Guest column for the Gainesville Sun
Full disclosure at the end—Six years ago, Nathan Crabbe informed me that he never again would publish letter or guest column I wrote, although the Sun had published more than 30 with little correction earlier in this Century. That was later modified to allow me to publish a 600-word essay if I were a candidate for office. Since then, I have been a candidate four times and probably will again, primarily to get published in the only daily in town which functions as if we still were in 1984. I currently am not a candidate for office. This 600-word essay would be published if I were, according to the Crabbe rules.
Who’s to blame?
The Sun reported yesterday: "(Ben) Sasse said a diversity of opinion was a good thing, but questioned a focus on divisive issues at universities and elsewhere. 'The loudest folks among us tend to be focused heavily on partisan politics and culture-war issues, and yet those issues have almost nothing to do with most of the riddles that we need to navigate in our time,”'he said."
Those folks apparently include more than a thousand protesting students, Dr. Paul Ortiz, history professor; the UF Faculty Senate, the UF Student Senate, the Graduate Assistant Union, a Staff Union, and others who rightly accused the Board of Trustees of choosing Sasse to be the president of UF at the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) . With a straight face, Sasse said he knows nothing about that.
In sports, the Sun published: “(Tackle Brendan Cox) transferred from Georgia three years ago, leaving the usual trail of rumors about attitude problems and discontent. I can’t definitively say that’s why the ex-Dawg is now an ex-Gator, but read between these lines.’ I think that being a football player at the University of Florida is a privilege,’ Gator football coach Billy Napier said. ‘There are certain expectations that come with that.’ "A privilege? Seriously? "Cox obviously didn’t meet those expectations, and we’re not talking sacks.” Napier is about to have a worse season than his predecessor who was fired last year. His team may not go to a bowl game.
The Sun again did not publish a report by any staffer about the ongoing nationally publicized controversy about the anti-Semitic speech of basketball star Kyrie Irving and Kanye (Ye) West reflected in banners and streamers on the day of the Florida Georgia football game. There's no opinion. A story did appear under its masthead but in fact was written by a Jacksonville Times-Union reporter.
A report about a realtors’ controversy did not mention that realtor Aaron Bosshardt, who started the publicized personal attack on former employees, is current president of the Gainesville-Alachua County Association of Realtors (GACAR).
The account reported that State Attorney Brian Kramer dismissed charges against the realtors who were subjected to a SWAT Team raid. The Sun has not mentioned the long-standing case against a former GACAR president Gary Thomas which Kramer has never pursued.
In the Bosshardt matter, former State Attorney Rod Smith is identified as the mediator. In 1999, Smith hired Kramer as an assistant state attorney. Such apparent “conflicts of interest” are not considered newsworthy if they affect the in-crowd adversely. If requested, I could identify specifically at least two dozen such conflicts which the Sun chooses not to identify properly the WASPs involved.
The ludicrous reporting without a meaningful editorial mention of the Sasse controversy and almost no letters to the editor were printed, except for guest columns by past contributors the daily rightly could claim was their own published opinion. A key word check of “Sasse” and “letters” resulted in most of the replies not mentioning him at all in the Sun search engine.
The Sun never considered asking either of the mayoral candidates who will be meeting for the City if elected with Sasse their opinions on the controversy. A strange last minute query by a mediator at the Sun sponsored debate of the two allowed each to mumble irrelevancies.
Fortunately, the Sasse controversy was reported doggedly by the UF Independent Alligator, but Gainesville, and Alachua County are left in the dark about the other issues. Area residents are left to read the shadows on the cave wall without being allowed to see the real world outside. (600 words)
Gabe Kaimowitz, Gainesville, FL attorney in good standing in New York, DC and in courts in four other federal circuits; emeritus, in Michigan.
See the full disclosure of the controversy between Kaimowitz and Crabbe below.
Full disclosure
|
Tue, Jan 28, 8:39 AM (17 hours ago) |
We offer the opportunity to write columns to all commission candidates, and have the same standards for libel and personal attacks that we would for other guest columns. The deadline was yesterday, but if you submit something by the end of the week I will consider it for publication. And yes, 600 words is the limit.
Thanks, Nathan Crabbe |
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