Ken Harty - Wahpeton Daily News - Does It Again

I wondered how long it would be before we saw this particular lying meme, filled with smug self-congratulatory, sense of how superior we are to Them, show up in the Wahpeton Daily News.

And sure nuff, here it is, penned/ganked by the publisher himself! He probably feels he's pandering to his subscriber base, but pandering is PANDERING, not journalism. It seems more like laziness, in fact. It's the weekend. "O nooooooooooos! It's the weekend. I have to WRITE something coz I iz, yannno, teh publisher of this papeh. Soze here we find teh stoopid, the talkin pints 4 rethuggehs. No haz 2 wrk."

Notice, that every line is ' Hai! frum somebody elsees, o nooooos, not meh, but iz gud 2 thiek bout, O noooooooooos, we ur no racist! okbai."

These are the sure signals of viral memes with no foundation in facts, intended to spread lies for the political gain of the rethugs. And notice, this newspaper publisher spells 'sets' 'set's'. He's about as qualified to do journalism as Ceiling Cat. Far less, in fact. This letter from the publisher is shamefully illiterate in terms of organization and argument as well. He'd never be allowed on a debating team either!

And -- Ken Harty is so lazy, in his cushy job as publisher of the Wahpeton Daily News that he ganked a satiric Tom Tomorrow comic strip! What a complete embarrassment as a news publisher Harty is.

[ "Iowa flooding raises questions" by Ken Harty, Publisher

I saw an interesting email the other day regarding the flood situation in Iowa. The email is titled “Just Wondering” and it makes comparisons of what was being said and done in New Orleans (after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast) to what is now going on with the flooding in Iowa.

The following comments are from the email and they raise some very good points: Where are all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods? Where is all the media asking the tough questions about why the federal government hasn't solved the problem? Asking where the FEMA trucks (and trailers) are? Why isn't the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels in Chicago? When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines?Where are Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks? Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen television sets? When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a"vanilla" Iowa, because that's the way God wants it? Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of cannibalism? Are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural people? How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding everagain?

For sure, we will never be able to answer those questions, but we can try. One of the things that set’s Iowa apart from what happened in New Orleans is socio-economic stature. In other words the folks that were affected in New Orleans were not financially capable of evacuating the city as ordered. In fact the city did not follow its own disaster plan. The buses that were supposed to evacuate the poor sat empty in flooded parking lots. Whose fault is that?

Strong mid-western pride and a sense of duty are what are making the difference in Iowa just as it would here. We are too proud to sit around and wait for the federal government to come and fix our problems. We take care of ourselves, family, friends and neighbors etc. and that is why in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever again. ]

Shame on you, Harty, and your Wahpeton Daily News.

I wrote him a personal letter, not an opinion response. I bet he doesn't respond. I 'm wondering whether something good to do is for everybody who loathes this sort of 'talking points rethuggery' to pick one of these so-called newspapers in smaller communities that spread these lies, and rebut to their paper of record's e-mail address, and the corporate owner of this paper, every time they publish lies of this nature, particularly those that think they are o so subtle in encouraging racism. That's how the rethugs do, except we'd be telling the truth while they lie.

Ken Harty in particular should be ashamed of ganking, and pretending he wrote the final bit of this 'Opinion'. He lived in Louisiana for a little while. Even he NEVER visited New Orleans, he KNOWS how impossible it is to get in and out of the place, unlike on the prairie, where you could walk away, if you had to, since these little towns built on the flood plain aren't SURROUNDED by water. Which, by the way, Ken Harty, might have something to do with that 'looting," you cited. As we all know when black people do survival it's looting, when white people loot, it's self reliance.

Ken Harty, you and Wick Communications, who employ you, who own the Wahpeton Daily News, are doing your best to embarrass my people in front of my friends, my North Dakota people friends and family, and my Louisiana people, friends and family. Wahpeton, North Dakota, you are being instructed in what to think by people in Arizona!