Aside from being a notorious misogynist, Mark B. Evans, Pima County’s head flak, is an arrogant dumbass. Recently the dumbass took to Facebook to scold the Huckelberry Hounds – or “yokels” – Joe Ferguson, Dylan Smith, Murphy Woodhouse, Jim Nintzel, and Tim Steller for not hunting Supervisor Ally Miller down.
In his lecture, posted on Facebook on January 31, Evans failed to advise his students that they might want to look into whether or not supervisors have used their taxpayer funded vehicles to sell their pyramid schemes or buy piles of donuts and pizzas. Nope! He doesn’t want them to look into those things…. At least now he admits he is “just a government flack now.”
From Mark B. Evans on Facebook-
I know I’ve been out of the game for a while, but I can’t have been gone that long to have completely lost my nose for news. Because of my position I need to make a caveat that I write this as a former journalist, a former public affairs journalism instructor, a consumer of news and a constituent of district 1.
So what my journalism friends are telling me is that a controversial local elected representative who is probably the most prominent local elected Republican in Southern Arizona (excluding McSally, who’s a fed) goes to make a speech before other Republicans presumably on matters of public concern (I don’t think she was there to share recipes) and not only refuses to speak if journalists are there, but ejects the journalist who is there, a reporter for the largest news organization in Southern Arizona, and the reaction of the reporter, his colleagues and his editors, is a shrug of the shoulders. I’m gobsmacked. Their argument being, I think, is she’s a kook, so her rejection of public accountability is par for the course, so no attempt to hold her accountable needs to be made or should anyone, including other news organizations, be worried that other elected officials will see that she can avoid accountability, and avoid, attack, and denigrate the free press, and pay no penalty for it whatsoever. By this logic, the Republic, the New Times, and when it was around the East Valley Tribune, should have stopped covering Joe Arpaio because everyone knew he was a loathsome character, a con man and a kook, so why bother holding him accountable? Perhaps the New York Times and the Washington Post, et al, should shrug their shoulders at President Trump?
I fully realize comparing Miller to Arpaio and Trump is hyperbole (though she’d be flattered by it) the point is, the press’s job is to provide the electorate the information they need to make informed decisions. By shrugging and dismissing Miller, the local press is shirking its duty. As a constituent of District 1, I’d like to know what she said. I guess I’m being silly.
Here’s what would have happened if the Citizen still existed and my political reporter called me to tell me he’d been kicked out – I would have told him to stay there and wait until it was over then try to interview Miller on her way to her car. If she refused I would have told him to attempt to interview the attendees and find out what she said. I would have dispatched a photographer to shoot photos of the exit, I would have had the reporter file a short from the field to post on the internet, then file a longer piece for print and web later. I would have sent the story to editorial for consideration of an opinion piece, and talked to the metro columnist about a piece on public officials hiding from the press and refusing to be held accountable for their public statements about public policy.
But that’s me. I’m just a government flack now.
You all do what you think is best and I’ll keep looking for a local news outlet that knows what news is.
Related articles:
Huckelberry Memo Instructs Staff To Stalk Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller
“Innuendo, Plagiarism, Fabrication, Gossip And General Bullshit” In Pima County
Pima County Communications Department Efforts Raise Ethical Questions