Self-Serving Local Government Officials and Their Ringers in Award-winning Performances: “FAKE NEWS IS OUT THERE”

It would be curious to know if there was an uptick in local chiropractic or masseuse appointments after the City Council meeting of September 12, 2022. Council members and their supporters in the audience did so much back patting that there were bound to be some joints out of whack, some back and arm muscles that needed some TLC. After the business of the council’s agenda was taken care of, permit approvals here, permit denials there and other routine affairs, the Mayor Walsh love boat parade started (again), with Hizhonor leading the charge during the public comment period. This particular part of Orono city government in action is always worth watching either in person or streaming at the city’s website. You never know who will be excoriated or venerated.

Turns out that September 12th  was a feast day of Veneration, for the most part, worthy of the Academy or Emmy Awards. The Mayor had ditched the nice tie and coat he wore at the last meeting when the Star Tribune was in the house with a photographer and reporter on hand to produce what would become a front-page story August 23, 2022, detailing the council’s festering controversies, plus the real issues and some melodramas of select citizens.  Dressed in a purple Vikings jersey with Bisi Johnson’s number 81 on the back and  Walsh’s last name right above it (did he forget to change it from the Packer game Sunday?), the Mayor entertained his subjects in a most acquiescent manner.

Three individuals rose during the public comment period to tell the council and the Mayor what a great job they were doing. It seems most who spoke – followed by council members themselves – found an irresistible urge to confront what they perceived were the slings and arrows of that Star Tribune story. Were they ringers, longtime friends of the serving officials, or just cheerleaders for the Mayor in purple that night? Hard to know. But you can probably know them by their statements, offered here with these mini-awards for their arm-bending public statements:

Cut to the Chase Award

Citizen Jim Langham didn’t mince any words. First to the podium and gushing like a Long Lake fire hydrant soon to come under the command of Orono’s Department of Public Works, Langham said simply, Walsh was the “Best Mayor.”

Silence Is Golden Award

Next, Patrick Walsh (assuming no relation to the sitting mayor), perilously echoed that sentiment by boldly stating, “Without exception, Dennis Walsh is the best mayor we’ve ever had!” But then went to the Spiro Agnew/Richard Nixon playbook and brought up the “Silent Majority” trope, which was used tirelessly back in the ‘70s to viciously denounce critics of Nixon’s failed, divisive and deadly Vietnam policy. Do you know what the silent majority is, Pat Walsh asked rhetorically? He then gave the general meaning of the tired old expression.

But truth be told, this old expression is even older, nay, ancient, than the now-ironic “Nixon’s the One” campaign slogan. How old is it? According to Wikipedia, “The majority' or 'the silent majority' can be traced back to the Roman writer Petronius, who wrote abiit ad plures (he is gone to the majority) to describe deceased people, since the dead outnumber the living… The phrase was used for much of the 19th century to refer to the dead.” So, yikes, was P. Walsh speaking on behalf of the non-living -- or the living dead, as they say in all those Zombie movies?

Agnew, by the way, went to jail. And in a first for the nation, after the calamitous Watergate hearings, Nixon resigned the presidency.

Best Strib Bashers Award

Gary Gutskey also resorted to rhetoric – the bloated rhetoric one often hears when a newspaper story riles the locals and rattles City Hall: “ The good stuff doesn’t get published  and the bad stuff does.” So, to be clear, did Gutskey mean the bad stuff the council might allegedly be doing  is why the story was published?!

Best Pity Party Award

Councilmember Victoria Seals thanked all the members of the academy, er, the public and said she too had to set the record straight for people she encountered about what she thought were all the one-sided slants of the Strib piece, another cliché of first resort used to defend against the perceived wrongs newspaper reporters inflict on those who claim they are innocent of the doings leveled against them.

Councilwoman Seals also claimed council members often were “being abused.” Perhaps that’s true for the guy who won’t let go of the video rant, but  please Councilwoman,  next time, up your angst factor a notch and at least clutch a Kleenex or something to really show how hard it is to be a council member in Orono these days.

And so it went. The night wore on. Council member Crosby, valiantly washing his hands of the stormy Strib stuff and piling on with the rah-rah, sniffed that he much preferred reading The Wall Street Journal. The last time we checked though, the Journal doesn’t cover the antics or politics of small communities like Orono. Unless they rise to a level where such actions merit national news media attention – and by our reckoning, the Orono City Council is getting pretty darn close. Be careful what newspaper choices you stand for, councilor.

Best Performance by a Sitting Council Member in a Damming Moment Award

In a surprise even to jaded viewers of the council’s weekly performances, the night finally belonged to Council member, Aaron Printup, also clad in purple. Showing simpatico for fellow members and a small handful of alleged public supporters, Printup felt he too must condemn the Strib story. But the way in which he did it no doubt shocked those viewing at home as the backslapping came to a revealing finish.

“Fake news is out there,” Printup said at approximately 1:22:50. What’s the old saying, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them”…. His award-winning remark also begged the question, Is he really a Trumpee? Repeating such baseless cliches was a true stunner! Or was he just tired and let one slip? But Printup just couldn’t leave it there. He capriciously added that the Strib sometimes doesn’t tell both sides of the story. Gulp.

That would be news to the Star Tribune staffers and their peers working in Twin Cities media.