It’s All Wet…

It’s something the press has had a difficult time getting their arms around: the coming battle with surrounding states over Oklahoma’s surplus of water.  The Oklahoman’s Tony Thornton, unquestionably the best writer at the paper (why’s he still there?) does an excellent job explaining.

And as if on cue, the AP has a story about a potential water problem in one of Oklahoma’s larger communities, Enid. 

I am Press I Guess

I am Press I Guess

Can you Guess if I am Press?

Press I Guess, I wonder why,

You let old Dirty Harry lie?

Don’t you like my Harry Coates?

I Love my Coates, on him I dotes.

But Randy Terrill, gets my goats!

About that Harry’s missing wrapper?

Of course he left them in the crapper.

In a plain manilla wrapper.

We knew it soon would be a mess,

but you know we are Press I Guess.

As Press I Guess we’re in the bag,

with Harry’s tale, we do not gag,

His docs were hacked, hacked we say!

Don’t let the facts get in the way,

And we won’t check that story out,

We’ll never, ever, have no doubt!

We will not write about his lies

We’d never ever be so wise,

We’ll never ask for the cop’s report,

If the truth comes out, would that be sport?

We’re Press I Guess, the verdict’s in,

We know his story’s pretty thin,

but dogging Harry is a sin,

We’re Press I Guess, believe OUR spin.

So Press I Guess,

How will you stop this Harry mess?

We’ll keep looking the other way,

ignore, refuse to ever play,

Inspector Clouseau would be proud,

of how our silence speaks so loud.

We won’t ask for the security tape,

for then our Harry could not escape!

The probe it ended ’cause Harry’s true,

the cost too much for me and you,

we’ll never ask, ‘o the cost, how much?’

We’re Press I Guess, so out of touch.

We’re Press I Guess, If we did our job,

we’d have old Harry by the knob,

We’re MSM, our mission true:

To help keep Harry snowing you!

But now come blogs, they want the facts!

They think that Harry’s lines doth smack,

of lies and phony insinuations,

they care not of our fascination

with Harry and his bumbling crew,

How dare they tell the truth to you!

We’re Press I Guess,

and here’s the deal,

we’ll never make our Harry squeal,

we’ll let him lie, and preen and strut,

and stay here on our lazy butt!

…and the ‘Coates Calamity’ continues

The wheels are falling off of Oklahoma City’s once-proud television news organization, KFOR.

Problems began after The New York Times Company sold KFOR in 2007 to Local TV LLC, a limited liability company owned by Oak Hill Capitol which was formed to buy the nine television stations owned by the Times.

Industry observers say that morale at the station is at an all-time low, and that the management put into place by Local TV LLC is a disaster. “Watch for the exodus of talent from KFOR in the very near future,” one local television expert tells OKPNS. He goes on to say that even long-time KFOR news folks are nervous due to Local TV LLC’s poor news acumen and miserly business practices. “I doubt long-time viewers will recognize anybody at KFOR by the end of the year if something isn’t done right away,” he says.

The station is being beaten in some key demographic categories it used to own, and Chopper4 has been all but  grounded due to budget concerns. Further, their once proud political talk show Flashpoint has lost its mojo: News9’s Your Vote Counts is creating the buzz in political circles these days. The loss of Burns Hargis, bad programming decisions and revelations of co-host Mike Turpen’s blatant ethical lapses have all but sunk the formerly respectable political talk show.

Developing…..

Scheme Aims to Pick Taxpayer Pockets and Re-Open Floodgates for New Illegal Alien Invasion

Responding to a question from the Oklahoma Political New Service, Rep. Terrill says he has not been contacted by Cain or Price about the difficulties 1804 may have caused the two industries.

“They’ve not said a word to me, and it concerns me that these companies would launch a multi-million dollar scorched-earth campaign without once speaking to me. If illegal aliens making the modern equivalent of slave labor wages are critical to their vitality, it makes me very, very concerned about the future of those companies,” Rep. Terrill told OKPNS.

