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Welcome to Evil Stadium

Author:   Matt Deatherage  
Posted: 9/12/02; 1:27:08 PM
Topic: Welcome to Evil Stadium
Msg #: 354 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next: 353/355
Reads: 3826

There are worse things in life than a college football stadium being renamed after a family that's given about $50 million to the surrounding university. The University of Oklahoma's changing of the name of "Oklahoma Memorial Stadium" to "The Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium" is better than "Subway Stadium" or "McField" or a dozen other abominations, it would seem. The problem is the Gaylord family. As the owners of The Daily Oklahoman, the current generation of the family has presided over its decline from an agenda-driving statewide news source into what is widely recognized, as by Columbia Journalism Review here, as the Worst Newspaper in America. Although the family fired the worst of the bunch two months ago -- anti-American theocrat Pat McGuigan -- it's mission has not changed. Read Part 4 of the CJR article on how the Oklahoman persecuted former Gov. David Walters, and as you do, note that author Bruce Selcraig left out the worst part: after Walters's son was caught at OU with a small amount of marijuana, the local media, led by the Oklahoman, pursued him to the point of chasing him down classroom halls at the university. The boy committed suicide in December 1993 while an OU student. Now look at these stories in today's Oklahoman:
  • Orza Stock Deals Revealed: a story on how the Oklahoman's most-hated gubernatorial candidate, Vince Orza (a moderate conservative who switched to the Democratic Party when the Republican ticket he ran on in 1990 moved so far to the ultra-right), bought penny stocks from the same guy that dozens of other prominent Oklahomans did, before anyone knew the guy was manipulating the market. He was later arrested for fraud. The paper has no evidence Orza did anything wrong, but you'll have to read the article very carefully to see that. Orza is in a run-off for the Democratic nomination in one week.
  • David Walters spends $1 million on campaign: Yes, the Oklahoman is still after Walters, who is very likely to become Oklahoma's next senator. He'd replace the moron Jim Inhofe (see Senator James Inhofe is a dangerous idiot), and is scoring big campaign points by pointing out that Inhofe is such a complete tool of the Religious Right that he votes with them 100% of the time. They never have to negotiate for his support, so he never gets anything for Oklahoma in return. Oklahoma sends more money to Washington DC than it gets back in about a dozen key areas, including highway maintenance, an area where the state desperately needs funds, but Inhofe won't fight for it because James Dobson didn't tell him to. The Right has gone all out to keep their boy in power, including fielding a sham candidate against walters. Tom Boettcher has absolutely no platform other than "I'm not David Walters," running attack ads on Walters's character for months. It was enough to give Walters just under 50% of the primary vote, so he's in a run-off with Boettcher, the candidate that far-right preachers demanded their Democratic flock vote for (Oklahoma doesn't have open primaries). So, of course, the Oklahoman has to help the cause with another stacked story trying to make Walters look bad. According to OpenSecrets.org, Walters has barely raised half as much money as Inhofe, but the story doesn't mention that at all, nor that Inhofe has already spent more than Walters even though Inhofe is unopposed for the GOP nomination. Keep going and look further, though. The paper notes that Walters took money from the American Trial Laywers association, but doesn't bother to mention that half of Boettcher's top contributors are actual law firms. While Walter's list of donors includes a lot of unions in "right-to-work" Oklahoma, Inhofe's is crowded with big businesses: FedEx, General Dynamics, the corrupt Koch Industries, National Beer Wholesalers (how wholesome!), Anadarko Petroleum, etc., all contributing to about $1 million Inhofe has rasied from business-related special interests. Walters has taken in only $271,000 from all special interests, the vast majority of that from worker concerns.
Guess how much of this made it into the story? That's right, none. I found it out in 15 minutes of searching the Web, but the Oklahoman doesn't want readers to know about Inhofe's finances -- only Walters's. The Gaylord family is not a family like the Kennedys or even the Bushes that has devoted its life to public service. They have ruthlessly used the power of a statewide newspaper that was built on honesty and good reporting to tilt news coverage in the entire state to suit a repressive political and financial agenda that keeps them rich at everyone else's expense. The paper lobbied to get the Oklahoma City Council to grant tax-free status to a Bass Pro Sports shop in downtown Oklahoma City, arguing it would help the economic district. Local retailers argued it was simply a tax giveaway -- they had to pay taxes that paid for their competition's new building and location -- and they were right. In a month of editorials lauding Bass Pro, the paper never managed to mention how the Gaylord family owns 35% of the sporting goods chain. They've gotten state highways built to their private country clubs, continually fought against any social progress in the state that wouldn't benefit the family, and protected McGuigan in his editorial page job for a decade while he freely admitted his goal was to turn the state into a theocracy first and to report any news second. It was already a travesty that Gaylord family donations would mean the creation of the "Gaylord College of Journalism" at OU, roughly the equivalent of founding the "Richard Nixon School of Domestic Political Ethics." To put the name on the stadium is a sop to a family that would destroy this state rather than see it express true principles of freedom. OU should give the money back.
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