The DNT tosses my column in the circular file

The Trib won’t run my column after all. According to Editor Chuck Frederick it was too much like this post from a couple days ago.

I changed it significantly but I acknowledge that the bones are still the same: Chuck wrote me with the bad news:

Hello, Board Member Welty. I see you’ve posted on your blog most, if not all, of the commentary you had sent to us for publication as your “Candidate’s View” column in the run-up to the Nov. 7 election. As you ,now, we request, always, that local content published on the News Tribune Opinion page be original and unpublished. Your submission no longer is. Please consider writing an original submission of no more than 500 words, and then we would ask that you please refrain from posting it or publishing it elsewhere (including on your blog) until it has been published by the News Tribune. Your deadline would be Oct. 20.

Thanks,
Chuck Frederick
Editorial Page Editor

I wrote back to Chuck:

Chuck,

I will see what I can do.

Harry

These are the 352 words I first sent the Trib:

Duluth’s local property taxes spent in the classroom have dived from $14 million annually twenty years ago to $2.5 million this year. That’s shocking. But the editors of the News Tribune only harp about an “ugly” past that started when discredited school board members invented phony accusations to crucify Art Johnston, whose only crime was asking tough questions.

I’ll confess that I’ve been tempted to stop defending Art Johnston because the Trib has convinced many of my eastern neighbors that Art is not only “A” problem but “THE” problem! How cheap of me. My lawnsigns proclaim that “Honesty is the best policy.” Denying Art is like Peter denying Jesus.

If the Trib wanted to report the truly “ugly” they would explain how our School District redistributes state funds for poor children to our eastern schools.

My campaign lit says: “No one has worked harder than Art Johnston to point out the exodus of Denfeld students and the growing achievement gap. We need more than cheerleaders. We need Board members with a keen financial sense who understand that a divided Duluth is a threat to the whole city.”

I know Art can be forceful. People who make a difference often are. He once made me so mad when he first ran for the school board I told him I wanted him to win because it would be the worst experience of his life. I was right. His public data requests were ignored. The Board accused him of assault, racism, conflict of interest and Rosie Loeffler-Kemp told KBJR he was “dangerous.” Art had to defend the voters who elected him by spending $75,000 to remain on the Board. When his “colleagues” utterly failed they censured him.

Milquetoasts let the Jews get carted off to concentrations camps. Art is not a milquetoast. He is a man of honor and integrity. It’s been tough being his defender but I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror if I didn’t stick up for him.

That’s not a problem for the editors of the Duluth News Tribune. I wonder if they see anything when they look into theirs?

Harry Welty

I knew that the Trib was ridiculously sensitive about publishing opinion pieces that had previously seen the light of day before although they regularly post other newspaper’s editorials. Eleven years ago I wrote a column for the lowly Duluth Reader urging voters pass a referendum financing the expansion of the DECC. Supporters at the Chamber of Commerce loved it and wanted to have it republished in the Trib. The Trib flatly refused because it had appeared in the lowly Duluth Reader. Maybe there is a reason that the Reader’s special issue runs now exceed all but the Trib’s Sunday Circulation.

I would have had to make one change in my column anyway. Rosie Loeffler-Kemp didn’t tell KBJR television that Art was “dangerous.” She told them:

“The investigation was brought forward because of Art Johnston’s violent abusive and harassing and threatening behaviors.”

I will look forward to using the full 500 words the Trib will allow me rather than the 352 words I just submitted. I will put the extra 148 words to good use.

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