Pratt: Is the Reporter-News Against Elected Government?

By Robert Pratt
Host of "Pratt on Texas", weekdays 5p-7p on News/Talk 1470, KYYW

A pox upon the Abilene Reporter-News and its reporter Brian Bethel. In a weekend news story about the challenger to Abilene’s mayor headlined “Elections: Pat Hippely vows to bring true conservatism to Abilene”, the reporter not only inserted a fact to draw forth an opinion, it was a very un-American idea too.

After a brief introduction of Hippely and her platform of finding everything in city government that is unconstitutional and rooting such out, we have this early sentence in the long feature: "Her eleventh-hour decision to run against Archibald, a choice that will cost taxpayers $36,000, was last-minute, she said, but "not hasty.""

Mr. Bethel, you and your editors knew damn well what you were writing with this point and you should be ashamed. The cost to hold an election was no different whether Hippely, or anyone else, filed on the first day of filing, the last day of filing, or any day in between.

And as to that “cost taxpayers” have to bear, are we to believe that it is the Abilene Reporter-News’ official position that Americans should not run for office because it costs money? Is the position of the paper also that it is hypocritical of a fiscal-conservative to run for office because holding an election has a cost?

Abilenians will go to the polls for early voting beginning this week for the election to be held on Saturday, May 14^th. Too bad their local newspaper, the Abilene Reporter-News, has purposely implied that they’re all money wasters for exercising their freedom to choose their government officials.

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Robert Pratt is the host of the top-rated Pratt on Texas. Visit his website at www.prattontexas.com