More misguided propaganda -- and a deconstruction of it

Nick Gerlich, a professor of marketing at West Texas A&M University, posted in his blog a discussion of the Amarillo Millennial Movement, comparing these youth to the Baby Boomers who protested the Viet Nam War. Gerlich portrays these youth as victimized by the older generation because the some of their elders are not taking them seriously.

But, Gerlich is as misguided as this youthful friends. Herewith is a deconstruction of his blog post.

A Different Voice

I am a Baby Boomer. Born in 1959, I was one of the later ones to call this cohort mine. We were a rambunctious group of ne-erdowells. We played our music loud. We protested the View Nam War. We indulged in the free-loving culture of the day. And we wore our hair and clothes in ways that made our parents cringe.

I am a pre-Baby Boomer, technically, with a 1945 birthday, but see myself more of a Boomer than a pre-Boomer. That said, Nick, I also didn’t like the Viet Nam War (maybe the View Nam War refers to it as the first real war brought into the nation’s living rooms on TV. Quite the Freudian slip for you.) However, wearing clothes and listening to music that outraged our elders was not the exclusive domain of Boomers. It’s always been a generation thing. Do study history.

But more than anything, we just wanted people to listen to us. The status quo was to be defied. Our mantra was Question Authority (and sometimes more vulgar).

Again, not the exclusive domain for you.

Somewhere along the line, though, we got a bit older, cut our hair, started families, bought houses in the suburbs, and became Republicans. In other words, we became our parents.

No we didn’t. We became somewhat more permissive and a lot more thoughtful than our parents. And less harsh and more nuanced in our child-rearing. In part, it’s because we didn’t endure the Great Depression like our parents did. Or flee our homeland; or, fight World War II, which was seen as a legitimate war.

History has a funny way of repeating itself, though. Today’s Millennials (those born more or less  between 1980 and 2000) are in many ways like my generation: vocal, passionate, and desirous of change. I see that spirit (and yes, it is a spirit!) in Amarillo among a youngish crowd seeking change in our downtown. The Amarillo Millennial Movement has mobilized its forces, has a social media presence on Facebook, and is actively campaigning for downtown development and anything else that will help make Amarillo a place that they want to live.

No, Nick. You really have this quite wrong — unless as a professor of marketing you have hard data to back up your assertions. But as a long-time journalist and one who has extensively covered downtown development, Wallace Bajjali and the poor judgment of the then-City Commission and now the City Council, I see this differently. If you knew the connections between Brian Eades, one of the city councilors responsible for the downtown development debacle, you’d know these kids are not on some spontaneous spirit-inspired epiphany. It’s a calculated political move, in part evidence by the fact that the AMM is registered as a type of PAC.

And it isn’t pushing for downtown development in total. It’s pushing for the so-called MPEV. A glorified ballpark. They didn’t give a damn about the downtown development until the new City Council was elected and the supporters of the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News plan was put on the ballot for November, thus jeopardizing the insiders’ deals.

How do I know this? I’m an investigative reporter and I’ve seen documents. Have you?

And not move somewhere else.

Yes, they will. For reasons other than some pathetic ballpark. It’s because Amarillo doesn’t have the upscale jobs base for the good kids from good programs that WT and AC are turning out. Oh, sure. Some of the teachers and health care grads will stay here because we do have the jobs base. So will some of the ag-related majors. But don’t kid yourself. We really don’t have the jobs base they really need.

The only problem is, their Baby Boomer elders are being less than receptive to this new voice, in spite of the fact that we belly-ached for change ourselves some 40-50 years ago.

We have a lot of people the same age as those active in the AMM who disagree with the AMM’s entire approach and premise and see through their charade. And, perhaps the elders who aren’t listening to the AMM, such as me for example, is because I believe they are ill-informed, manipulated and basically too naive to realize they are merely pawns in a larger battle.

Critics respond that Amarillo Millennials do not work, do not pay taxes, and by virtue of this, do not have much of an economic impact at the local level. That was true of my generation years ago, too, but that never stopped us from being loud…and being heard.