Oklahoma City – An OKPNS investigation has unmasked an elaborate but seemingly foolish scheme by corporations and some chambers of commerce to pass a sales tax for improvements to Ford Arena and simultaneously double-cross those same voters by launching a multi-million dollar campaign to repeal the state’s wildly popular immigration reform bill.

Insiders believe that if the public discovers the linkage between the two efforts, there could be a voter backlash, adversely affecting the March 4th penny sales tax election, and subsequently killing Oklahoma City’s bid to land an NBA franchise.

While OKPNS has been critical of the Oklahoma press in the past for enormous lapses in journalistic judgment, this time the oversight is inexcusable. This one should have been uncovered some time ago, but it has not been explained anywhere in Oklahoma media or in the blogosphere.

Incredibly, the scheme calls for not just one campaign of deceit but two disingenuous and risky double-crosses: one aimed at the voters and another aimed at a popular state representative, which could unravel an effort to gain tax credits for the energy and technology sector.

One insider summed up the plot in this way, “Take their money, and then give them more illegal aliens. Take the tax credits, and politically harm the chairman of the revenue and tax committee. If true, I have never witnessed a more loathsome act.”

Oklahoma Political News Service has learned that the repeal plan is being kept in a low profile mode for two reasons. First, the corporate chiefs want the March 4th penny sales tax election to go off without a hitch, because of the fear of a massive voter backlash if citizens discover the agenda to repeal HB 1804 BEFORE the voters’ pockets are picked.

Second, the corporate bosses do not want to agitate Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, HB 1804 author and now a national leader in the immigration reform movement. Why? Because these and other corporate leaders are lobbying for millions of dollars in tax credits for the energy and telecommunications industries. To do that, they will need the support of the House Revenue and Tax Committee, chaired by Rep. Randy Terrill.

We at OKPNS thought when we heard this that this plan, risky and idiotic as it may seem, that it must be so ingenious that we couldn’t grasp its complexities. “No, you’re wrong,” another capitol insider suggests. “It’s the product of idiots.”

The March 4th vote seeks to raise $122 million, through a penny sales tax for 15 months to improve the Ford Center and build a practice facility so it can attract the Seattle Supersonics here starting in 2009. Dubbed “MAPS for Millionaires,” it is a relatively unpopular and controversial initiative. City leaders are planning a campaign to get voters to see the initiative in a positive light.

The OKPNS revelations of corporate dissembling will undoubtedly add to the initiative’s problems: a SurveyUSA poll done on January 29th for Oklahoma City TV station KFOR-TV showed the measure trailing 48-47, despite nearly universal positive media coverage of the proposal and no real organized opposition.

With apologies to KTOK afternoon drive host Mark Shannon, who hinted at the story last Friday, this is a story that the lazy and timid Oklahoma capitol press corps should have uncovered weeks ago. It’s best summed up by a capitol regular, who when told of the scheme said, “When the voters find out that the rich boys, who want the taxpayers to pimp their basketball arena, are going to turn around and try to open the floodgates to bring back illegal immigrants, there will be hell to pay,” she says.

Names connected to the plan include AT&T Oklahoma President Don Cain, as well as a public relations official at Chesapeake Energy named Tom Price. Sources say Chesapeake Energy is quietly discussing with allies a multi-million dollar campaign to repeal HB 1804. Ironically, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon has an ownership stake in the Sonics, and tying the penny sales tax election to the same people who are attempting to weaken the immigration law would be damaging to his investment. Cain is also Chairman of the state’s chamber of commerce, a relatively weak business lobby group that stood mute in 2007 as HB 1804 was rocketing through the legislature. The three largest chambers of commerce, the state, Tulsa and Oklahoma City chambers, are officially on record as opposing the immigration reform bill.

This scenario becomes even more unusual when you consider that AT&T and Chesapeake have millions of dollars in tax credits pending at the capitol. Those items will most likely be heard in Terrill’s committee, and the Chairman, a social and fiscal conservative who follows the Reagan brand of conservatism, abhors corporate welfare. And now AT&T and Chesapeake, among others, have been exposed as insincere at precisely the wrong time.

