{"id":36,"date":"2006-01-01T14:34:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-01T21:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=36"},"modified":"2006-01-01T14:34:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-01T21:34:00","slug":"an-open-letter-to-ken-western-editor-of-the-editorial-pages-of-the-arizona-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/36\/an-open-letter-to-ken-western-editor-of-the-editorial-pages-of-the-arizona-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to Ken Western, Editor of the Editorial Pages of the Arizona Republic<\/I>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. Western,<\/p>\n

Regarding your New Year’s Resolution to improve the opinion pages of the Republic,<\/i> is it possible to petition for a more balanced coverage of the forthcoming City of Phoenix bond issue?<\/p>\n

From my point of view–and you probably disagree–the Republic<\/i> is a tireless cheerleader for all of the–to me–insane boondoggles being effected Downtown. For example, nation-wide, all public transportation schemes are colossal failures from a cost-recovery standpoint, but the Republic<\/i> publishes nothing but puff-pieces about the ValleyMetro Trolley–which stands an excellent chance of being the biggest failure of all. As far as I’m concerned, this is not news, not opinion, not even public relations. It is active, knowing<\/i> mendacity, deliberately concealing facts, uncontested but largely undisclosed, for purposes of propaganda.<\/p>\n

That notwithstanding, the tax-payers of Phoenix are about to be strapped with nearly a billion dollars of new debt, much of which–in my opinion–will be entirely wasted. It seems only reasonable to me that we have something resembling a debate on the issue. As much as PNI as a corporation or the Republic<\/i> as a newspaper might favor the bonds and their proposed uses, it remains that the newspaper is the only remaining medium in which such a debate could take place.<\/p>\n

Institutional criticism is usually futile. From a customer-oriented point-of-view, criticism is a great gift. It may tell you how to do better, but, at a minimum, it tells you how to stop doing badly. But the denizens of most institutions, when criticized, will instead circle the wagons, insisting on the rightness of their positions and the risible nature of anyone who would dare to challenge their expertise, experience and endless estimable qualities. Certainly this has been the case with the mainstream media, which never tires of ridiculing the alternative media and its audiences, bidding good riddance to every former cash customer. The auctioneer has a cure for this syndrome, but what does he<\/i> know, anyway?<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, I had thought to write to you to offer to elucidate my objections to the Downtown boondoggles, and the course of municipal government in general in the Valley. My working title was Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. Western, Regarding your New Year’s Resolution to improve the opinion pages of the Republic, is it possible to petition for a more balanced coverage of the forthcoming City of Phoenix bond issue? From my point of view–and you probably disagree–the Republic is a tireless cheerleader for all of the–to me–insane boondoggles being effected Downtown. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-general","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1329,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1329\/arizona-republic-realtors-side-with-zillowcom\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":0},"title":"Arizona Republic: Realtors side with Zillow.com","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Phoenix RE.net is heard from in a big way in an article that will appear in Sunday's Arizona Republic about the State of Arizona's attempts to stifle Zillow.com. Writes reporter Peter Corbett:A state agency's efforts to stop Zillow.com from offering property-value estimates in Arizona are drawing criticism from some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/45\/look-whos-talking\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":1},"title":"Look who’s talking!","author":"Odysseus","date":"January 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Arizona Republic wants you to know that, \"Little lies lead to big trouble\":Because once truth becomes malleable, once lies become facts and facts become lies, then we make ourselves suckers for every con man, every flimflam artist, every propagandist whose schemes may range from petty theft to the takeover\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5780,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5780\/speaking-in-tongues-using-the-power-of-a-robust-text-editor-to-code-html-pages-with-dispatch\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":2},"title":"Speaking in tongues: Using the power of a robust text editor to code HTML pages with dispatch","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Linked below is a short screencast on how I use the text editor known as TextWrangler to wrangle text into usable formats. This particular episode illustrates how I create coded HTML from my weekly Arizona Republic column. In future screencasts, I'll want to illustrate more arcane ideas about deploying robust\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7712,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7712\/at-last-the-peoples-republic-of-obamistan-has-an-answer-for-the-yugo\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":3},"title":"At last, the Peoples’ Republic of Obamistan has an answer for the Yugo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's like a motorcycle, but without the pick-up or maneuverability. Or economy. Or range. Or sex-appeal. I want mine with the Vook option!","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1358,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1358\/state-vs-zillowcom-will-be-a-lengthy-bout\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":4},"title":"State vs. Zillow.com will be a lengthy bout","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link). This goofy little column often \"breaks news\" in the sense that I cover facts that have not yet been reported by the Republic's real estate reporters. Normally I keep this to myself, because I don't want to frighten the people who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5990,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5990\/the-tangled-web-of-tarp\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":5},"title":"The Tangled Web of TARP","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's deja vu, all over again. Republic Window and Door announced it would be closing its doors next month.\u00a0\u00a0 Republic lost over $5 million YTD and $12 million in 2006 and 2007.\u00a0 Bank of America suspended its line of credit.\u00a0 Faced with the prospect of going it without any money,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}