The Oklahoman Endorses Mitt Romney

The Oklahoman endorsement

Voices | Published: Sun, Dec 18, 2011 | 0

 

 

In 2008, we were among the voices of the Heartland that warned of the perils of a Barack Obama presidency. These were voices crying in the wilderness. County by county, until all 77 were included, Oklahomans rejected the rhetoric of hope and change peddled by Obama.

Read more: http://newsok.com#ixzz1gs29yZRS.

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Anti-Coffee Ad Donors Are Mysterious No-names

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee's critics spent about $80,000 on ads attacking the state Senate leader and used a Texas advertising firm favored by Oklahoma Democrats to create them, records show.

The critics, operating as "Citizens For Transparency," is "a secretive organization whose only identified members are a 24-year-old substitute teacher and a two 21-year-old University of Oklahoma students," The Oklahoman's Nolan Clay reports today.

Read all of Clay's article at http://www.newsok.com/anti-glenn-coffee-ad-details-murky/article/3364375?custom_click=pod_headline_ae.

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Gaddie's Opinion: Winking Foxes, Dark Towers

The old adage goes, “never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.”

The internet has evidently blurred the distinctions a bit, as the guys who buy electricity by the megawatt, Sinclair Broadcasting’s KOKH 25, aired a classic Nick Winkler piece on the price hike and content shrinkage of the venerable Oklahoman.

By Keith Gaddie

The Oklahoman responded, buying a one-page ad in its own Sunday edition that ripped into the brand quality of what it termed “the lowest-rated local network news.”

Why would Fox 25 report on the Oklahoman’s financial decision?

Well, first of all, it is news. Newspapers around the country confront increased costs. Declining readership, diminished ad revenue, and increased publication costs require that papers lay off quality journalists and cut content and circulation to balance ledgers.

Here at home the Tulsa World and The Oklahoman are forced to acknowledge each other by now sharing reporting resources to save money. Some papers are folding, including the historic Rocky Mountain News, and the possibly the San Francisco Chronicle.

Second, they are Fox, and the reporter is my antagonistic friend Nick Winkler. This is the same Fox affiliate where Andrew Speno broke the “bull***” story that sank Steve Largent’s gubernatorial campaign in 2002.

Having Winkler on a story is like finding Mike Wallace in your reception area – it won’t be pleasant for the subject of the inquiry.

Third, they are now direct news competitors.

The long history of journalism in America is that journalistic opponents criticize each other, berate each other, and attack each other.

The Oklahoman jumped on the internet and has its own video reporting. They do breaking news.

Fox 25 and the other television stations have, for some time, put stories on the internet in print form.

Fourth, they are direct competitors fighting for ad revenue, and this competition will only increase.

Fox is leaving a technology that makes it easy for them to integrate to the internet from a revenue standpoint, because people still watch TV. The Oklahoman, moving from a failing ad revenue model, has to reinvent its revenue stream on the web with less of a safety net.

The folks up at the Dark Tower are sufficiently justified to be sensitive to coverage about their sales and circulation model.

But now, feelings are hurt. Whatever to do? My initial inclination -- sending Billy Sims over to see the folks at OPUBCO and Fox with a platter of Boomer-Q -- is inadequate to the task.

Adversity is the only solution. Leveling of the playing field is in order. Sinclair needs to buy a newspaper and move it to Oklahoma City to go head-to-head with The Oklahoman, working under the same handicap of printing an edition. And, there is a perfectly good paper up for sale, and an Oklahoma City solution looms: buy the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and move it to the OKC. Seattle-based industries now know the way to Our Fair City, so its an easy move to make.

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Oklahoman, World Make It Official: Largest Newspapers Will Share News Content, Staff

In a joint announcement today, the state's two largest newspapers made it official: Economic conditions have forced them to consolidate some operations, including news gathering and reporting. The joint announcement, anticipated in The McCarville Report Online's story last Tuesday:

"Oklahoma's two largest news organizations, the Tulsa World and The Oklahoman, announced they will share selected stories, photos and other news content to better serve their audiences throughout the state.

