OpenCDA

May 30, 2019

Just a Few Questions …

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: — Bill @ 11:30 am

Pachyderm SkeletonThis morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press skewspaper reported online first that there would be demonstrations at a local restaurant on Friday during the time an invited guest speaker was making her presentation.  In a sidebar to the same article, the paper reversed engines and said the guest speaker would not be attending.  There was no explanation.

Later this morning, the skewspaper posted the sponsoring organization’s explanation about why the invited guest had withdrawn from the engagement.  Here is a link to that article headlined Speech Cancellation Explained.

According to the sponsoring organization’s website, “Pachyderm club meetings are open to the public and encourage non-member attendance.”   That seems pretty clear.

The club’s press release explaining Ms. Pettibone’s withdrawal is clear but incomplete.  It failed to provide some essential information.

  • Was the Friday meeting one of the club’s regularly scheduled meetings or was it in fact a special private meeting?
  • What led Ms. Pettibone  “… to believe that she would be speaking privately at a private meeting.
  • Who extended the invitation to Ms. Pettibone on behalf of the club?   Did that person give her assurances that would reasonably lead her “… to believe that she would be speaking privately at a private meeting?”  Was it implied or explicitly stated to her that news media would be excluded from her presentation?
  • Did our intrepid skewspaper contact Ms. Pettibone for her input to the cancellation explanation story?

4 Comments

  1. Regardless of what’s posted on their website, I’ve been told by Pachyderm President Bob Brooke that it’s a “private club that meets in public.” He admonished me that I wasn’t permitted to take photographs during the meeting and I could be removed if I refused to comply.

    Further, the club board has banned certain individuals from attended. Specifically, Russ Mclain, who showed me a copy of the letter from the board, signed by Bob Brooke, claiming that it was a private club that met in public and his attendance was no longer welcome.

    This Pettibone incident stinks like a barnyard. Her insistence that she never speak to the press speaks volumes. She and her supporters make me extremely uncomfortable. This area is known for its extremists, but at least the most well-known of these groups never made an attempt to hijack a local political party and crown themselves mainstream.

    Comment by Dan Gookin — May 30, 2019 @ 12:20 pm

  2. Seems like the press wants to create negativity for the Republican Party. DOUBLE TALK

    Comment by Sharon Culbreth — May 30, 2019 @ 1:15 pm

  3. Sharon, it’s not the same Republican party you were once active in.

    Comment by Dan Gookin — May 30, 2019 @ 1:19 pm

  4. Dan,

    That behavior of selective exclusion seems inconsistent for an organization if it genuinely wants to achieve broad citizen participation in politics.

    Sharon,

    Behavior that appears secretive used to be a magnet for an inquisitive press corps back in the day when there was such a thing as an inquisitive press corps. Today’s press “reporters” no longer seek verifiable facts for the purpose of reporting “timely truth well told.” Instead, they are taught advocacy journalism, using news not to inform people but to persuade and manipulate them according to the wishes of corporate owners.

    Comment by Bill — May 30, 2019 @ 8:30 pm

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