A Freeper's Observation;A Newspaper's gutless Response To A Blogger

1-24-09 | E.G.C.

[E.G.C.]

HOWDY FREEPERS!!!!!!!

This morning my op-ed focuses on one of Oklahoma's most well respected bloggers.

Michael Bates is a well respected blogger who authors the blog Batesline (http://www.batesline.com) He also writes a column for an alternative media source, Urban Tulsa Weekly.

When Michael composes a blog one of the things he always takes care to do is research his material for his blogs and get his facts straight.

Recently, Mr. Bates was hit with a lawsuit by World Publishing Company, publishers of the Tulsa World. Apparently this had to do with a piece he composed on January 15 regarding the World's declining circulation.

Now, here are my thoughts on the subject.

I have seen the article in question. I've also read Mr. Bates response to this lawsuit.

This appears to me to be what is known in legal circles as a SLAPP suit.(Strategic Lawuit Againt Public Participation) This is a disgracful tatic that businesses use to try to bully their detractors into silence.

The more mature adult thing for the newspaper to do rather than resort to this tatic would have been for Mr. Bates to be given some information to contrdict what he wrote and give him a chance to clarify and/or correct this op/ed. Instead what they have chosen to do here is not only gutless but very childish, immature and disgraceful. It's apparent these people do not know how to handle well being called to the carpet when they make mistakes.

I know the system in Tulsa very well. I've talked to people in chat rooms about what goes on in the hometown of Oral Roberts University and Ministries. Some of what I've heard doesn't sound very christian up there. there have been judges up there who've recieved promotions in exchange for rulings up there. Believe me, it's not a very pretty sight.

The Tulsa World has a very shady history of slanting the news in favors of the Democrat party and their political causes. Like a lot of the other newspapers here in America, these blatant and deliberate biases have resulted in people cancelling their subscriptions.

One would think that news media outlets would have better things to do than troll around and look at what other people are saying about them. Sadly, that doesn't appear to be the case. This lawsuit appears to have the potential to set a very dangerous precedence for our abilities as whistleblowers to be able to blow the whistle on the MSM and call them out on the carpet for their lies and deceit. This is something that we need to watch very closely.

And, I would just like to say to those who think it's just fine and dandy to missuse and abuse our nation's court system in this way. Sooner or later this nonsense is going to stop and it may very well stop with people protesting your actions. There's simply no way people are going to put up with this kind of Chicago-style political nonsense

And I also want to add that this kind of childish, immature behavior by the Tulsa World is why it has and will continue to lose circulation. If you can't learn to be a better sport and give people a chance to clarify or correct anything they say about you, then maybe you should get out of the newspaper busineess and let those who are more adult and matture enough enter it.

[E.G.C.]

Obviously, there will be much more to say about this. But in the meantime our thoughts and prayers are with Michael Bates as he tries to overcome this gutless and immature response to his blog.

Here are a coupple of weblinks for reference in regards to this issue.

http://oklahomily.blogspot.com/2009/01/in-defense-of-michael-bates.html

http://www.batesline.com/archives.2009/01/sued-by-the-whirled.html

And more information and updates are avaliable from this link;

Http://www.rightyblogs.com/oklahoma

BTW, the Righty Blog site also has blogs for other states that you can choose from.

Regards...........

[E.G.C.]

This article has been bookmarked to my profile page.

[SES1066]

An (unfortunately) not uncommon mindset in the traditional media. We have invested in the machinery (presses and transmitters) and licenses, therefor it is our exclusive right to use these in their traditional ways.

This is the buggy-whip manufacturers requiring that those new fangled automobiles be required to be furnished & maintained with buggy whips. Also this is the liberal reaction to sic lawyers on a problem rather than fix the underlying problem!

[Star Traveler]

http://www.batesline.com/archives.2009/01/sued-by-the-whirled.html

Well, I see that link is gone... I guess the lawsuit is working.

[E.G.C.]

Here is a cached version of the link from Yahoo.

[Star Traveler]

Thanks...

[E.G.C.]

You bet, S.T. This issue isn’t going away as much as the World wants it too.

[E.G.C.]

This is an update to this thread which was originally posted on January 24, 2009.

It has come to my attention that Michael Bates has written a letter of apology for this story.

It appears those in power have won out and that is really unfortunate. This newspaper as I've been saying over and over again is well known for it's blatant and deliberate bias towards Democrats and leftist causes.

And, on top of that the clowns and goonies who run this rag wield a tremendous amount of money, power and influence. Unfortunately, Tulsa like the state of Oklahoma is very well known for issues regarding a culture of corruption.

As I have said before this newspaper is very well known for being such a very poor sport when it comes to people questioning their way of doing things. That they have those in positions of authority in their pockets is very sad and unfortunate.

It is my hope and prayer that this culture of corruption will get cleaned up and that Tulsa cleans up it's act and that those in charge will start learning to be much better sports when it comes to people blowing the whistle on them and their questionable activities.

And to Michael Bates and Urban Tulsa Weekly. Hang in there, Guys. We're watching your backs.

Regards........