An Open Forum for Closed Minds

By Charlie Barber
Staff Writer

“Finally, at its best in regular session, the Legislature tends to be less than efficient. It’s the nature of lawmaking. As well-meaning as lawmakers might be, a rushed special session might do more harm than good.” - Fargo Forum, 6/27/10

“...the electric companies and rural electric cooperatives have yet to see a dime from the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA].” - Bismarck Tribune, 6/28/10

“The more people get, the less they appreciate it.” - Helga Christianson

There is something obscene about North Dakota, with a billion dollar surplus in its coffers, being told by the Bismarck Tribune that it should be entitled to immediate federal government bailouts for its natural and manmade disasters, while 48 of the other 49 States are deeply in the red and facing giant catastrophes easily documented on the Weather Channel.

Moreover, Democratic/NPL legislators who call for a special session of the legislature to deal with problems unique to North Dakota’s Bakken oil bonanza, are characterized by the Fargo Forum as “whiners.” Even as Dem/NPL Congressman Earl Pomeroy is praised by the Forum’s Jack Zaleski, he does so only for federal dollars pouring in, rather than Earl’s courageous votes for Health Care and against Wall Street.

Better a double standard than a two party system, it seems.

Better self-censorship than admit a minority opinion might be the correct one.

Better to give in to intellectual laziness than challenge North Dakota voters and their assumptions that the political party which produced the WSI scandal and is currently suppressing news of likely losses in the public employee pension fund, saves rather than actually wastes their money.

Better to blame ruinous wars abroad and environmental disasters at home on an Obama administration unafraid to try to clean them up, rather than the previous one which brought them on, or made them worse.

Webster’s Dictionary defines a “forum” as a “public meeting place for open discussion.” The Fargo newspaper, which uses such a lofty name, should be more careful about pre-judgments concerning the uses of a legislature and the purposes of political parties.

In their zeal to finesse an incumbent Governor into an incumbent Senator, the Forum editorial board details a nonsense about how the Hoeven administration is allegedly “leading the effort to deal with road problems, housing needs and other impacts of the unprecedented expansion of oil exploration and extraction in western counties:”

“A transportation study by the Great Plains Transportation institute, oil- and gas-producing counties and the Commerce Department will be done in November.”

Really? A study? Next November? Hmmmm. That’s after the mid-term elections, isn’t it? How convenient.

“A housing-needs assessment is under way in cooperation with the Housing Finance Agency, Bank of North Dakota, the Commerce Department, Minot State University and affected communities.”

Great. Another study “under way.” No doubt it will come out sometime after November, but long before any members of the Forum editorial board bother to drive up to the Bakken and see for themselves the tents and trailer homes parked on all available acreage.

“The Commerce Department has made available technical assistance matching grants to help cities and counties develop plans for water, sewer and other needs.”

Plans are all very nice, but the Mayors said they needed money. They know where they need water, sewers and “other needs,” but only the Legislature can deliver the money. They needed to do it last year, but they could still do it now if there were any semblance of leadership in state government or the media.

“A work force study brings together the North Dakota Petroleum Council and the Commerce Department to identify employment needs and worker skills in the oil patch.” 

Ah yes, another study. Nothing like a bunch of suits telling guys in the field what they already know.

It isn’t difficult to see how some of the suits might get confused. The same Mayor of Williston, E. Ward Koeser, who complained to Senator Conrad and Congressman Pomeroy about the need for money to deal with their infrastructure problems on Memorial Day weekend, writes in the pages of the Minot Daily News on June 13 in language that could have been a template for the Forum editorial of June 27: no special legislative session would be necessary to deal with these problems.

Of course not. Kent Conrad had moved to solve infrastructure problems with a pledge of, among other things, $372 million for highway construction in the area. Federal money.

One would think that the Mayor would have praised Senator Conrad for this in his OpEd piece, but he did not. Instead, he praised Governor Hoeven: “thanks to a pilot program that Gov. John Hoeven and his team put together through state agencies and existing programs, we are no longer seeking a special session…”

Very slick. Also, very dishonest. Real newspapers wouldn’t let him get away with it.

Major dailies in North Dakota are not the only offenders of clear language and sincerity in journalism. The worst offender is the New York Times, with their motto: “All the news that’s fit to print.” In claiming the right to define what is “fit” to print, they advertise intent to censor the news; to, in effect, decide what is news, and what isn’t.

What a contrast to Katherine Graham, owner and editor of The Washington Post, who admitted the marketplace limitations of a large daily newspaper [“journalistic excellence and profitability go hand in hand”], but nevertheless backed up her managing editor Ben Bradlee and reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, in their investigation which led to the impeachment and conviction of a U.S. President in 1974.

To be fair, the New York Times, like the Washington Post, has long acknowledged that a two Party system in the United States does, and should exist. In voting for Barack Obama to the tune of 44% in 2008, many voters of North Dakota also signaled that a viable two Party system in this State might be in their best interests.

In 2010, the Party which shall not be named favorably more than once or twice in the Forum, the Tribune, or the Daily News, is fielding some fresh faces that may find themselves elected in place of incumbents simply because voters are fed up. If such an unlikely political miracle should happen, one can be sure that the Fargo Forum, Bismarck Tribune and Minot Daily News will suddenly discover the magical allure of a two-party system in North Dakota State politics.

Their behavior, and that of all too many daily newspaper editors in this country, reminds me of a cartoon from 19th Century France which shows a Mayor of a village huffing and puffing as he ran after a crowd of people headed toward the center of town. A bystander asked why he was doing this and he replied: “Those are my constituents and I must lead them.”

The Forum belies its name by ignoring a duty to open its Op Ed pages on a daily and consistent basis to criticism of editorial board opinions, thereby encouraging democratic principles of fully informed discussion, disclosure and debate on the issues.

They need an in-house gadfly, preferably several of them. Otherwise the Forum betrays the high journalistic traditions of John Peter Zenger taking on the tyranny of the British Crown, the Hodding Carter family taking on racism in Mississippi, and Katherine Graham taking on President Nixon’s threat to the two Party system.

By constantly endorsing the conduct of incumbents and cravenly bowing before opinion polls, the Forum, like the Bismarck Tribune and Minot Daily News, behaves no differently than that small town French Mayor. It should change its behavior, or change its name.

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