My Tiger sportswriting becomes restricted

It appears that my writing about MACA sports will be very limited in the future. It probably won't be impossible - never say never - but the barriers to information have increased. Yes, I think this is unfortunate. But life always comes at us with its hurdles. Life is never puffy white clouds. 

I expressed my feelings with my old Central Minnesota newspaper friend of Bonanza Valley a few days ago:

 

Hello Randy, it appears the time has finally come. It may be impossible for me to post about Tiger athletics any more. Or even about you guys at BBE when things go great. Or Minnewaska. Willmar paper has new trick with its website. For a long time I got by with "select all" in the fraction of a second before the paywall panel came up. I then pasted onto an email draft panel. It was a little cumbersome but it worked - everything I needed was there. I wrote many posts from this system. This morning I find that the first 3-4 sentences show up on the screen, and then you have to subscribe to get any more. So I'm done there. 

Brett Miller has left the Morris radio station. No longer can I use the asset of their website. They have someone there now who basically only posts "scores." I guess complaining about this does no good. I can't use the Morris print newspaper, partly out of principle, and partly because the news is so dated by the time it comes out. It is sad. I may never again be able to write about the Tigers.

- BW

 

Randy replied in his usual astute way.

 

That has to be beyond frustrating.  I'll give things a whirl myself and see what happens.

And ultimately what's happening because of the state of the Legacy Media in Morris, parents and friends will just post things on social media right away and further degrade the need to have the newspaper or radio coverage.  Quite simply they have dug their own grave.

Randy Olson has no qualms with sharing about school activities with the public in an unfettered way. He thinks it's actually good for his newspaper business. Is it? Yours truly can only offer an opinion. I guess I never had strong financial motives when putting my toe in the water with the newspaper business. 

You'll shake your head at that. Well, I was part of the idealistic generation that looked to "the press" for moral leadership. This was after our nation's media had gotten fooled, misled into following the party line from government on the Vietnam war. Watergate came on the heels of that. 

Would Watergate be unraveled today? My late father was known to say "analogies are dangerous," i.e. "that was then, this is now." Richard Nixon was contemptible in certain ways but he seemed to accept the established boundaries of the political/legal system in the Beltway. Flawed as it is - because we as human beings are flawed - it has served to hold our nation together. Up until now. 

Now? That is a very good question. Nixon was not off the Geiger counter with his irrationality or mendacity. Certain people ensured there were guardrails around him. Now? Well, you know full well what I am going to suggest. Probably is a fool's errand to make the point again. I have made such points so often, my own personal safety and well-being could well be endangered if a certain "element" in the U.S. seizes power to a greater extent than before. 

I shouldn't type the name "Trump." But I just did. I have friends who would withdraw from me with a guffaw, with likely laughter as if it is I who is the delusional one. I can't talk them down from this orientation. 

Incredibly we arise each morning and see several headlines about outrageous things connected to Trump and the Republican Party, things that ought to call for intervention by legal authorities. And the proper legal authorities are trying. But our whole white collar legal system is a minefield for trying to achieve justice. So different from what the "little man" faces when committing a trivial indiscretion, e.g. not having your seat belt on. 

The former South Dakota attorney general drove off after his vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian. Now, his lawyers - wait a minute, he's a clever lawyer - would push us into the thickets with arguments e.g. "he didn't know he hit someone." Or, "he thought he hit a deer." We cannot prove as a fact these things were not true. 

Eventually the South Dakota legislature was able to see through any fog to the truth of the matter and barely, barely voted to remove this man for something like "conduct unbecoming." But, no literal lawbreaking. (Hit a deer? It was the 9-1-1 operator who planted that thought/theory.)  

If I neglect to put on my seat belt or get a "lead foot" on a rural highway for a few seconds, an officer could well come up to my window and talk to me in a hostile, disrespectful, condescending fashion, like I'm an idiot or whatever. But kill a man and then return the next morning as if I'm uncertain about what I had done? To find the dead body and then personally drive to the sheriff's home, rap on the door and tell the poor guy, who should have been more suspicious/curious the night before? 

But hey, the sheriff was dealing with the state's attorney general. It's not like it was a sheer nobody like me. We all know our legal system behaves like this. 

So in the "macro" picture out East with the entitled Beltway folks, we get the big news story a few days ago about how the chairman of the GOP joined with the now-former president to pressure Michigan election officials, even with a special enticement: "We'll arrange for your lawyers." Really? So the media told us right up front that it is a violation of the law to offer something of value to a government person in exchange for an official act. It ought to be black and white, like being seen not wearing your seat belt or having a lead foot for a few seconds. 

But we all know the world in which the privileged types live, people like Ronna McDaniel who used to go by "Ronna Romney-McDaniel." She had to get rid of "Romney" when Mitt became seen as antithetical to the ruling element of today's Republican Party. Even though Mitt was once the party's nominee for president back in totally different times. Imagine. No, it is hard to imagine. 

So McDaniel joined Trump in offering something of value in exchange for an official act. So I have a simple question: has she been charged? Well I have seen no such report. So is the media culpable for reporting pretty directly as fact that what McDaniel did was a violation of law? There it is in black and white in front of us. 

 

The image shows Ronna McDaniel. "The Onion" humor site once described her as a "prissy s--thead."

 

The "bad guys" of today like Ms. McDaniel naturally assemble a crew of lawyers with suits and ties to go on the "conservative media" and engage in considerable hair-pulling with the persecution complex. They will say they are outraged at those trying to enforce basic sensible guidelines and morality within the Judeo-Christian ethic, which used to mean something in the U.S. 

Maybe I should only look out for No. 1, myself. So I should maybe stop writing. But that would be very difficult to do especially with the long winter ahead of us. 

And my situation is now compounded by apparently being denied most of the info I'd need to continue writing about MACA Tiger sports.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com