"The agreement means some content produced by the Tulsa World staff will appear in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK.com, and content produced by The Oklahoman staff will appear in the Tulsa World and on tulsaworld.com. Stories and photos produced by one organization and published by the other will carry attribution to the contributing newspaper or Web site.

"We are excited at the quality and breadth of journalism that can be done by combining the two largest news-gathering operations in the state," said Joe Worley, executive editor of the Tulsa World.

"Ed Kelley, The Oklahoman's editor, said the collaboration provides more coverage of news in Oklahoma for the organizations' audiences at an uncertain time for the news industry.

"Both The Oklahoman and the World have terminated newsroom positions in the past four months as part of cost-cutting measures. Over time the two organizations will focus on reducing some areas of duplication, such as sending reporters from both The Oklahoman and the World to cover routine news events.

"We want to try to make sure the level of coverage doesn't drop even as our staffs are smaller," Kelley said. "Partnering with the World and their professionals makes a lot of sense for both of us."

"Both Kelley and Worley said the two organizations will maintain their separate voices on their editorial and opinion pages, as well as their individual approaches to gathering news.

"The agreement between the papers is historic in that each paper is independently owned, and together they represent more than 200 years of reporting in the state of Oklahoma. The Tulsa World and The Oklahoman are each family owned, representing two of the largest such newspapers in the country.

"We each have independent spirits going back to our beginnings," said Worley. "And while we plan to share some of our talent, I think readers will see that we will also maintain our independence from each other."

"The agreement in Oklahoma follows a number of news-sharing agreements that have been announced by newspapers in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Texas and the Washington, D.C., area."

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The Incredible Shrinking Capitol Press Corps

By Arnold Hamilton/The Oklahoma Observer ~ The Tulsa World’s layoffs are bad news for Oklahoma journalism - and even worse news for civic discourse and understanding.

Among the 26 newsroom personnel getting pink slips were two of the World’s three Capitol bureau reporters: Mick Hinton and Tom Lindley. Only Bureau Chief Barbara Hoberock survived Bloody Tuesday.

Hinton had been with the World four years [after a long career with The Daily Oklahoman]. Lindley came aboard in August, when Angel Riggs decided to pursue her PhD.

Both were providing excellent coverage at a time when Oklahoma faces enormous challenges: There’s a looming $309.6 million budget shortfall. Prisons are overcrowded and crumbling. State roads and bridges need at least $1 billion in improvements. Six-hundred-thousand residents don’t have health insurance.

Need I continue?

More context: Hinton’s and Lindley’s departures from the Capitol Press Room come just months after The Oklahoman pushed one of the state’s finest political journalists, John Greiner, into retirement.

At a time when Oklahomans’ need-to-know has never been greater, they won’t have the benefit of turning to these three excellent political journalists.

What a shame.

Reprinted with permission.

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The Oklahoman Plans Employee RIF

The Oklahoman, citing increasing competition from the Internet, rising costs, and an advertising recession, plans to cut 150 employees through retirements and a reduction in force.

The newspaper's publisher says it is offering early retirement packages to longtime employees.

Publisher David Thompson says the downsizing will be completed by the end of October. Thompson says he and other executives met Wednesday to discuss early retirement with 102 veteran employees who are at least 55 years old and have worked for the newspaper for 15 years or longer. Those 102 employees have until September 24 to decide whether to take the early retirement offers.

The Oklahoman will then begin layoffs starting in early October across the newspaper's media division, OPUBCO Communications Group.

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The Oklahoman: 'Tried Rice'

Editorial/The Oklahoman ~ Politicians caught in an indiscretion are said to have some 'splainin' to do. Front-runners who fail to dominate their primary election have some catchin' up to do.

Andrew Rice has some 'splainin' and catchin' up to do.

Rice, the state senator from Oklahoma City, should have walloped his no-name opponent in Tuesday's Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat. Instead, the opponent got 40 percent of the vote. Worse, Rice lost 19 counties and came close to losing a half dozen others. Even worse, most of these counties are Democratic strongholds.

