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!

Labels: investigations, OK Media, OKPNS, Spkr. Cargill

Posted at 11:35 AM |   

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...

Labels: OK Media

Posted at 9:38 AM |   

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.

Labels: AG, Drew Edmondson, Jeff McMahan, OK Media, Press Bias

Posted at 8:23 AM |   

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...."

Labels: AG, Decision '08, Drew Edmondson, OK Media, Tulsa World

Posted at 10:29 AM |   

Labels: AG, Drew Edmondson, OK Media, Poultry Lawsuit, Press Bias, Tulsa World

Posted at 5:51 PM |   

Yesterday we commented on the Tulsa World congratulating themselves on their wins in the "B" category of newspapers.

An alert reader notified us that the World had actually been named the state's top newspaper in the "A" category. The Community World - an insert to the the World - had the wins in the "B" category.

Our reader surmises that the insert - that is not a separate newspaper - was deliberately entered to compete against smaller, independent newspapers to "hike its win count."

They continue by offering enlightening comments on the Tulsa World and plagiarism, conflicts of interests, and lazy journalism:

"Plagiarism--the World loves to put other news organizations' work in its pages, but won't credit the source even if it was a major investigation. Don't see that problem with real newspapers--just last night the Telegraph in London credited the New York Times for a key international story, even though the Times' contribution was relatively minimal. The World is a swamp of conflicts of interest, ethics violations and, most sinister, editorial crusades designed to line the pockets of the publisher's family and save them from their bad real estate investments. The Gaylord family is cleaning up its act; the Lorton family is a disgrace. Nice catch."

They continue:

"Ask anyone who works in emergency services how often the newspaper runs material two days after the fact, without using the updates provided by the agency, then refuses to correct the resulting errors. It is a standing joke!"

Labels: OK Media, Press Bias, Tulsa World

Posted at 11:45 AM |   

As predicted here yesterday, top state media labored to minimize the damage to Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Most did exactly what we said they would do: ignore the story altogether, as is the case with the Oklahoman. A quick scan of the paper's Internet site found no mentions of the the story.

As for the Tulsa World, they missed the point of the federal hearing altogether. Reporter Curtis Killman, who "covers" the poultry issue, completely ignored the implications of the hearing, as outlined here yesterday. Killman and the World made sure that readers are not subjected to the messy little details in the Marie West lawsuit, the ticking time bomb which threatens the poultry suit. That's like a newspaper sending a reporter to the Super Bowl and getting a story about Prince's new shoes.

So all in all, the Edmondson apologists had a pretty good day: ignore, obfuscate, miss the point and, most of all, refuse to tell the whole truth.

Labels: AG, Drew Edmondson, OK Media, Poultry Lawsuit

Posted at 8:39 AM |   

The state's major newspapers and wire services face a quandary today. For months, the state's top press organizations have all but ignored allegations of corruption in Democrat Attorney General Drew Edmondson's office in connection with the poultry lawsuits. Today, their attempt to shield Oklahomans from the truth gets harder.

The Oklahoma Political News Service reported in December that Mike Turpin attempted to kill an unflattering report by Oklahoma City television reporter Ali Myer. Meyer embarrassed Oklahoma's lazy capitol and print reporters with her monumental 10-minute piece on how the lure of riches prompted abuses of power by top officials in the attorney general's office. The capitol press corps' response to being owned by a TV reporter was to pretend it didn't happen.


A report such as Myer's in almost any other state in America would have resulted in a press frenzy, and certainly investigations by authoritative figures, especially considering that Democrat political hack Mike Turpen, who stands to make millions of dollars from the poultry suits, tried but failed to kill the story. To our knowledge, not even one press organization even attempted to investigate Myer's claims, or even Turpen's outrageous attempt to muzzle a respected reporter.

Even more curious was the lack of response from state Republican officials, which many seasoned political observers simply chalked up to inexperience and fear of Edmondson.

Despite the fact that arguably the nation's worst press corps continues to ignore a potential scandal with national implications, the poultry cases could begin to unravel today in Tulsa federal court. The allegations of corruption on a massive scale, (and some other actions by AG officials so unbelievably grotesque that decorum does not allow us to present the information here) did not escape the attention of the lawyers representing the Arkansas poultry companies. They want Edmondson back under oath so that they may pursue the myriad of misdeeds that Myer's report exposed.

So while the state's major media sees, hears and speaks no evil on today, OKPNS readers can get a preview of the fireworks. Click here to see the pleadings that Edmondson and his allies in the media don't want you to know about. Especially note how that they couldn't buy West's cooperation, and how the AG attempted to get West to destroy public documents, which is what happens when a public official knows the press won't lift a finger to expose him.

Click here to read Tyson's Motion to Compel.

Excerpt:

One of the conditions that the Attorney General attached to his settlement offer was that Ms. West "would have to take confidential documents and have them destroyed."

Labels: AG, Drew Edmondson, OK Media, Poultry Lawsuit

Posted at 5:55 AM |