Tabloid Rage! | Season 2 Episode 35

 The Grants Pass Tribune is at it again. 

See the full video here : https://youtu.be/jyu27xdFjfU

This week we're diving into the latest controversy surrounding candidate filings, the Tribune's demands for answers from John West and Chad Hansen, and the claim that refusing to engage with a known leftist newspaper somehow creates suspicion. Here's the problem: candidate filings are required to be truthful under Oregon law. Nobody disputes that. 

But where exactly does the law say candidates must answer a newspaper's questions, provide documents on demand, or participate in a publication's investigation? We'll break down what a SEL 101 actually is, what Oregon law actually requires, and why "they didn't answer us" is not the same thing as evidence. 

We'll also discuss the elephant in the room: the Tribune's history with local conservatives, the prior litigation involving John West, and why some people are questioning whether this is journalism or simply another attempt to stir up controversy. (It's the latter trust me) If there is proof of wrongdoing, let's see it. If not, maybe it's time to stop turning unanswered emails into front-page scandals. Join us for a fact-based discussion, a few laughs, and a look at the latest chapter in Josephine County politics. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Josephine County Republican, ladies and gentlemen. What is today? The 29th? Wow, May 29th. Well, Boatnik was great. Hope you all had fun. Those of you that went down there, I was down there doing some volunteering at the Republican booth for a couple of hours. Uh, lots of cool folks that came in and asked questions and uh sold some stuff and good times. But anyway, um I just wanted to give a shout out to our sponsor. Go ahead and play that video. This uh spatula city, they just opened up down there uh downtown. I don't know if you guys have seen it. Here it is.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

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SPEAKER_01 1:45

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SPEAKER_02 1:53

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SPEAKER_01 1:58

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SPEAKER_00 2:03

Okay. Anyway, uh, so today's episode. Um, just looking at this post. I'm gonna put this post up here. Oh, look, ladies and gentlemen, the Grants Pass Tribune has cracked the case. Move over Sherlock Holmes, step aside, Colombo. We now have a groundbreaking new investigative standard right here in Josephine County. Someone didn't answer our email. Therefore, nefarious things must be happening. That's apparently where we're at. Let's break this down. So the Tribune asks John West and Chad Hansen for documents, for information. West and Hansen didn't respond. The Tribune's conclusion, well not that they have found any evidence for a false filing, not that they've discovered any fraud, not that they've uncovered some secret conspiracy. No, the big story is apparently they didn't answer us. That's it. That's the story. Imagine if every journalist in America operated this way. Governor didn't return my phone call, must be hiding something. Congressman didn't answer my email. He must be guilty. My neighbor didn't respond to my text. Obviously, running a criminal enterprise in there kind of gets ridiculous. Uh so let's talk about the context a little. The Tribune just act uh acts basically shocked that John West isn't eager to chat with them. Why? Well, the owner of the publication is currently involved in a litigation with John West. That's kind of an important detail. Um, if you're in an active dispute with somebody and they uh require you to sit down and help build your next article, well, of course they're not going to cooperate. Most reasonable people would understand exactly why communication might be a little bit limited, you know. And the and the Grants Pass Tribune is sitting there kind of like uh this.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Oh, my head! Oh my head. Where did that come from? Shut up! We're under attack. This is an 81 Honda! How dare you?

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Anyway, this is the part that really gets me. Richard Flora, um, he's pointing out that the candidate filings are supposed to be truthful, which that's very true. It's accurate. Yes, absolutely. Nobody's disputing that. But um, the conversation takes a giant leap. The filing, uh, of course, it must be truthful. Therefore, candidates must answer every single demand from the Tribune. Wait, I mean, how did we get from point A to point Z here? There's two completely different things going on here. The the legal obligation to file a truthful information, the SEL 101 with election officials is real, yes. The legal obligation is not to satisfy every request from a local newspaper. Well, some of us call it a tabloid. But, you know, I mean, what would actual journalism look like here? Uh you know, a little bit simple. You you you think filing is false. Show us the statement, show us the evidence, show us the law. Done. That's the end of the story. Instead, where we're getting at is we asked the questions, they didn't answer. We're gonna stomp our feet and cry. Everybody should be concerned, everybody needs to flip out like Richard here. Concerned about about what exactly, though? Uh, where is this evidence? Where's the the violation? What's false? Nobody seems to know. At the end of the day, it's just uh someone has proof that a candidate lied on a filing, bring it forward. I mean, show us. Let's see it, put it out there instead of this fear-mongering. But if y'all uh got this in the screenshot here, these unanswered emails and this dramatic headline, that's not an investigation, that's not evidence, that's not journalism. That's just trying to turn silence into scandal. And that's kind of, in my opinion, what they do best. And you know, we've seen this manufactured several times. Actually, in the recall for Chris Barnett, there was a thing. Um, unfortunately, I think they deleted their website. I have to show you. Oh, wait, I I still have the original. I'm gonna put that thing up. So this line says um essentially that there was where did I put that? Anyway, uh it basically said that, you know, ending freedom of speech. And this was for referring to Chris Barnett's personal Facebook groups. So he um basically blocked everybody everybody from responding, everybody from commenting, and that was their big thing. They were like, Well, you're not giving us freedom of speech. Those were not government-ran Facebook pages, people. Facebook has ban, Facebook has block, you can ban people, you can block people, you can mute people. This has been going on since the dawn of the internet, since chat rooms began. Before that, bulletin board systems where you dialed in with your modem, you could absolutely ban people. As a sysop myself, back back in those days, the funky chicken BBS, by the way. Um, yeah, of course I had to ban people because they were unruly. I mean, that's just a thing with the internet. It's on, it's on, you know, online games. I mean, anyway, they were not government pages. Uh anyway, I just uh thought I'd bring this one out because it was really funny. Anyway, Josephine County Republican. I will talk to you all later.