Meanwhile, incumbent Sen. Jim Inhofe, who already has an edge over Rice in name recognition and popularity, beat three no-name challengers in the Republican primary with 84 percent of the vote.

Rice took the primary seriously, with a vigorous ad campaign and personal appearances. His legislative voting record, while solidly Democratic, is more centrist than Republican strategists would have you believe. So why did Rice surrender so many votes to Jim Rogers?

Rogers is virtually unknown, spent no money to campaign and offered voters little reason to choose him. Either his support was more anti-Rice than pro-Rogers or Rice hasn't yet made a name for himself, even among Democrats.

Four years ago, the Democratic nominee for a Senate seat won with 79 percent support in a five-man race.

Rice got 60 percent in a two-man contest. He lost the three Panhandle counties and most southern tier counties. His strongest support came in urban counties, but even there he failed to top 72 percent. And in Okmulgee County, which came as close as any county in Oklahoma to give majority support to John Kerry in 2004, Rice failed to reach 70 percent.

A 60 percent win is a landslide by any measure. But when your opponent is unknown (and perhaps unknowable), the landslide is more like a Slip 'n Slide — exciting but potentially dangerous.

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McMahan's Treasurer Realized Money Came From Straw Donors, Oklahoman Reports

By Tony Thornton/The Oklahoman ~ As a treasurer for Jeff McMahan's 2006 re-election bid looked over the contributor list to his first campaign, she noticed a disturbing trend.

Numerous donors tied to abstract company owner Steve Phipps had given large amounts of money to the state auditor's race in 2002, even though many lacked financial means to do so, Erin Bradshaw determined.

"It became very obvious to her that many of these people were straw donors," FBI agent Gary Graff testified at a recent court hearing.

Bradshaw and McMahan's staff had a common phrase for those contributors: "Phipps people."

Read the entire story at http://newsok.com/witnesses-expected-to-detail-campaign-bribery-scheme/article/3250945/?tm=1212200662.

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Oklahoman Editorial: McMahan Should Step Down

Governor Brad Henry wasted no time suggesting Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan take administrative leave to deal with an indictment alleging serious ethical and legal misdeeds by McMahan and his wife. The auditor would be wise to heed Henry's advice.

Given the nature of the work conducted by the office, it's imperative the state auditor and inspector be above reproach. Selling himself as such will be difficult indeed for McMahan while the indictment lingers.

The federal indictment was issued Friday, shortly after jurors heard testimony from Steve Phipps, who owns several abstract companies. The indictment alleges Phipps gave more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and was generous in other ways to McMahan's family, and that in return, McMahan did favors for Phipps.

The abstract industry used to be regulated by the state auditor's office. Now it's regulated by a separate agency, the result of a bill passed last session. McMahan told us last year he was glad his office would be getting out of that business. He also told our editorial board that claims made by his 2006 opponent, Gary Jones, that McMahan's ties to Phipps were stronger than the auditor was letting on, were malarkey. Details in the indictment would seem to indicate that Jones was doing more than just slinging mud.

The indictment alleges Phipps paid McMahan's way for business and leisure trips; that Phipps used straw donors to contribute $77,000 to McMahan's 2002 campaign, then gave McMahan's wife, Lori, another $27,000 in cash for use in that campaign; and that Phipps bought a $1,640 ring for Lori McMahan.

McMahan's attorney says his client is innocent until proven guilty. True enough. But for now, McMahan should listen to the governor and take a leave, allowing someone else to conduct the people's business while he tends to his own.

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The Oklahoman: This Is Not Civil Discourse

Editorial In The Oklahoman ~ If children acted the way some adults did at this week's lively Oklahoma City School Board meeting, we'd have to wonder where their parents were. Instead, it was the grown-ups who put on an embarrassing sideshow we hope no children witnessed.

