce sales tax collections." Who says they're not enforcing it?
2. "Because of court orders, the Plaza is a wide-open marketplace with sales of virtually anything allowed." Sounds like a Jim Crow segregationist newspaper (which the Record once was, taking KKK-style potshots against federal courts. How gauche. The courts freed artists from unconstitutional infringements on FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, something a real newspaper (rather than a right-wing Republican rag) would inveigh against. Allowing "a wide-open marketplace with sales of virtually anything allowed" was the City's idea, to create a crisis, to exploit fears and divide our community. Enough! See blog entry below the editorial
3. There is only hearsay, no economic study, to support the claim that "sales of similar articles in their own stores or those of others have declined because of Plaza vendors."
4. There is no proof that anyone is not collecting taxes. That's defamatory. If you libel an identifiable group, it's called group libel. Any one of the artists could sue MARGO POPE, DERRECK MAY and the St. Augustine Record and win.
5. In MARGO POPE-ese, "we hope that the State investigates all the St. Augustine Record and Times-Union managers and investigates their employment practices -- sure are an awful lot of civil rights cases reported on PACER. We hope the merchants who won't hire any minority employees are investigated. We hope the landlords who may commit antitrust violations get prosecuted. We hope the public officials taking bribes get nailed. {POPE wrote, "One merchant said she has complained to the state that the vendors are not collecting sales tax. We hope the state takes her complaint seriously and investigates any violations."
6. POPE worships and channels City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS (a/k/a "WILL HARASS") who was not at Monday's meeting. Did she call him on vacation? Or nudge him in bed.(She wrote, "City Manager Bill Harriss said only the state can enforce sales tax collections. He said that the proposed Plaza vendor sales ordinance will require a prospective vendor to have a sales tax permit. That's good news for everyone.")
7. POPE introduces a red herring: "The state has lost billions of dollars in sales tax revenue because of the declining economy. Fewer people spending means less sales tax collected. When sales tax isn't collected, that loss also affects state revenue that comes back to St. Johns County, the City of St. Augustine and other municipalities. The Department of Revenue needs to ensure that vendors in the Plaza now are following the same laws store merchants do. Fair is fair."
8. Demagogic is demagogic.
9. Unfair is unfair.
10. The WRecKord is once again unfair and demagogic.
11. The WReckord is declining in quality.
12. The WReckord had much better editorials when Pete Ellis wrote editorials.
13. The chauvinistic WRecKord editorial writer and publisher obviously hate artists, love soon-to-be-ex Senator MEL MARTINEZ, love louche loutish developer lobbyist GEORGE McCLURE, and run Anne Coulter and other haters. Call them KKK Lite.
14. I thank God I never took a journalism course. When I was at Georgetown, journalism wasn't offered. (I read the book on the plane to East Tennessee before becoming Editor of the Appalachian Observer.) Too many journalism majors are airheads who party heartily but never learn to stand up and question authority. See Tom Wicker, On Press (1977). If I had a newspaper, I'd hire reporters who knew stuff, instead of how to talk down to people. I'd rather read articles by reporters who know stuff (like the NY Times) than reporters who know not that they know not that they know not.
15. The WRecKOrd editorial writer will soon retire after 35 years of service, the last year of which has been a disservice to her readers and a reward for her friends in power, whom she no longer hesitates to reward with mash notes, like some sixteen year old writing letters with hearts handwritten on the envelopes.
16. In the words of Edward R. Murrow, "Good Night and Good Luck." It's time for MARGO POPE (and City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS) to retire. Say goodnight, graceless ones.
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