See above. The critics I know take issue with the AMM for the reasons I outlined above.

Our local activists want a town that appeals to their sensibilities. They want downtown entertainment. They want downtown living. They want a pedestrian-friendly downtown. They want downtown shopping and dining. They are in favor of the new MPEV (Multi-Purpose Event Center), parking, and retail district.

You really have that quite wrong, as I pointed out above. Their interest in the other elements of downtown development arose only in conjunction with them being sucked into supporting the Wallace Bajjali-Downtown Amarillo Inc.-Amarillo Globe-News stadium. In fact, I’ve had Facebook conversations with some of the AMM members who have misquoted me, misquoted The Amarillo Independent and relied only on information from Downtown Amarillo Inc. You know, the DAI leadership of Les Simpson and Melissa Dailey who brought us Wallace Bajjali. You know, the DAI and Globe-News that claimed due diligence. And, trust me on this prediction, the people who are still wedded to Wallace Bajjali’s ideas will face massive embarrassment.

And all they get are complaints about how or why this won’t work in Amarillo. It might cost taxpayers a few bucks. It’s too hot in Amarillo. Cold. Windy. No one lives there. No one wants to live there. It’s too dangerous downtown (Really? I grew up in Chicago. This place is soooo safe!).

Whatevs. Just tell us you don’t want change, and you will be a lot more believable.

“Whatev.”

Really? Nice try at humor, but the situation isn’t funny. Those “complaints” you so cavalierly dismiss are legitimate. Just saying they aren’t, or calling us negative and all the other well-worn Joseph Goebbels propaganda techniques won’t change the facts or the overall truth derived from those facts. In part, every time we learn more facts, we also find that Dailey, Simpson, DAI, the Amarillo Economic Development Corp., the Local Government Corp. and Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone have misrepresented the plans and contracts — misrepresented, hell, they have lied. That, too, is on will be revealed because, as a journalist, I have faith that in the end the truth wins out. Oh, and then there’s that pesky FBI and grand jury investigation. Oops.

As an educator, I have always sided with youth. After all, they have a lot more future to live than my cronies and I do. I may be getting a little bit on the old side, but my heart is still young…and it is kept young by my students. I believe in them. I trust them. I love them. They can see the future from here, while my cohort has a better view of the past.

That’s all very sweet. It’s all well and good to love, trust and side with them, but it’s misguided in two respects. First, if their view of the future isn’t informed by the past, then they are condemned to repeat the errors of the past.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana, “The Life of Reason,” 1905.

Further, the youth you mention have no monopoly on seeing the future. Alvin Toffler was age 42 when he published “Future Shock” in 1970 and 52-years-old when he published “The Third Wave.” Those are both futurist works, looking to the future with a respect for the past.

Second, while as an educator you can side with the young, you also have a leadership responsibility toward those same young people. And part of the responsibility is as a role model. To me that means showing more respect for the facts, evidence and “truth” rather than the emotions which the writing above reflects.

And I want to see more of these brilliant Millennials stay in Amarillo. The future is theirs, not mine. Too my contemporaries dismissing the redevelopment project out of hand, I say it’s time to let go.

Let go? Of what? That’s the same rhetoric the AMM and Advance Amarillo people are using. And I counter that the elections in May have consequences and no amount of denial will change the implication — that voters in Amarillo saw through, finally, the lies and spin from the Globe-News, DAI and the now former members of the City Council.

Let go? Maybe the AMM people would face that facts and let go of the illusion that they aren’t any more than useful idiots — pawns in a greater scheme. A scheme, I might add, that could be more embarrassing for the city’s leadership than anyone imagine. And a revelation that some people think they are untouchable either by the law or by democracy.

You know. Kind of like we begged of our parents and grandparents.

Dr “Move On“ Gerlich

As Toffler pointed out in “Future Shock” by quoting Herbert Gerjuoy: “The new education must teach the individual how to classify and reclassify information, how to evaluate its veracity, how to change categories when necessary, how to move from the concrete to the abstract and back, how to look at problems from a new direction — how to teach himself.”

