Pink slip for Pigge

Sent to The Sun today:

To the Editor,

By three o’clock last Friday—the same day my hot note about the county commissioners appeared in the Sun—I was told that Salmon Press (publishers of The Mountain Ear) no longer needed my services. Of course the people who wanted me gone didn’t do the deed in person; they left it up to one of my oldest friends in the Valley who already had the unenviable task of being my editor.

There are no hard feelings. Politics and punditry go together like cops and robbers. One without the other is unthinkable. Merriam-Webster likens pundits to “authoritative critics” and while pundits are usually from the press, not all reporters are, or want to be one.

Insightful journalism is not “he said, she said.” It’s about reading up on the subject and in between the lines, getting to the bottom of the truth and exposing wrong doers and lie tellers. It is also being willing to get your nose bloodied when someone else’s nose gets out of joint. That’s what makes a good journalist.

If a public official thinks that reading the news is below him or her, then don’t bother, but approximately one third of the entire County (your employers) reads the Sun every day. And I bet that they care that Commissioner Webster gets junkets to Hawaii while they can’t afford gas to get to work. I bet they are interested to know if the Chief of Police is stealing from D.A.R.E. And I bet they want to know what other people in their community think.

So, if you are interested in what’s really going on and you’d like to read some news and opinion that even the Sun might not print, come to my new blog, “The Smoking Jacket.” We’ll torment, and comment on, the pols and the press and whatever else makes news in the Valley of the Crammed. Go to: http://piggesblog.blogspot.com/ to get started.

It’ll be wicked fun.

Peter Case
Tamworth

This blog is so new that I'll need some help getting the word out. Pretend it's like one of those chain dealies, only nothing will happen to you if you don't send the http on. But it would be damned nice of you.