Whenever Stew Rieckman writes about Ben Ganther, I find myself humming "That's What Friends Are For." Can you imagine being a local power broker--the kind that can land sweetheart TIF deals, influence political campaigns, and put off paying taxes for "strategic" reasons--and have a buddy in the editorial room of the largest print media outlet in town to boot? Would that be a dream gig or what?
Stew's upset that the "Web gurus, bloggers, pundits and muckrakers," those with the "attention span of a gnat on crack" (that's actually pretty clever), revealed their lack of fairness by not picking up immediately on the story that --suprise!!--the 100 Block of North Main St. is now caught up on its delinquent tax payments. This after the gnats "went nuts" in January when it was revealed that the property was in arrears and "good old Ben Ganther and his partners were roasted on a public spit of indignation and vilified by anyone and everyone with a computer keyboard." Sing now with Dionne, Stevie, and Elton: "For good times and bad times/I'll be on your side forever more/That's what friends are for"
The blogosphere created the pressure necessary for the 100 block partners to start getting serious about meeting their tax obligations. I don't think anyone can seriously believe that those taxes would be paid today were it not for the web reporting, especially that which appeared on Oshkosh News and Eye on Oshkosh.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
What does it say about our system when businesses make "desisions" based on the interest that they are receiving to not pay the taxes on time. They did admit that the taxes were delayed for business reasons. I think the only reason they caught it up now is so they can transfer the liquor license to Cranky Pats. That couldn't happen unless they are current on the taxes. Of course, I could be wrong. I think I read that somewhere, maybe the ONW printed it?
K Monte
Stew had to run away and hide behind his comment-proof site at the northwestern.
He is afraid of the blogosphere. The 100 north main story is one of the reasons--his newspaper keeps getting scooped by local bloggers.
How many time in the last few months has the Northwestern run stories that started on the web?
The Northwestern has the resources to pursue stories, but the leads are coming from the web.
I missed the Northwestern's "report" on all the Oshkosh businesses, developers, and individuals who did pay their taxes on time.
If you have a blog on the web, even if you don't allow others to comment, doesn't that mean you're also a "gnat"? IMHO, there's some sort of "my gnat brains are bigger than your gnat brains" contest going on with one gnat always having to be right.
I'm the one that's always right.
Post a Comment