Voice For Liberty

In Wichita, let’s disclose everything. I mean everything.

Bob Weeks

in

A follow-up post is at at Editorial Board Pen Names at the Wichita Eagle.

In an Wichita Eagle Editorial Blog post, Rhonda Holman calls for more disclosure for groups that send mailings that “dodge campaign finance disclosure law by deftly telling people how to vote without using the words ‘vote for’ or ‘vote against.’” (Treat campaign ads the same)

A few points:

Holman’s target is quite selective. As shown in my post On the Wichita Eagle Editorial Board, Partisanship Reigns from right before last election day, she’s willing to overlook the Eagle’s own political contributions and the use of taxpayer money to fund election campaigns when she agrees with the causes.

And, why the need for a law when, as Holman writes “Kansans aren’t fooled by the ads and mailings”?

Then, wouldn’t a lot of Wichita Eagle readers like to know some of the financial details behind the Eagle’s political endorsements, say perhaps Holman’s salary? Heck, I’d be satisfied if she’d start using her real — or should I say entire — name when making political endorsements.

Comments

7 responses to “In Wichita, let’s disclose everything. I mean everything.”

  1. dying to know

    …so what is her entire name? Is she another one of these journalists like Nicki Flynn who is married to democrat players?

  2. John Lewis

    We must conclude that Ms. Holman is simply an enemy of the First Amendment.

    In McIntyre v. Ohio, the U.S. Supreme Court gave a ringing endorsement of anonymous free speech in election settings:

    “[A]nonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.”

    The court went on to say, “[t]hat this advocacy occurred in the heat of a controversial referendum vote only strengthens the protection afforded to Miss McIntyre’s expression: urgent, important, and effective speech can be no less protected than impotent speech, lest the right to speak be relegated to those instances when it is least needed.”

  3. James

    Editorials are not based on the facts, but on the opinion of the editorial board. Their opinions do not necessarily reflect the truth of a particular issue, but the problem is that the editorial board run their editorials as news stories and the average newspaper reader becomes confused. The editorial board hates conservatives and they use the newsprint to set their own agenda. Holman is harmless when compared with her boss Brownlee and the “thank-God he is gone” Randy Scholfield.

  4. Legend

    I agree. Let’s disclose everything, but again there is a problem with your post. I would have liked the school bond opponents to release their donor list during the campagain. Everyone including the Wichita Eagle should disclose everything during the campaign.

  5. Craig

    Rhonda Holman is a personal friend of Janet Miller’s I wonder if that affects her totally unbiased opinion on the editorial board.

  6. Wichitator

    It looks like Wichita Liberty has broken another unreported story and has exposed the fact that a portion of the Wichita Eagle’s editorial board operates under a pen name.

    Perhaps “Ms. Holman’s” editorials should be placed next to the equally anonymous opinion line comments. I must note that the anonymouse comments appearing in the eagle are usually much more pointed than the signed editorial commentary.

    I wonder how conflicts of interest by employees and their families are handled by the newspaper? If “Ms. Holman” was married to a school administrator that might be a very useful fact to know when evaluating her credibility on government school spending issues.

    What if she was married to an attorney involved in suing the state over school finance? Full disclosure can lead into a number of interesting places.

    There was very little publicity provided to the very salient fact that the Wichita Eagle was a donor to the group backing the 2000 Wichita school bond issue with a sizable donation last year. I’ll have to ask Wichita Liberty to look into any news media contributions to either side of the 2008 Wichita school bond issue campaign.

  7. Editorial Board Pen Names at the Wichita Eagle

    […] Some comment-writers to this blog make very good points that deserve more visibility. This is the case with the following comment left anonymously to the post In Wichita, let’s disclose everything. I mean everything. […]

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