“Their bosses are going to freak, but not as much as the voters,” our insider says. “Terrill will kill Cain’s tax credits, as he should, and I suspect that Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony, who loathes AT&T, will want to know more. It could be a PR nightmare for him.”

The insider goes on to say that arrogance may have led the corporation group to overestimate their political IQ. “As for Chesapeake, they’re not playing against naïve little old OG&E this time. I don’t give a damn how much money they have: Terrill will line up that oil company with illegal aliens and the public will go with him. Their tax credits will be dead, too. They’re up against perhaps the smartest and most skilled politician in Oklahoma. He’s media savvy due to his television and radio gig, and he has a wealthy national following as the Pied Piper of immigration reform. The phone company and an oil company against Randy Terrill is an unfair fight: Terrill wins going away.”

So why would two large business corporations plot against an elected official that holds the key to their corporate welfare this session? “This is incredibly stupid. Tell me it’s not true. They’re plotting against and polling against the Revenue and Tax Chairman of the House of Representatives? It will boomerang against the phone industry, the energy sector and undermine public confidence against business as a whole,” an Oklahoma City lobbyist familiar with the situation says.

Responding to a question from OKPNS, Rep. Terrill says he has not been contacted by Cain or Price about the difficulties 1804 may have caused the two industries. “They’ve not said a word to me, and it concerns me that these companies would launch a multi-million dollar scorched-earth campaign without once speaking to me. If illegal aliens making the modern equivalent of slave labor wages are critical to their vitality, it makes me very, very concerned about the future of those companies,” Rep. Terrill tells us.

Other capitol observers say that at least one organization connected with this scheme has performed extensive polling on the possibility of repealing HB 1804, and that repeal will be almost impossible. “It’s too popular, [Terrill] is too popular and even a massive educational effort would fall short,” he says.

So what now? From our vantage point, the plan has put at risk the March 4th election, energy tax credits and cellular telephone tax credits. There will be interesting fallout if the dominoes fall where they appear to be heading and the arena tax fails in March and HB 1804 is still standing in June. Or maybe they’ll get away with it: after all, it still is the Oklahoma media. In that case, maybe only readers of OKPNS will ever know.

As House GOP members meet in Ardmore today in the midst of a campaign finance scandal, only two reporters are covering the event. Embattled House Speaker Lance Cargill is seeking to add two more years to his current term, but only News9’s Stacey Cameron and the Gazette’s Scott Cooper are actually in Ardmore to report on the top political news story of the year.

As always, while the vast majority of the press ignores this monumental story, we will do all we are able to bring you updates as we receive them.

UPDATE: Channel 9 Story Disappears from their website minutes after we posted it this morning.

UPDATE(x2) Video Back Up!

From the Red Dirt Political Report:

How the anti-tax crowd is killing a city…

By M. Scott Carter

If you travel far enough on Oklahoma City’s Northwest Expressway, past the restaurants, the banks, and the struggling strip malls, you’ll eventually wind up in Warr Acres.

Warr Acres — a short hop away from Bethany — is a nice, sleepy little community. It’s a good place to raise a family.

And, it really doesn’t take long to get there, either.

Oh, you’ll know you’ve arrived when you see those stupid signs informing you about how you’ve entered Oklahoma’s version of low-tax Nirvana.

These signs — large ones — sit along side the road and proudly inform drivers they are now in the hamlet which offers the area’s lowest sales tax rate, and how, if you dare to travel out of this glorious little community, you’ll be faced with, God forbid, higher taxes.

