Can you hear that scratching sound? It is the sound of rats scurrying to find a hiding place to defend the indefensible.
It is the sound of Forsyth County News' General Manager Norman Baggs using tortured, twisted logic to justify the eight, count
'em, eight blatant errors and lies in this past Sunday's FCN editorial.
Case in point: Mr. Baggs' stunningly moronic explanation of why the FCN chose to say that I wanted all
school SPLOSTs voted down.
"After receiving your e-mails, we have again listened carefully to the tape recording of your comments at the GOP
meeting. These are your exact words: “By the way, I think we should vote this SPLOST down.”
There are no qualifiers. No reference to voting it down in September as
opposed to November. You do go on to point out how easily it could be defeated in September given the small turnout expected,
but you do not reference September in your call for a defeat of the SPLOST."
Yeah, Norman. Of course there were no qualifiers. It was
a speech entirely written and delivered to speak against SPECIAL ELECTIONS and how members of the school board support them
against Republican principles! It was not an anti-SPLOST speech, it was an anti-SPECIAL ELECTION speech! Even
people with a room temperature IQ could understand that, but for some reason, you failed to do so.
I've already highlighted the many errors of FACT in last week's editorial on
my new webpage "Dump the Forsyth County News", so I won't bother to reiterate those, but Norman Baggs continues his unqualified
support of his editorial board by saying;
"As for the comments in our editorial, they clearly are labeled as opinion. The opinions presented there represent
the collective perspective of the newspaper's management. Many of the points with which you disagree are matters of opinion
-- your opinion is one thing, ours is another."
But what Norman Baggs is defending are not differences in opinion; they are differences in reality.
You cannot say that someone who has fought to cut taxes is now an advocate for higher taxes, especially based on one sentence
removed completely out of the entirety of a speech. You cannot say that voting down a special election means voting
down all elections. You cannot accuse someone of a policy by assuming their stance
on an issue. You cannot suddenly say that black is now white, and English is now French, as Norman Baggs would like
you to believe. All these idiocies, Norman Baggs defended.
Read the Forsyth Herald.
Check out Cumminghome.com. Hit the county's website at www.forsythco.com But don't rely on the Forsyth County News for county information, because they won't tell you the truth. They
have proven once again that they are a biased organization that has their own personal agenda and will sell their journalistic
integrity to the highest bidder, and their souls to their long-time friends and supporters.
It is a shame that a local paper such as the Forsyth County News has decayed so rapidly from an independent provider
of facts, to one of unabashed cheerleader for all groups populated with those whose friendship and sponsorship mean more
than the truth.
Case in point; this Sunday's editorial condemning my call for the end to special elections for tax and bonding issues.
While they throw a meager bone to me by saying that my proposal may have merit, they use their entire editorial space to attack
me for calling for voters to reject the SPLOST at all costs.
Except for one thing.
They are basing their entire editorial on something I did not say. But I don't hide behind the BOE defense of "misinterpretation".
Their article this past Friday reported that "In his speech, Richard called the Forsyth County Republicans to vote
the SPLOST renewal down, regardless of when the elections are held."
Sorry, but my speech, posted on this website, shows that I specifically called for voters to reject this SPLOST "in
September".
In addition, the FCN editors also claimed that I wrongly accused BOE members of violating state laws. The FCN editor's problem
is that they deliberately accuse me of something I also did not say. Their editorial states: "Just so everyone is clear
on the issue, it is not against state law to schedule special elections for SPLOST."
Duh! Thank you, Captain Obvious!
Never said that, boys! I did say in the past that the school system violated state law by deliberately
using county funds to promote a bond issue, which was clearly done last year.
Of course, the FCN would have to recognize a violation before committing any investigative resources to a story,
but that appears to be beyond current management capabilities. The main problem here is that the Forsyth County News
is rapidly spiraling into a meaningless rag with feel-good news stories about 70% of the time, and less than factual hard
reporting the rest of the time. And heaven help them if they actually had to do some real, honest-to-goodness investigative
reporting on all the issues occurring in Forsyth County today. Their head-in-the-sand mentality that demands that they
promote the school system at all costs, regardless of the actual facts of the situation, reduces them to the level of fish-wrapper.
The real shame is that the FCN has some really fine people working for them, but have a management staff that does
not deserve to run a real news organization.
So, to sum things up so that even the editorial staff of the Forsyth County News can understand them:
Did I call for SPLOST to be voted down, regardless of when the election is held?
No.
Did I call for SPLOST to be voted down this September?
Yes.
Did I accuse the BOE of violating state law by scheduling special elections?
No.
Did I call members of the BOE who favor special elections in order to ensure the passage of tax and bond votes "bums"
and "disgraces"?
Yes. I also mentioned that these bums were "beneath our contempt". I think I also called them at some point
"ignorant of the Constitutional heritage our forefathers fought to bring to this country", but that was in an earlier speech.
Oh, yeah; and I also accused them of "teaching our children how to cheat". I think that just about covers my accusations
over the past year or so. No, wait; I also called them "wasteful spendthrifts" on some other occasion. Sorry.
Do I oppose SPLOST in principle?
Not completely. I do know the value of a consumption tax, as evidenced by my support for the Fair Tax.
My problem is that this school system has been wasting our tax dollars for years, providing questionable results, and has
had no accountability in this newspaper in the nearly 10 years I have lived in the county. If shutting off the spigot
temporarily by voting down SPLOST one time accomplishes some fiscal responsibility by the BOE, I'm all for it.
One final point that the FCN editors got wrong; they claimed that the same voters who brought us our BOE provided me
my public podium. How much more wrong can they be?
The United States Constitution, in the form of the very first amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government
for a redress of grievances."
You would think a newspaper would understand from where their, and my public podium is derived.