Most offensive were references to race, slavery and "high-tech lynching” that defy common sense. Is there a power struggle happening at 900 N Klein, home of the school district's administrator? Absolutely. Is it about race? Absolutely not. Even suspended Superintendent John Q. Porter has said race has nothing to do with the upheaval.

It's a good thing when members of the community show up in support of a leader they believe in. Truth is, that kind of community involvement is almost always a good thing. But it quickly becomes bad when adults forgo any semblance of order and respect and begin yelling and screaming and throwing out racially charged phrases.

No doubt those people who trekked to the meeting had valid concerns. Accusing the superintendent of the state's second-largest school district of financial improprieties, poor communication and mistreating employees is no small matter. The public ought to be concerned. But Porter's supporters lost credibility when the shouting match began and, even worse, prevented those observing respectfully from hearing a lot of what was being said.

We're reminded of similar bad behavior from some of those who oppose the state's new immigration law. Instead of giving their well-reasoned concerns time to resonate with people, they resort to hateful speech and ridiculous comparisons to historic tragedies.

Free speech laws give people the freedom to make stupid and even untrue statements and to get loud while doing so. But we owe it to ourselves and our community to use speech wisely and not allow public disagreements to become circus-like free-for-alls.

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Report: Stipe Transfers Oil And Gas Interests

Former State Senator Gene Stipe has formed a new company and transferrered his oil and gas interests to it, The Oklahoman's Nolan Clay reports today. State Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, confirmed he discovered the transfers and informed the FBI. He said he did so because he questions how Stipe legally can transfer property after being found mentally incompetent. Read the entire story at www.newsok.com.

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The Oklahoman: Up The (Amazon) River

Editorial In The Oklahoman ~ By taking fishing trips with his chums in the trial bar, Gov. Brad Henry makes himself an easy target for those who criticize his lack of leadership on lawsuit reform. That Henry's camp doesn't seem to understand that, or simply refuses to consider it, is troublesome.

Henry's spokesman was quick to pooh-pooh critics of the governor's latest outdoor adventure, to the Amazon River in Brazil, just as happened four years ago when Henry made a similar trip. "It's just a fishing trip,” spokesman Paul Sund said.

No, it's not just a fishing trip. Not when you're the governor of a state that is in bad need of lawsuit reform, and you just spiked a solid reform bill in the last legislative session, and now you're hanging out for several days with men who have benefited greatly from the status quo and are in no hurry to see any changes made.

Sund said the chartered trip was put together by attorney Terry West, a longtime Henry family friend and former president of the Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association. West is one of three men on the trip who once ran the OTLA.

Twenty-four people made the trip, not all of them lawyers. So, the governor's office could say the trip was nothing but a vacation with friends, not a forum for business to be discussed. That was the standard line among those in the traveling party four years ago. It was a stretch then and would be now as well.

Henry has spent his five years in office talking a good game about the need for lawsuit reform. His actions have said even more — settling for small changes after promising "Texas-plus” reform in 2004, scuttling a good bill this year, floating the Amazon with trial lawyers. Sund said simply that Henry and West "share a common interest in hunting and fishing.” That's not all.

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Run, Don't Walk, To Get Your Sunday Oklahoman

"How $441K grant aided Stipe," the headline on investigative reporter Tony Thornton's Page One story in The Sunday Oklahoman reads, but the story is much more than that if you have any idea of former State Senator Gene Stipe's influence and connections over the years to certain southeastern Oklahoma officials. Thornton also recalls (it was first reported in The Oklahoman in the 1970s) Stipe's business connections to a Tahlequah real estate agent who "joined him in a business venture a year after his acquittal" in a 1968 federal income tax evasion case in which the real estate agent "served on the federal grand jury that indicted Stipe...." Stipe was acquited and a year later, Thornton reports, the agent and Stipe began doing business together. Thornton also reports that some of those involved with Stipe in the $441,000 grant land deal "also helped Stipe obtain state and local tax money for land to be sold for a McAlester dog food plant in 2002." That deal is a part of the ongoing federal investigation into the business dealings of Stipe and others. The Oklahoman's website is http://www.newsok.com/.