Of course, there’s a little more to the story. Read more…

New media lesson of the day

The Oklahoma Political News Service posted yesterday at 1:00 in the afternoon that Drew Edmondson’s campaign had given an illegal contribution to Jeff McMahan. We actually had the tip in our inbox at 8:38, but due to other pressing commitments, we couldn’t post it till early afternoon. If Simian sycophants and the mainstream OK press want to declare this morning that Rep. Mike Reynolds discovered the discrepancy, Fine. Our readers know where they read it first. (By the way, thanks for reading Representative!) It only illustrates another example of the lazy press in Oklahoma and the “pseudo consultants” who really don’t understand the power and emergence of the blogosphere and the “new media.”

Blogs will always be more timely and scoop the old school press simply because of the immediacy of the internet. While the old school media have a staff of reporters, blogs have legions of citizen reporters, tipsters, and insiders who have access to vast amounts of information a beat reporter will never have. Sorry to have to break news to you that you probably already know old school press, but your industry is dying, and unless you become more “progressive” (a word we hate but is applicable here) you will go the way of the Dodo bird and the Ford Edsel. Blogs ARE your competition but don’t necessarily have to be your enemy; they can and actually do compliment your efforts.

You now see all around the country, major newspapers embracing the blogosphere. In the neighboring state of Missouri, the newspapers in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia, each have political blogs and a reporter assigned to update that blog. They frequently link to posts by popular local and statewide bloggers and have no problem giving a “hat tip” to a blogger who breaks a story before they do. They’ve learned you can either try to beat the blogs (impossible) or join them. Unfortunately as incestuous as the relationship is between the press and Democratic politicians in Oklahoma, don’t expect much change anytime soon.

Democratic Party infighting took center stage on the national stage last week. Presidential aspirant Sen. Hillary Clinton called for Sen. Barak Obama to apologize for disparaging remarks made by an Obama contributor towards the Senator and her husband. The over-reaction by the Clinton campaign was coupled with a report that Sen. Joseph Lieberman is considering changing parties due to his party’s position on the war. Now it seems that same intraparty squabling is occuring withing the ODP as well.

In another “can’t see the forest for the trees” piece, The Tulsa World reports that Attorney General Drew Edmondson claims Claremore Sen. Sean Burrage had a “conflict of interest” when he voted last week for a bill declaring that animal waste is not hazardous. Sen. Burrage’s law firm has had Tyson Foods as a current and former client. The attorney general is correct in his assertion of a conflict of interest, but his action of throwing a fellow democrat under the bus on behalf of the poultry suit; and the World still ignoring alleged charges of corruption and harrassment within the attorney general’s office, only produces more questions of conflicts of interests between the World and the attorney general.

Chairman Pryor used the Utilitarian philosophy for damage control in an aptly named post today called, “The Greater Good” on the ODP blog:

“Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has repeatedly taken the position that his job is to protect the citizens and resources of our great state — his position is a personal conviction and is inherent in his constitutional oath of office.

I am very pleased that his walk matches his talk and that he continues to pursue every option available to protect our water resources for the greater good of the people of Oklahoma.

Let’s make sure that anyone who personally benefits from or directly represents the poultry producers does the right thing and abstains from this vote on the floor….”

Attorney General Drew Edmondson is apparently very popular with Oklahoma’s lazy media. Our continuing investigation into the media’s appalling silence in the “poultrygate” scandal has turned up another interesting development.World publishing Chairman Richard E. Lorton donated $2,000 to the Edmondson re-election effort last year. Coincidentally, Edmondson also won the World’s endorsement. The AG’s republican opponent James Dunn was outraised and outspent almost three to one in the race and was soundly defeated in a landslide. (61% -39%)

Again we ask the question: Why would Mr. Lorton and KSWO executives feel so compelled to jeopardize their respective organizations’ journalistic integrity by supporting financially a political campaign that was in no danger of being defeated? You would think credible news organizations would keep an arms length distance from a candidate running for re-election, especially a candidate currently involved in a controversial lawsuit!

Are there any real Oklahoma journalists out there? Outside of the stories reporting on Edmondson performing his official duties, we would be curious to know the Lexis/Nexis search results of Edmondson’s and James Dunn’s mentions in the Tulsa World last year. Please send in confidence to our tipline.