Peace out.

Election issues continue to roil

Jay Groom, a Facebook friend and real life acquaintance posted the following last night: “Very ashamed of the (so-called nsp) in our fine city. The editor (Les) has gone out of his way to increase readership and therefore revenue at the expense of putting a lot of well-meaning public servants in a negative light.

Are these public servants without fault? Am I without fault? Les, are you without fault? No. I have yet to hear thoughtful solutions for some of our city's problems from the nsp or many of the candidates looking to replace the present city council. So many of the negative views of the current mayor and city council have come from a relatively few anonymous posters in the nsp and a couple of mayor wannabees that for whatever reason, chose not to run. Rant is over. I throw it to George Schwarz for a thoughtful rebuttal.”

I obliged.

Jay Groom, thanks for the toss and I’ll rise to the occasion — mainly because I can’t keep my damn mouth shut!

When I came to Amarillo in June 2003, I did so with high hopes of being on the staff of a medium-sized daily paper that was important to the community and provided high-quality journalism as the descendent of a Pulitzer-winning newspaper. When I interviewed for the job, I made it clear that along with being the health and medicine reporter (having a M.A. in hospital and health administration), I am also an investigative reporter. I joined Investigative Reporters and Editors in 1995, during my career change, and have never let the membership lapse. That’s my commitment to investigative reporting.

In the interim of the job offer and arrival, Les Simpson had fired Cathy Martindale as executive editor. I didn’t see that as a harbinger of the paper’s (I refuse to call the Amarillo Globe-News a newspaper) deterioration. But, for as long as I was there, I saw stories killed and scared cows protected. How ironic given Gene Howe’s quote above the door. Then there was the Franklin Covey program that Les and Morris Communications inflicted on the newsroom in which they declared there were no sacred cows. Most of the reporters there laughed at that one. By the way, I can give you all several specific examples of spiked or slanted stories, but not at the moment.

Fast-forward to 2008, with the two-year-old Amarillo Independent covering the City Council (I am using Commission and Council interchangeably, although I know the difference), when the current push for downtown planning reared its head. The Indy pointed out a lot of the problems with the plan, including the failure to focus on the Civic Center first. Despite the City Council’s duplicity with the Globe-News Center, enough political capital remained that the voters would have approved a bond issue for a big Civic Center project. The hotel and other projects, whatever they would be and whatever direction they took would have followed.

During that time, Richard Brown touted the establishment of Downtown Amarillo Inc. as the mechanism to bring the real estate and development expertise to the city, with it being a nonprofit not subject to the Texas sunshine laws. A lot of people objected to that; and many other people — including Alan Abraham (but not Brian Eades) — also objected to Les being placed on DAI’s and the Local Government Corp.’s boards. I remember objecting before the council and in editorials, arguing that if one media outlet was on those boards, all should be. Of course, it was clear why the council pulled that stunt — co-option of the worse kind.

I have said openly and will repeat it here. Les could have done the right thing as an ethical journalist and declined those posts. But, he didn’t. As far as I’m concerned, he forfeited any right to be called a journalist. Whatever his motivation, by repudiating core journalistic ethics, by being part of the process instead of being a watchdog of it, he made the Globe-News and himself bigger lapdogs than they already were. Even worse, he was part of the group that brought Melissa Dailey to DAI and she was the one who, with Les, brought Wallace Bajjali to the table. The Indy did its part with watchdog journalism in November 2010, revealing WB’s shady record at a council work session, all the while Les sat stewing and Dailey claiming DAI had done its due diligence. The city’s retention of a Dallas law firm to “vet” Wallace Bajjali was a ploy to simply grease the skids. As Don Yee pointed out, in commenting about the NFL’s law firm’s “Deflategate” report, law firms can be counted on to come up with findings the client wants. Did the firms do so for the city?