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Oklahoman Calls For GOP Donation Explanation

Editorial In The Oklahoman: House Speaker Lance Cargill, who has spent the year soliciting the 100 best ideas for Oklahoma, may wish to add one to his list: Produce an explanation for Republican campaign accounts that appear out of whack, and pronto.

Cargill, R-Harrah, is a party in an investigation by the state Ethics Commission into several 2004 campaign checks that were written to the state Republican Party but instead wound up in the account of the Oklahoma County Republican Committee.

Among those surprised by this turn of events was Cargill's predecessor, former Speaker Todd Hiett, who says he thought his own $5,000 contribution was going to the state. "I delegated campaign finance to Lance Cargill as the (political action committee) chairman,” Hiett told The Oklahoman' s Jennifer Mock. At the time, Cargill was honorary chairman of the House fundraising committee.

Mock reported that a dozen checks from the 2004 election cycle, totaling more than $30,000, are the focus of the investigation. Many who wrote the checks said their contributions went to the county party without them knowing it. Others said that in writing a check to the state GOP, they didn't earmark or even care where the money went, provided it helped Republican candidates.

Five House Republicans produced a statement — issued through Cargill's office — defending their boss. They said Cargill in 2004 didn't ask for the funds and that none of them told the GOP how their donations were to be spent. Cargill says he's glad to cooperate with the Ethics Commission, has denied any wrongdoing and adds that the probe stems from gripes by "political opponents.”That may be, but having money that's intended for one campaign account turn up in another at the very least emits an unpleasant odor. And to be sure, these sorts of things rarely go over well in the court of public opinion.

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Feds Move To Revoke Stipe's Probation

Federal prosecutors are trying to revoke former State Senator Gene Stipe's probation and send him to prison, The Oklahoman's Tony Thornton reports.

A probation revocation petition against Stipe could be filed next week, sources told Thornton.

Stipe, 80, was placed on probation following his conviction in an illegal campaign donation scheme that also cost him his license to practice law and his seat in the Senate. He now is the primary target of a federal grand jury investigation into alleged corruption and illegal campaign donations unrelated to the earlier scheme that resulted in his probation.

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Former Legislator Paid By Agency He Helped Fund

The Oklahoman's Tony Thornton reports today that former State Rep. Joe Hutchison was paid $62,500 by Little Dixie Community Action Agency in 2005, the year after he obtained $100,000 in state funds for it.

The agency is not in what was Hutchison's legislative district and apparently there's no record showing how the $100,000 was spent.

Oklahoma's Constitution prohibits any legislator from being interested in any contract with the state or govermental subdivision within two years of leaving office.

The executive director of Little Dixie is former Rep. Randall Erwin, who has been accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of accepting kickbacks when he was a legislator. He left office in 2004 to head up Little Dixie. The agency is under investigation by the auditor and inspector's office even though Auditor Jeff McMahan faces allegations his office was the site of a meeting at which the funneling of state funds to those under investigation was discussed.

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The Oklahoman: Morgan Paid By Title Companies Partially Owned By Steve Phipps, Gene Stipe

The Oklahoman reports in its Sunday edition ("Senator's income examined") that Senate Democratic leader Mike Morgan of Stillwater, an attorney, was paid $13,750 by "companies owned in part by two men under investigation for allegedly paying kickbacks to legislators...."

The two men are former Senator Gene Stipe and his abstract/title company empire partner, Steve Phipps of Kiowa.

Investigative reporters Nolan Clay and Tony Thornton report Morgan has not been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is deep into an investigation involving the funneling of state funds to entities owned by Phipps and Stipe, and the use of "straw donors" to funnel illegal donations to numerous political campaigns.

Clay and Thornton report Morgan was paid $5,000 by University Land Title Services in Stillwater in May 2000, and $8,750 by Guaranty Title Company of Oklahoma City in October 2000.

