Theodore Sturgeon, the author, used to have a little "Q" with an arrow through it, pointing right. It meant, he said, asking the next question. That, he believed, was the fundamental engine of our cognitive evolution.
In this case, the assumption that, since we can trace all those funds back, one way or another, to Howard Rich, because HE must be the spider at the center of the web, well, that's ALL it is: an assumption. The next question is WHO is behind Howard Rich and friends? But care must be taken in how one asks.
Mea culpa, I suppose. Or not mea culpa. I'm on record as not liking the manner in which Alan Pittman slants the facts to fit his preconceptions. He and I got to town in the same year, and he's always practiced a brand of journalism that I find offensive: the belief that you have to "goose" the facts to make your case more compelling.
It's OK to come to a conclusion: sadly most journalism today avoids ever making any sort of conclusion that would imply judgment, which is why you get these weird news stories where sanity and lunacy are given "equal time" in the name of "fair and balanced." ("Fair and balanced" is a trademarked advertising slogan for a channel that likes to "goose" the facts the other way.)
But it's NOT OK to goose the facts to prove that conclusion.
I've speculated right here on DailyKos about a possible Koch connection. It seems logical. It fits the facts. But I have no smoking gun -- just a lot of coincidences -- and I won't go to press over mere innuendo. So, believing that I am probably among the unnamed bloggers to whom Pittman refers, I can only say that it troubles me that the Koch brothers, Charles and David -- after buying Georgia-Pacific (Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups and products, paper, lumber, etc.) last December -- suddenly hold vast tracts of private logging lands that might well benefit greatly from the passage of "takings" initiatives in many of the states that Rich & Friends have "takings" initiatives in: Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Maine.
That's just a coincidence that troubles me. But this isn't any way to report that suspicion -- whether it's true or not. So far, we only know the eponymous rich man. We must stick with what we know.
And, I've sent a copy of each blog entry to the WEEKLY (hometown paper and all) just as I've sent it to the Register-Guard, the Salem Statesman Journal, the Oregonian, and other regional and national papers. So, whether I'm one of the "online bloggers" who "speculate" or not, well, you be the judge.
(Oh, and note the gratuitous smear tossed in at the end. A very ugly ad hominem that advances our factual knowledge not one iota.)
from: The Eugene Weekly, October 12, 2006
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/...
Buying Initiatives
Rich out-of-state right wingers would radically change Oregon.
BY ALAN PITTMAN
Howie Rich wants to dramatically cut Oregon school and public safety funding. Oregonians may ask, so what, who's Howie Rich? Rich is the New York City real estate speculator behind Measure 48, the Oregon state spending constitutional amendment now on the ballot. Rich and conservative non-profits linked to him contributed $2.78 million for paid signature gatherers in Oregon, according to an investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle into the web of right-wing groups that gave $14.6 million to fund anti-government initiatives in a dozen states.
Then, Mr. Pittman lapses into the most questionable sort of indirectly attributed to anonymous sources. The rhetorical Faux Nooz trick of "some say" taken to the quotidian level of clothesline gossip:
But while reporters have tracked the secretive money trail as far as Rich, it may go further into much deeper pockets. Online bloggers speculate that Rich is a front man for the ultraconservative Koch brothers, oil magnates worth $12 billion each. The Koch brothers inherited their fortune from their dad, a founder of the far-right John Birch Society. They continued the family tradition, founding and bankrolling the far-right Cato Institute, and a host of other ultra-conservative anti-government groups. Their company Koch Industries (oil, refining, chemicals) became the nation's largest privately held company when it acquired Georgia-Pacific (logging and paper mills) last year with profits from high gas prices. Koch is an alleged major polluter and thief of federal oil and has escaped millions in fines and penalties, and had regulations changed through campaign contributions to the Bush administration, environmental and campaign finance reform groups have alleged.
Rich has been involved in many of the same anti-government causes and groups the Koch brothers have funded. Rich worked for David Koch as part of Koch's self-bankrolled run for vice president on the Libertarian ticket in 1980. Rich has refused to say how much of the initiative money is his or came from outside sources such as the Koch brothers. Rich and the Koch brothers have a history of evading campaign finance disclosure laws by laundering money through non-profit shell groups, critics charge.
Online bloggers "speculate." Critics "charge."
The article continues in this vein (really, you ought to read it in all its snarky splendor. http://www.eugeneweekly.com/... When journalism and opinion merge, that's when you have a problem. This sort of blinders-on "attack the enemy" approach is why we're in such media trouble: either reporters are foaming at the mouth, slavering to get at the "foe" or else they are so CYA that there is nothing in the reports unless they can get somebody crying on camera.
The long mostly-on-Howie-Rich's-nefarious-scheme article shifts abruptly in the final paragraph, perhaps several paragraphs excised by a hasty editor or even a typesetting accident. Measure 41 is an entirely different matter. No Howard Rich involvement at all, merely another rich man:
Measure 41's front man in Oregon is Bill Sizemore, but the measure was largely funded by Nevada conservative millionaire Loren Parks, the sugar daddy for Oregon conservative causes. Parks, who made millions on medical equipment, has allegedly boasted that he can hypnotize women into becoming "sex machines" and has been sued for sexual harassment.
The writer -- a former second-grader -- stretches a little to make that last compelling point.
But he asks the next question, and that is the important thing.
Courage.
Crossposted with edits and new sections from http://www.hartwilliams.com/...