The downtown planning process was gamed from the start and, although the Kabuki Dance tried to make it look like an open process and invited other ideas, the truth is once Dailey and Wallace Bajjali got involved, it was going to be WB’s cookie-cutter ballpark approach. But worse, despite the Indy kicking open the public records and meetings doors at DAI, most of the efforts continued behind closed doors. The city can look cooperative while stonewalling. It’s really quite charming, but it isn’t transparent. As the downtown debacle unfolded and other city problems came to the forefront, failed oversight and transparency became the issues of this campaign.

I don’t think it’s totally accurate to fault the challengers for not having solutions. Many of them have articulated that rebuilding the Civic Center should be the next step; and that the Herring Hotel should not be shut out of the plans. And a call to revamp city management, draconian it may be, is a solution. When the Indy covered this issue, we took editorial positions calling for the Civic Center as a priority, focusing in the city’s railroad, Western heritage and the magic of Route 66. Those ideas were spurned but I am still convinced that those are the elements of Amarillo that people are interested in; I still subscribe to the notion that the ballpark is a joke. Alan Abraham has a university study showing what a bad idea those ballparks are and he showed it to the councilors. The council has a knack for rejecting good information.

As for the Globe-News not offering solutions or alternatives, what do you expect with Les so invested in this debacle? He has gone pretty low profile, hasn’t he? But the Globe-News turning on the city and incumbents has Les’ fingerprints all over it. I don’t know the reason or reasons, although I have my theories.

As for “relatively few anonymous posters in the nsp,” I make two observations. First, the City Council, DAI, WB and the AGN have argued that there was citizen input accepting all the elements of the downtown plan, but in the context of our city, those were relatively few. So, are the posters on the AGN website a disproportionate few? Second, I’ve posted on the AGN site for years, but every time someone there figures out my screen name, they ban me. I outed myself as “opinionista” this past weekend in response to Melissa Dailey using her maiden name and posting propaganda and inaccurate information. I expect to be banned any day now.

I can’t speak for anyone else’s tone, style or criticism of the incumbents. I’ve been harsh but civil. And I stand by my positions. I didn’t grow up in Texas. I grew up in New Orleans and, as an adult, lived in eight states before getting here. I never liked the “get along by going along” approach to politics, public policy or management, although I don’t like the nastiness we’ve seen. But what I see has blunt and straightforward comments and opinions are seen by others as harsh or negative. I see that as a “get along by going along” ploy. I am 70-years-old. I am beyond the point of needing to care what others think of me as long as I retain my own integrity.

Thanks for inviting me to comment and for reading.

Election issues continue to roil

Jay Groom, a Facebook friend and real life acquaintance posted the following last night: “Very ashamed of the (so-called nsp) in our fine city. The editor (Les) has gone out of his way to increase readership and therefore revenue at the expense of putting a lot of well-meaning public servants in a negative light.

Are these public servants without fault? Am I without fault? Les, are you without fault? No. I have yet to hear thoughtful solutions for some of our city's problems from the nsp or many of the candidates looking to replace the present city council. So many of the negative views of the current mayor and city council have come from a relatively few anonymous posters in the nsp and a couple of mayor wannabees that for whatever reason, chose not to run. Rant is over. I throw it to George Schwarz for a thoughtful rebuttal.”

I obliged.

Look who crawled out from under the rocks on the AGN website

A poster signed @mwaelti posted the following on the Amarillo Globe-News website on this story. Here is what she wrote:

“MPEV

The cost to build the MPEV is known, and the funding sources identified. A market study has been completed, and there have been numerous conversations with the owner of the Thunderheads as well as the various baseball associations. The homework has been done. Now it's time to build it.”

I am pretty damn sure this is Downtown Amarillo Inc. Executive Director Melissa Dailey, so this is what I posted:

“Hey Melissa Dailey,

"The homework has been done" Just like the homework you did to give us Wally-ByGolly. You've mislead us on Liberty Theater -- folks reading this need to just ask Keith Jones about that. You've got Lutz out in front on the old Santa Fe Depot, in a case of too-little-or-nothing-too-late. I could go on.