Morgan's attorneys, hired to answer questions about the transactions, told the reporters Morgan did not know the two firms were partially owned by Phipps and Stipe; they said he dealt only with the man he thought was the owner, Larry Witt of Stillwater. They said Morgan "has not been involved in anything inappropriate or improper."

A key part of the on-going FBI investigation apparently has been the funneling of state funds to private businesses owned by Phipps and Stipe. The FBI alleges the two paid kickbacks to three legislators (Randall Erwin, Jerry Hefner and Mike Mass) for helping divert the funds to the Phipps/Stipe businesses. The payments to Morgan apparently were made about three years before the alleged diversion of state funds occurred.

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Oklahoman: Phipps-Stipe Investigation Could Be Expanded To Include State, Edmondson Says

The Oklahoman reports in its Sunday edition that Attorney General Drew Edmondson may pursue charges in the campaign finance scandal swirling around southeastern Oklahoma abstract company owner Steve Phipps and his partner, former Senator Gene Stipe.

Reporter Nolan Clay writes that Edmondson confirmed a meeting with U. S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling about the federal investigation into the straw donor scheme and has "offered our services," Edmondson said.

It's a significant development since some campaign finance violations would not be covered under federal law, but would be covered under Oklahoma law.

The federal probe results are being presented to a grand jury sitting in Muskogee with investigative work being handled by the FBI.

Thus far, alleged illegal donations to the campaigns of Governor Brad Henry Henry, Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan, former State Rep. Mike Mass and Congressman Dan Boren have been revealed. The donations are tied to associates of Phipps and Stipe, whose abstract company empire is regulated by McMahan. He, Henry and Boren say they had no idea that tens of thousands of dollars came into their campaigns from straw donors, or those given the money to donate by others.

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McMahan-Phipps Trip Companions Identified

The Oklahoman reports today that some of those involved in the federal investigation into alleged public corruption in southeastern Oklahoma took out-of-state trips with Auditor & Inspector Jeff McMahan and embattled abstract company owner Steve Phipps.

Taking a trip to New Orleans in 2003 with McMahan and Phipps and their wives, the newspaper's Tony Thornton and Nolan Clay reported, was Karla Hall, chairman and executive director of Rural Development Foundation; the FBI alleges that state money was directed to RDF to benefit Phipps and his business partner, former Senator Gene Stipe.

Taking a trip to Biloxi, Mississippi were Roy Hatridge and Suzie Carper of National Pet Products, the McAlester dog food company that is part of the federal investigation.

Some of those involved in the Phipps-Stipes enterprises have been revealed as straw donors to multiple political campaigns, including McMahan's.

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Oklahoman Nails Jeff McMahan; Trips With Steve Phipps May Have Violated Ethics Rules

The Oklahoman's Tony Thornton reports today that Auditor & Inspector Jeff McMahan took three trips with controversial abstract company owner Steve Phipps (left) and that two of them, apparently paid for by Phipps, may have violated Ethics Commission rules.

Phipps is under investigation by a federal grand jury, in part for his alleged involvement in a campaign money-laundering conspiracy in which straw donors were used to funnel money into multiple campaigns, including McMahan's campaigns.

Thornton reports confirmation of the three trips two days after McMahan's spokeswoman, Terri Watkins, insisted he took only one trip with Phipps. Watkins then said, "It's not a matter of trying to hide things. It's my not asking the right questions."

Watkins said Phipps paid for a fishing trip to Lake Texoma in 2002 and a trip to a Biloxi, Mississippi casino in 2004. McMahan paid his own way on the third trip, to New Orleans in 2003, Watkins said. McMahan and his wife went with Phipps and his wife.

The trips are further evidence that McMahan's relationship to Phipps is much closer than McMahan has insisted; he's indicated he barely knows Phipps.

Thornton quotes Marilyn Hughes of the Ethics Commission as saying rules preclude an office-holder accepting anything of value from a person or entity the office-holder regulates. McMahan regulates abstractors.

For the complete story, go to http://www.newsok.com/ or pick up a copy of today's newspaper.

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