Bob Ingle's Corzine Hate Blinds Him To Truth

by: huntsu

Sun May 13, 2007 at 06:49:25 PM EDT

How about this one, where Ingle accused the Governor of New Jersey of caring more about media corporations outside the state instead of our great New Jersey-owned media.

Drumthwacket's 15-minute mini news events were absent electronic media like 101.5 FM radio newsman Kevin McArdle. That's because NBC's "Today" show wouldn't allow the governor to talk to Matt Lauer unless the Corzine people agreed to delay all other electronic media.

Corzine let an out-of-state corporation make his decisions to the detriment of N.J. media.

We'll leave aside the fact that Bob Ingle's checks don't come from the Asbury Park Press or the Home News Tribune, but from the Gannett, an "out-of-state corporation" that owns quite a few newspapers.

But how about the fact that Ingle is standing up for the great 101.5 (home of the Jersey Guys show Ingle appears on every Friday) as if it were " N.J. media" and NBC - which broadcasts to all of NJ, too -- is not. 

New Jersey 101.5, also known as WKXW (FM), is owned by Millennium Radio Group, LLC.  According to a press release from June 6, 2001, Millennium is owned by both UBS Capital Americas and Mercury Capital Partners, neither of which is owned or operated out of New Jersey.

So Ingle is slamming the Governor for dealing with an out of state media corporation that broadcasts to New Jersey and the rest of the country instead of dealing with an out of state media corporation that broadcasts only to New Jersey.

If that strikes you as a bit of a stupid stretch, then you are about spot on and get 50 points.  Points are, of course, worth nothing but you can still use them to keep score if you want.

That's almost ridiculously stupid, not only because anyone who has massive physical damage will have short press conferences, but also because the Governor would probably gleefully answer Katz questions after he was exonerated earlier in the week by his ethics committee.

Ingle covers that up by saying:

The report says Corzine did nothing wrong. But it also suggests new rules. If he did nothing wrong, what is the need for new rules?

Bob Ingle is the Trenton Bureau chief for Gannett, an out of state corporation.  Anyone who is a basic political reporter knows that even in cases where no ethics violations committees usually suggest changes that will avoid the appearance of impropriety.  The issue is not that Corzine and Katz did anything wrong, but that the appearance was there.

Ingle is the Bureau chief, and professes not to understand this simple fact of ethics boards.  For most columnists, that would lead me to think he was either incompetent or a fabricator.

For Ingle, I suspect it is simply Corzine hate rearing it's ugly head again.