If we know the cost of the ball park (MPEV is a friggin' joke and we all know it), why don't you post it here? And will the contract or whomever builds it contain a guarantee that the taxpayer will not pay a penny if the costs exceed your (or Jacobs Engineering's, or whoever's) guesses on the cost? As for the market study, if you're referring to the Sports and Leisure study a few years ago? People who have forgotten more about finances, statistics and market studies than you ever knew shot more holes in that thing than all the Swiss cheese ever made.

And, specifically, what are the funding sources? Tell us exactly.

And now, you're using your middle/maiden name in an attempt to hide who you are as a poster here. This is the lack of transparency that everyone is talking about. You run an organization that the Texas Attorney General ruled is subject to the state's sunshine laws. Live up to the spirit of the law.

It is clear that you, some of the councilors and others are running scared over this election. A decent voter turnout will doom you and your half-baked plans and you and others know it.

OK - that said, since I called you out by name, I am going to confirm who I am since some have suspected and others have known. I suspect it will get me banned from the AGN postings, but that will just define the AGN. It doesn't define me.

I am George Schwarz, semi-retired publisher of The Amarillo Independent; and, once again for the record, left the AGN on my own accord for reasons I have made clear elsewhere.”

Look who crawled out from under the rocks on the AGN website

A poster signed @mwaelti posted the following on the Amarillo Globe-News website on this story. Here is what she wrote:

“MPEV

The cost to build the MPEV is known, and the funding sources identified. A market study has been completed, and there have been numerous conversations with the owner of the Thunderheads as well as the various baseball associations. The homework has been done. Now it's time to build it.”

I am pretty damn sure this is Downtown Amarillo Inc. Executive Director Melissa Dailey, so this is what I posted:

An Open Letter to Brian Eades

As I got out of the car yesterday morning after dropping my wife off at a sub job, I thought I got a whiff of the smell of cattle money. I didn’t detect a breeze, so I was mystified why the odor was so strong. Then I read your email and realized the smell was coming from that.

For someone who has repeatedly sat on the dais and said he makes public policy on the basis of facts and evidence, your pattern of behavior, support of the downtown plan and Wallace Bajjali betrays your principles. And that’s a fact.

Now, let’s address some of your comments.

· “Since that time, we have a new city manager, new mayor and all new city council members technically except for me.” — The “new” city manager was a long-time city employee and well in the loop about the downtown planning. If he wasn’t in the loop, your oversight of the city management is flawed because, as assistant manager, Jarrett should have been in the loop. A “new” mayor is equally fallacious. Paul has been part of the City Council before. He was well aware of the City Council issues and activities. And the same goes for other councilors. Jim Simms can’t be consider as new. Ron Boyd had been on the commission for years. Ellen was active on the Traffic Commission. Verdict: Spin failure due to your bad information or lack of understanding.

· “We have a new hotel developer, a new TIRZ chair, a new Center City president, a local government corporation and a new DAI executive director.” — The NewCrestImage people are not new. They did the Fisk Building, despite Melissa Dailey’s attempt to undercut them. The “new” TIRZ chair was on the TIRZ board so he wasn’t “new;” and he is a prominent lawyer in town and did the legal framework for TIRZ and Downtown Amarillo Inc. The Center city president came from within its own board, so he wasn’t new either. The new LGC board was made up of veteran city people, council members and others who have long been deeply involved with city public policy in one form or the other. You helped appoint them. If they were too new to do the job right, you shouldn’t have. And the DAI executive director? A third-rate or fourth-rate transportation planner who had no broad experience in major planning issues. Verdict: Spin failure due to your bad information or lack of understanding.

· “We have a new traffic engineer and even a new animal control director etc.” — Yep, sure do. Verdict: Irrelevant for downtown planning but emblematic of the City Council’s incompetent oversight of city functions.

· “Yes George, things change. As does the weather, economic indices, financial fortunes and your investment portfolio.” — And smart managers and others charged with oversight take changes into account and adjust accordingly. Verdict: Failure to oversee the environment properly.

