Rad Field
                             

09/18/06  DMN and D Magazine desperately throwing weight around.

What an interesting couple of weeks we have had.  First, we have The Dallas Managed News publishing a baseless lie about Pat Cotton.  Then, we have D Magazine's blog, FrontBurner, trying to refute the Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze story on the Trinity String Thing Bridges.

Not really smart moves.  If you are going to pick on somebody, you need to pick your victims a little more carefully.

Jim Schutze has been writing about the Trinity Project for over 10 years.  He says he voted for it, but somewhere along the way he decided he voted wrong.  He has talked with people on both sides of the debate.  He has interviewed state officials, city officials, highway officials, engineers, architects.  He cites numbers and experts and reports.  He really knows his stuff about the Trinity.

Considering FrontBurner's expertise runs to hot spots, in clubs and who's who in the club set, it was really a dumb move to take on Jim Schutze's comments about the Trinity Project in its evolved state.   Not only do regular FrontBurner readers care less about issues or the real world, they do not like having serious stuff intruding on the entertainment guide they expect from FrontBurner.  

It really was not a fair fight.  Jim Schutze did not start it, but he sure as heck finished it.

The other big fight in town has just got started.  When the The Dallas Managed News allowed Goffer Jeffers to publish his made up story about a conversation he claimed to have had with political consultant, Pat Cotton, they made a big mistake by not allowing her to post a letter to the editor to refute the slanderous article.  They assumed that as a political consultant she would not want to get crosswise with the only daily in town.  They assumed wrong.  Pat Cotton is someone who cares about her reputation.

She thought about it for days.  Then, she talked to Atty. James Murphy.  I love this man.  He is not intimidated by big boys or political machines.  He cares about all kinds of stuff.  He has challenged the City of Dallas several times.  He even championed a little church in South Dallas when Shakedown Leo Chaney tried to confiscate some of their property for one of his ego parks.

If I had to go into battle (and I have), I would want either Pat Cotton or James Murphy on my side.  I would not want the two of them teamed up against me.  Those folks at Belo are making a big mistake in standing up for Jeffers.  He wrote an article based on hearsay.  He did not call any of the three people he mentioned in his article.  The guy is so lazy.  He is practically glued to his desk, but you would think he could pick up a phone.  Even that apparently is too much effort for Jeffers.

I think all this wackiness is clear indication that Our Downtown Betters are extremely nervous on several fronts.  When FrontBurner went after Jim Schutze over his Trinity stories, they might as well have been screaming "we have to shut him up".  Mind you, not that many Dallas people read  FrontBurner .  It's a Park Cities/Addison society rag.  Like Pat Cotton's situation with Belo, Schutze had to respond to their attack on him.

An old boy friend once told me that I mistook his "silence for acquiescence".  It was information that has stood me well since.  When I ask a question now, I wait for a specific answer.  No assumptions. 

Had Pat Cotton or Jim Schutze not responded to the false and very public statements made about them by two big publications, most people would have assumed the statements were true. 

I'm sorry that both of them have been put in awkward positions by DMN  and FrontBurner, but Pat and Jim are obviously interfering with ODB plans.  Not only are they interfering, but they are apparently having much more impact than either of them realized.

sb