Montini Rewrites History

Here's a clever trick.   Arizona's 9/11 memorial has been mired in controversy since 2006 when Espresso Pundit broke the story that the monument contained phrases that were critical of the United States.  The Republic's Ed Montini wants to make it look like a purely partisan issue.  Check out this quote.

The commission itself finally decided to do some revisions, announcing that it would remove inscriptions reading "Erroneous U.S. air strike kills 46 Uruzgan civilians" and "Terrorist organization leader addresses American people," while adding six new phrases.

Still, that wasn't good enough for some Republican lawmakers, who proposed legislation to remove 12 others.

Not good enough for some Republican lawmakers?  There were a lot more than a handful of Republicans who "proposed" the bill.  In fact, HB 2700 had eighty sponsors!  This style of "journalism" has become so prevalent that it has its own special name. 

By the way, did I mention that Gannett stock hit yet another 10 year low today on the news of unusually weak ad sales?  Don't worry.  I'm sure the upcoming layoff will shore up the bottom line.

Here's the sponsor list.

 

Comments

[SonoranSam]

You're donig the same thing.

Here's the House vote on Third Read:
BILL STATUS VOTES FOR HB2700 - Third Reading

Y = Yes
N = No
NV = Not Voting
EXC = Excused
V = Vacant Member Name Vote Member Name Vote Member Name Vote
Ed Ableser N Kirk Adams Y Manuel V. Alvarez N
Mark Anderson Y Ray Barnes Y Nancy K. Barto Y
Andy Biggs Y Tom Boone Y David Bradley N
Jack A. Brown N Judy M. Burges Y Jennifer J. Burns Y
Olivia Cajero Bedford N Chad Campbell N Cloves C. Campbell, Jr. N
Tom Chabin N Doug Clark Y Rich Crandall Y
Sam Crump Y Mark DeSimone N Adam Driggs Y
Steve Farley N Eddie Farnsworth Y Steve M. Gallardo Y
Martha Garcia N Trish Groe Y Pete Hershberger N
John Kavanagh Y Bill Konopnicki Y Phil Lopes N
Linda Lopez N David Lujan NV Lucy Mason Y
Marian McClure Y John McComish Y Barbara McGuire N
Nancy McLain Y Robert Meza N Ben R. Miranda N
Rick Murphy Y John B. Nelson Y Warde V. Nichols Y
Lynne Pancrazi N Jonathan Paton NV Russell K. Pearce Y
Tom Prezelski N Michele Reagan Y Pete Rios N
Bob Robson Y David Schapira N Kyrsten Sinema N
Bob Stump Y Jackie Thrasher N Andrew M. Tobin Y
Albert Tom N Theresa Ulmer N Jerry Weiers Y
Steven B. Yarbrough Y Nancy Young Wright N Jim Weiers Y

Among the Ds, only Gallardo voted aye. And his motives are, well, let's just say they're different.

[Bobby Hull]

I love the Urban Dictionary reference!

[ron]

I think Senator Karen Johnson's reasons for voting against the bill were more interesting than this blog about the issue. I am still waiting for the conservative response to her rationale.

[WhatsThat]

Funny, that you would characterize Montinis article as being biased -- so is your article. For all the ranting you do about the absence of balance in mainstream media, I would think that you would scrub your stuff for the same bias. The 9/11 memorial controversy was a last ditch effort by a desperate politician (Munsil) to win an election. The fact that Kavanaugh was dumb enough to keep the controversy rolling makes him questionable.

[idiotWatch]

Big difference - Montini is posing as a paid journalist; Greg is a blogger. Greg's intent and motives are fairly clear cut. Montini is nothing more than a hack hiding under the guise of a "newspaper."

[Steve F.]

Yeah, I was told that Karen Johnson's reason for voting against it is because she's convinced that the planes that flew into the trade center towers were drones.

Which alternately fascinates and enrages me, because my father, a United A320 captain, was ending his day the morning of September 11th, and his Airbus was gated right next to the United flight that hit the trade center tower.

He walked by the soon-to-be-dead passengers and crew of that flight; they were boarding as he was exiting.

People that are familiar with Karen Johnson tell me she's "batshit crazy". That never really bothered me until now.

what an embarrassment. There has to be a semi-normal Republican that can run against her and beat her.

[Travis]

I don't know which is worse: Stupid Democrats who think this tripe is OK, or Republicans who can't fix it.

[BrianW]

So, I think the comment about the drones is fabricated. But, even if it isn't -- Karen Johnson is entitled to her express her opinion about what she believes, just like everyone else. The United States is not of one mind on the events of 9/11. . or any other conflict for that matter. To represent ourselves otherwise is dishonest.

BTW, EJ is a columnist, his job is to write about his opinion. If you don't like it, don't read his articles. I don't.

[Travis]

Brian -

You made the perfect point for why this public monument is wrong. You made the point that the United States is not of "one mind" on 9/11. The political snipes on this monument are divisive and fringe opinions with no place on a public memorial.

To fix this, we need to have a monument that focuses soley on the tragic loss of life on that day and honors the victims and those who came to their aid. Period.

We must depoliticize this monument by removing the fringe remarks. To do anything less than that is to use the dead for your own political means and that is shameful!

[sunsfan]

Honestly, I really like the memorial. I went to see it shortly after it was dedicated and was really impressed. I expected something really unoriginal. Like a wall with names or a replica of the buildings. I think what the artists did was really well suited for Arizona and a nice representation of all of the different views on Sept. 11. I was never really sure what all the controversy was about, but I'm glad that it is over.

[ron Friesen]

Karen Johnson apparently saw too many viewings of Loose Change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDx1GLqvBO8