· “Thanks heavens for some modicum of continuity.” — Wait, wait. Continuity? Didn’t you just regale me with all that “new” stuff that you think excused you from the poor decisions in which you participated and in which other commissioners/councilors undertook? Verdict: Contradiction exposes spin failure (again).

· “Now, in regards to your statement, I can't for the life of me find a question mark anywhere in there.” — This sentence elevated you from hubris past arrogance to unmitigated gall. Are you saying I have to bow and scrape to you, oh royal one, and can only ask you questions? I don’t see it that way. You and the others continue to run on the platform you represent all the people, but it seems that the only people to whom you listen are other Amarillo royalty. No, Brian, I wasn’t asking you questions. I was pointing out that you and the other council members are refusing to acknowledge how poorly you have governed this city. And how incredibly bad the decisions are you’ve made, especially with respect of downtown.

Further, on this last bullet point, my email to you and the other councilors was about how you and others ignored good, solid information about Wallace Bajjali — information beyond The Amarillo Independent’s 2010 story — that a simple Google search would have gotten you. (Spare me the Dallas law firm. They didn’t “vet” anything.) The council, had it been following WBDP’s problems elsewhere like Waco, Corpus Christi and Joplin, had the chance to kill this deal off in Nov. 2013. You didn’t. The council didn’t.

Verdict: The Amarillo Independent and others were right all along and the City Council continues to refuse to publicly acknowledge that fact. Let me say it again, slowly: The.Amarillo.Independent.was.right.

So, you want questions. OK, here are some questions.

First question: Are you up to answering the following questions honestly?

If you’re so wedded to facts and evidence in making public policy, why did you ignore them in choosing Wallace Bajjali? Why did you and the council ignore The Amarillo Independent’s findings?

Why did Alan Taylor retire? Was there any truth to the rumor that he disagreed with the downtown plan?

The Strategic Action Plan effort had fewer than 1,000 participants. Why did the City Council consider that representative of the city?

Why was the Herring not included in the land use planning? Why has the City Council ignored the Herring Hotel as a resource for conventions? Who is behind the squeeze play on the Herring?

What happened to the “citizen vote” that was promised? With such a pathetic voter turnout in 2013, how can you justify that this was a mandate or endorsement of the ongoing plans?

If the new hotel is such a strong asset, why does it need to be protected by a non-compete clause?

How does city ownership of the hotel square with your Libertarian or Republican ideals of a free market? A market where government doesn’t pick winners and losers?

How is it that the City Council ignored studies that showed the very cookie-cutter plans that Wallace Bajjali brought to you don’t result in economic development?

How can the city contract with the Southern Independent League without a city-owned stadium to play in?

And one final question for you, as I think back over the discussions we have had through the years that I’ve been a citizen and taxpayer in Amarillo. How is it that when we’ve discussed public policy on health care, you agree with me in private and then take opposite positions in public? You’ll want examples, so I’ll give you two. Certificate of need and that health care isn’t a free market.

I await your responses.

An Open Letter to Brian Eades

As I got out of the car yesterday morning after dropping my wife off at a sub job, I thought I got a whiff of the smell of cattle money. I didn’t detect a breeze, so I was mystified why the odor was so strong. Then I read your email and realized the smell was coming from that.

For someone who has repeatedly sat on the dais and said he makes public policy on the basis of facts and evidence, your pattern of behavior, support of the downtown plan and Wallace Bajjali betrays your principles. And that’s a fact.

Now, let’s address some of your comments.

Mind boggling dishonesty

The unbelievable dishonesty, audacity and disrespect the Amarillo Globe-News has in this story for this community and its readership boggles the mind. Really.

First, Downtown Amarillo Inc. didn’t “vet” Wallace Bajjali. Melissa Dailey and Les Simpson came to the City Council in November 2010 to jam Wallace Bajjali down the city’s throat. If it hadn’t been for the former Amarillo Independent and Greg Rohloff and Gina Haschke, the city would have “bit” on the Wallace Bajjali bait then and there. Instead the city backed off and got the Dallas law firm to look at the Wallace Bajjali record. No one has publicly acknowledged that fact and they probably won’t. It’s the height of dishonesty for city councilors to tell these half-truths and for the AGN to regurgitate those excuses uncritically.

