The Columbian’s Alternate Universe—Wild Misinformation

In the last few weeks the Columbian’s repeated and blatant misinformation about local political matters has been particularly unscrupulous. The Columbian’s leadership and most of its writers are arrogant and loyal to the big government cabal that has run Clark County for decades. The editor, Lou Brancaccio, is simply juvenile in his petty attacks and unashamed partisan behavior.

The misinformation examples below have a common thread—Councilor David Madore. Madore has been the main force behind deconstructing the corrupt local political establishment. In their eagerness to discredit him the Columbian writers and editors to show the extent of their willingness to misinform the public.

Here are a few recent examples:

He’s so rude: A recent article had to do with the continuing saga of the Clark County Council being dysfunctional, and guess who’s to blame? As has been the constant beat from the Columbian, it’s all Madore’s fault. So a local rich guy makes some statement to this regard, and the Columbian acts like it’s newsworthy. It’s more of the Madore derangement syndrome that has perpetuated in our community, based on typical groupthink forces. Since this blather aligns with the Columbian’s alternate universe point of view, the liberal writer fires up another article to bash Madore. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the online reader comments from the usual suspects took the matter further down the misinformation sewer.

Paying legal fees: Another article was about Madore asking the county to pay legal fees associated with his fight against harassment claims being made by the Clark County Planning Director Oliver Orjiako. ClarkCounty.info has commented on this matter and will continue to monitor Orjiako’s real agenda as his claims and associations are scrutinized. The three establishment-supporting councilors (Boldt, Olson, and Stewart), in collaboration with senior county staff, are continually demeaning, discouraging, and ultimately trying to destroy Madore politically. This harassment claim is part of this assault. An honorable person should and would fight back. The person being falsely accused should reasonably expect to have their legal defense expenses recovered. The local old media article on this matter presents an alternate-universe assessment of the event.

Who hired Don Benton?  A third article goes on about David Madore alleged efforts to revise the history of the Don Benton hiring as Director of Environmental Services for Clark County. The team at ClarkCounty.info has multiple confirmations of what occurred and, again, the Columbian is in an alternate universe.  This article broadly contains absolute misinformation about this matter. The truth is the petulant prior county manager, Bill Baron, hired Benton in an odd tantrum, when he told Madore and Mielke that he was just going to hire Benton and bypass the normal process. This action by Barron created the risk and eventual payout to the $250,000 lawsuit by a lady who claimed she hadn’t been given a fair shot at the job. The flat-out lies of the senior county bureaucrats, reinforced by a friendly local old media, is breathtaking.

The truth is that Councilor Madore, with Councilor Tom Mielke, has been on a mission from the beginning to deconstruct the arrogant and bloated Clark County government, which has grown with no resistance for about twenty years.  This has triggered the pushback of the self-interested government machine and all its players in the bureaucracy and the political establishment. Madore, being the ‘can-do’ entrepreneur, sometimes lacked nuance in the deconstruction process. He could have avoided some problems. He was used to leading and innovating in the private sector and this style is often not well-suited to the slower and more collaborative environment of public office. Notwithstanding this, his background cannot reasonably be the basis for serious criticism. His experience prepared him to more effectively contain and begin dismantling the corrupt, self-righteous, and generally incompetent county government establishment. The reality of David Madore is a rather different than his enemy’s portray and the truth about Madore is well told in a series of videos produced in the last year.

When Marc Boldt and Julie Olson were elected last November, they bonded with Jeanne Stewart, the senior county bureaucrats, and self-appointed handlers to start a massive and rapid pushback against the progress toward small and responsible government that’s been made in the last few years. Many articles at ClarkCounty.info are about their aggressive and ham-fisted pushback in the last four months. It’s been ugly and it’s likely to get uglier before matters can get better.

Columbian buildingIn all their mindless and emotional blather, the Columbian and typical chanting commenters absolutely refuse to acknowledge in the slightest that we have a local problem with big-government corruption and incompetence.  Indeed, in their alternate universe, Madore’s small government policies are the source of all the County’s problems, and Madore himself is the local personification of the antichrist. Many ClarkCounty.info articles chronicle this pervasive problem with facts and consistency.

The ClarkCounty.info agenda is to promote wise and ethical government. In this regard the county’s corrupt and incompetent old media and government cabal must be dealt with by the citizens over the next number of years. In our work to educate, we plan to accelerate this important correction in our county.