There are two scandals that have originated in Arizona in the last year or so. It's interesting to watch how they are being handled.
The Republic continues to try to turn the Fiesta Bowl into Watergate while ignoring Fast and Furious. Ten years from now folks will look back at the Fiesta Bowl "scandal" and wonder what all the fuss was about...apparently, the Fiesta Bowl management spent a lot of money wining and dining VIPs including elected officials of both parties. It's good that the Republic is covering the story...but they have long passed the point at which any of the coverage is new or interesting.
Fast and Furious is being compared to Watergate. It's a national scandal that originated in the Phoenix office of ATF and was supervised by the local US Attorney...who has already been fired. It seems that high ranking government officials used stimulus money to buy guns and ship them across the border in an effort to promote local gun control and to de-stabilize Mexico. Fast and Furious has led to over 200 deaths including a US Border Patrol officer as well as high-ranking Mexican officials.
Folks are starting to take notice of the seriousness of the scandal as well as the mainstream media's reluctance to cover it. Here's an interesting perspective from Forbes.
Why a gunrunning scandal codenamed “Fast and Furious,” a program run secretly by the U.S. government that sent thousands of firearms over an international border and directly into the hands of criminals, hasn’t been pursued by an army of reporters all trying to be the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein is a story in itself.
I was at the, “Who cares” point on the Fiesta Bowl about 2 minutes after the report was released. I looked at it to see who was in it and then moved on. Why? Because there is nothing to see here except a man with a big ego and checkbook getting caught. There was nothing illegal about members of the legislature getting tickets to the games because it is perfectly legal under state law. The fact that this has hung around so long shows that the media has nothing else that they fell should be reported.
Posted by: GmaninAZ | October 07, 2011 at 02:14 PM
GmaninAZ nailed it. The lack of journalistic integrity at the Republic is harming not only themselves in lost readership and revenue but also the state which needs a quality daily newspaper.
Posted by: RonJ | October 07, 2011 at 02:40 PM
So the Daily Star ignores F&F...then Linebacker is front page news "See, Bush did it!" Then they don't bother allowing comments. From the same group lecturing Walkup on the First Amendment.
Posted by: Stewie | October 07, 2011 at 04:36 PM
The ONLY reason the republic ran the "little story" on it yesterday on AZCENTRAL, is because the National Dems are trying to link the Bush Administration to it.
This paper is disgraceful. I used to work for it and the Tempe Daily News, Scottsdale Progress. What a difference 25 years makes.
Posted by: chick | October 07, 2011 at 05:39 PM
To the AZ Republic:
When you assign one of your crack investigative reporters to report on firearms, you should at least send him to a firearms education class, so he learns the difference between a cartridge and a bullet. DUH. Ditto for the editor. The word "bullets" occurs over a dozen times incorrectly in your "special report." How much more of the article is incorrect as well?
Cartridge - A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm.
In popular use, the term "bullet" is often misused to refer to complete cartridges. This is incorrect; "bullet" refers specifically to the projectile itself, not the entire cartridge.
A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank; one that is completely inert is called a dummy. Not to be confused with someone who knows nothing about firearms, but writes about them anyway.
By the way, how did your crack investigative reporters miss the whole Fast and Furious gun-running scandal foisted on on us by Eric Holder and his pals in the BAFTE, and the FBI, et al? You seem totally unaware that much of the scandal happened right under our noses here in AZ. Somehow your paper has missed it completely, with the one exception on the day Burke was demoted for his role in the scandal. Lack of knowledge, or editorial malfeasance? This may be the biggest government scandal since Watergate, but at least nobody died at Watergate. Instead, The Republic has its crack investigative reporters telling us there is big money and mild corruption in the BCS system, something Joe Sportsfan has known for many years. Double DUH!
To paraphrase President Obama ("never bring a knife to a gunfight"), never bring bullets to a gunfight, bring cartridges and a rifle, and bring someone who knows what they are doing.
Posted by: dave72 | October 10, 2011 at 12:48 AM
We are fortunate Al Gore invented the Internet because that is where you can find a newspaper that is aggressively covering the Phoenix-based national story that the Republic finds so boring. The LA Times even has a reporter assigned to it! How novel! Note this latest story even mentions Phoenix in the lead: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20111009,0,6431788.story
Posted by: Peeves | October 11, 2011 at 05:25 PM