Second, the article implies no one at the AGN has read the Strasberger Price law firm report. I did. It was a long time ago, but the bottom-line of the report was that developers get sued all the time, Wallace Bajjali seems no different so protect yourself. Fact is, it wasn’t a vetting as much as a cautionary tale — protect yourself fully.

Third, city manager Atkinson’s remark about the 2008 real estate market is a misdirection and disinformation. We’re talking 2010-2011; the real estate bubble nationally popped in 2008-2009.

Fourth, no one quoted in this story, including the city councilors, are being honest about other things. For example, NewCrest was already in Amarillo, having developed the Fisk Building into the Courtyard by Marriott (despite Dailey’s attempts to sabotage the deal way back when). Why didn’t the City Council ask NewCrest at the get-go? In fact, if what councilors and the mayor are saying now (We can go forward without a master developer.), why did we need one in the first place?

I could go on longer — forever like some other posters here (right, OTFB?) but I’ve got other things to do.

Contracting with Wallace Bajjali isn’t this City Council’s only problem. The Commerce Building deal, the coziness with the former mayor’s husband and other operational issues are evident now. If the AGN had done its job as a real newspaper without a conflict of interest instead of bringing its self-righteous indignation to the party after the implosion, we could be more charitable. As an old eighth grade teacher used to say, “A word to the wise is sufficient.”

Mind boggling dishonesty

The unbelievable dishonesty, audacity and disrespect the Amarillo Globe-News has in this story for this community and its readership boggles the mind. Really.

First, Downtown Amarillo Inc. didn’t “vet” Wallace Bajjali. Melissa Dailey and Les Simpson came to the City Council in November 2010 to jam Wallace Bajjali down the city’s throat. If it hadn’t been for the former Amarillo Independent and Greg Rohloff and Gina Haschke, the city would have “bit” on the Wallace Bajjali bait then and there. Instead the city backed off and got the Dallas law firm to look at the Wallace Bajjali record. No one has publicly acknowledged that fact and they probably won’t. It’s the height of dishonesty for city councilors to tell these half-truths and for the AGN to regurgitate those excuses uncritically.

More Harrison Street Hyposcrisy

In my experience as a journalist, nothing provokes a reporter with fire in his belly more than someone lying or showing rank hypocrisy. An in Amarillo, we have plenty of that to go around ahead of the city elections. Here is the latest display of hypocrisy from the Amarillo Globe-News, the daily rag owned by Koch Brother allies Morris Communications, which is based out of state, “Forget downtown redevelopment problems and other controversies that have stained city government the past few months and years.”

Residents and voters of our fair city must remember this at May’s City Council election. You see, much of the blame for staining city government lays directly at the feet of the Globe-News, which aims to be an opinion leader. The paper’s publisher, Les Simpson, has been involved in the stain that is downtown development. He is a key member of the Downtown Amarillo Inc. board, serving as chairman at the time that DAI Executive Director Melissa Dailey brought us Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, or WBDP. You know what WBDP stands for, don’t you? We Break Development Promises.

I’ll have more to write about Wallace Bajjali and the City Council in subsequent posts, of course. But the message here is clear. Readers should treat “information” and opinions in the Amarillo Globe-News like “Seinfeld” episode “The Bizarro Jerry.” Do the opposite and you’ll be better off for it.

More Harrison Street Hyposcrisy

In my experience as a journalist, nothing provokes a reporter with fire in his belly more than someone lying or showing rank hypocrisy. An in Amarillo, we have plenty of that to go around ahead of the city elections. Here is the latest display of hypocrisy from the Amarillo Globe-News, the daily rag owned by Koch Brother allies Morris Communications, which is based out of state, “Forget downtown redevelopment problems and other controversies that have stained city government the past few months and years.”