Two points on maintaining credibility with the public. First, let’s turn to Texas self-anointed conservative commentator Gary Polland of Houston.
In his once widely read Conservative Review, Polland writes, in another of his columns promoting Kay Bailey Hutchison, that Governor Perry “has excessively politicized Austin”.
Yet, in the next sentences Polland writes that Perry “lacked leadership ability to advance the pro-life agenda during the 2009 state legislative session.” So on one hand, the governor is to be criticized for not politicking enough, but on the other, he is guilty of too much politicking.
Backing KBH is fine but this reasoning from Polland shows why he has lost so much esteem with conservatives in Texas. His completely personal dislike of Perry has driven his positions far more than has his conservative ideology.
Now let’s turn to the also suffering reputation damaged newspaper industry. Morris newspaper’s Austin bureau writer, Enrique Rangel, wrote a feature story this past week which focused upon Texas Tech regents being Perry donors. However, in a feature story about political donations, Rangel misled readers when he wrote that “there’s no record [former regent and Lubbock mayor Windy Sitton] has given money to Hutchison, Perry or any other candidate for state office.”
One search in the ethics commission website finds that Sitton has given five grand to Hutchison’s gubernatorial campaign through the July reporting period. It also shows that when she was playing regent under Perry’s appointment, she gave his campaigns thirty two hundred and fifty dollars. There were other factual errors in the story as well. No wonder polls of late have shown massive distrust with so-called journalism.
Robert Pratt is host of the top rated Pratt on Texas radio program which can be heard at www.PrattonTexas.com.
