As a young, energetic lad striving to succeed, I chased airplanes all over the USA. I flew for a living for 25 years and went to Philly, Houston, Denver, LA, and Miami, and all points in between. It was like most people going to the office. The routine was just standard procedure.
Then, I changed jobs and flying became much less frequent. In all the towns and major cities I visited during those years, there were two things I bragged about. One was being fortunate enough to live in the DFW area, and the other was the Dallas Morning News. I was proud of both.
From 1966 to 1975, I subscribed to the DMN, Sunday edition only. I lived in Tyler. However, I moved to Rowlett in 1975 and began taking the DMN on a daily basis. That makes me a DMN subscriber for 54 years.
However, I now rarely read the paper. I'm still a subscriber. My wife still likes the puzzles and reads the paper for very limited unbiased news. During the past few years the DMN has changed......in my opinion not to the good. Occasionally, I read the sports pages and the business pages, but not often. I used to read the DMN cover to cover every morning for over 50 years, but it's been changing over the past 10 years, or so. I finally got tired of starting off my day, every day, pissed off. I was snarling at my cup of coffee after reading the DMN at the dining table. My first greeting to anyone in the morning became, "Go to hell!!"
What changed? I didn't. I'm still me. However, the DMN changed from a first class newspaper to a propaganda tool for the far left leaning socialists. It wasn't just their opinions on the editorial page, which are proper and okay. It was the story selection in the makeup room. It was the headline writing. It was the left leaning writing of the bi-line columnists. It was the constant re-print of biased New York Times articles. If I wanted to read the New York Times, I would have subscribed to it.
Let me share some examples. All the below references come from ONE PAGE in the Metro & Business Section of the DMN of November 9, 2019, just over a month ago.
There were four lead articles on this Metro & Business back page section of the DMN.
The first article, written by Dom Difurio, staff writer, was about a gentleman, Mr. Hines, from California who moved to Dallas and was promptly hoodwinked by inscrutable real estate people. The house he bought was falling apart. However, the article was really and inadvertently about due diligence. That is a responsibility that all potential property buyers must exercise before purchasing a property. Just because you bought trash doesn't always mean it's the other guy's fault. The buyer bears some responsibility, too. This even applies to people from California. He (and apparently his Broker) selected an inspector. Also, apparently, the inspector was very bad. The inspector seemed to miss a lot of things that even my 19 year old grand daughter would find. Long story short, he bought the house and incurred about $40,000 in repairs after he bought it. Right away, the Broker and the inspector are subject to a lawsuit, however the reporter for the DMN never mentioned it. Instead, he thought it would be cute to quote the purchaser's California friends as describing the Dallas/Fort Worth area and Texas as, "Flat, Wasteland, Conservative, and Cowboys." This is a writer on the Dallas Morning News.
Now, rather than offering suggestions on a remedy for Mr. Hines problems, the writer proceeds to further describe flaws in the house.....and Dallas.......and Texas. Firstly, the broker, previous owner, and the inspector are all liable because of not disclosing any known defect information or incompetence. Secondly, as written above, the purchaser has some "due diligence" responsibility. It would have helped if some intelligence was present. If the DMN wanted to be a service to the community, they should have researched this issue and publish an article that would help the subject of the article and the population in general. Instead, they launched into a tirade of criticisms because the purchaser "didn't know anything about Texas." Now, that is a crackerjack defense.
Now, our knowledgeable DMN writer felt compelled to inform all readers that, altho the house was 60 years old, it began to "sink into the ground." Folks, I have never known a house to sink into the air. Furthermore, if a house had foundation repairs made, that should have been disclosed. If a house is on expansive clay soil, there would have been problems (big problems) over 60 years. There should have been warranties available from reputable foundation repair companies. Of course, plumbing repairs usually accompany slab repairs.
Speaking of slabs, one of the pieces of wisdom imparted by the purchaser was, "Inspectors should go under a house." Did you ever try to "go under" a slab house?
In fairness to the writer, he did proceed to offer some fairly solid (but hardly technical) advice to potential purchasers in future encounters.
On the same page as the above article, a news story appeared regarding the death of a young lady while in police custody. It is a sad story, but in my opinion, the police department was painted into a bad light. Apparently, the young lady was arrested and placed in custody, after demonstrating some bizarre behavior with her boy friend. However, she died from some type of reaction while in custody. She would have been normally transferred to a medical facility, but Dallas-Fire Rescue cleared her for transport to jail. I wasn't there. I don't know the full story, but the Dallas Police Department was not held up to a good light. Protests were scheduled.
Again on the same page, Child Protective Services in Kerrville came under fire for what was characterized as "suicide watch rooms." Apparently, there was a mural painted on the wall depicting an angel cradling a youngster as they flew up into heaven. When it was discovered, it became a cause celeb for upper management to fight among themselves. Lots of finger pointing. The manager of the facility said, "My wife painted that angel in the timeout room about 10 years ago to show love and protection to children and she is just devastated at the interpretation of the monitors." Well, of course, that's not newsworthy.
Doesn't sound like a suicide room to me, but again I wasn't there. However, made for a good story. Some politician will get some mileage out of it. I just needed some accurate news.
The final article on the same page was about the brew ha-ha created in Frisco when it was proposed that 10 minutes be added to each class day to allow an earlier release for Summer Break each year. I agree with the writer, Sharon Grigsby, that such a change would be nearly catastrophic to the tight scheduling each parent has in shepherding their young'uns to school. The real culprit in presentation seems to be administrative. Apparantly, there are options. That's not a slam against the Texas or Dallas area, but it doesn't say much for local administrative skills.
Folks, all the above was on one page of the Dallas Morning News on one day. There are virtually unlimited other examples. It just doesn't seem like the DMN cares to root for the home team, anymore. There are probably too many conservatives in their market area for their comfort. It's ironic that the conservatives are mainly the ones that subscribe to the paper and buys advertising space.
If the Dallas Morning News doesn't need me, I certainly don't need them. It is with some sadness that I must announce our divorce after 54 years.
Then, I changed jobs and flying became much less frequent. In all the towns and major cities I visited during those years, there were two things I bragged about. One was being fortunate enough to live in the DFW area, and the other was the Dallas Morning News. I was proud of both.
From 1966 to 1975, I subscribed to the DMN, Sunday edition only. I lived in Tyler. However, I moved to Rowlett in 1975 and began taking the DMN on a daily basis. That makes me a DMN subscriber for 54 years.
However, I now rarely read the paper. I'm still a subscriber. My wife still likes the puzzles and reads the paper for very limited unbiased news. During the past few years the DMN has changed......in my opinion not to the good. Occasionally, I read the sports pages and the business pages, but not often. I used to read the DMN cover to cover every morning for over 50 years, but it's been changing over the past 10 years, or so. I finally got tired of starting off my day, every day, pissed off. I was snarling at my cup of coffee after reading the DMN at the dining table. My first greeting to anyone in the morning became, "Go to hell!!"
What changed? I didn't. I'm still me. However, the DMN changed from a first class newspaper to a propaganda tool for the far left leaning socialists. It wasn't just their opinions on the editorial page, which are proper and okay. It was the story selection in the makeup room. It was the headline writing. It was the left leaning writing of the bi-line columnists. It was the constant re-print of biased New York Times articles. If I wanted to read the New York Times, I would have subscribed to it.
Let me share some examples. All the below references come from ONE PAGE in the Metro & Business Section of the DMN of November 9, 2019, just over a month ago.
There were four lead articles on this Metro & Business back page section of the DMN.
The first article, written by Dom Difurio, staff writer, was about a gentleman, Mr. Hines, from California who moved to Dallas and was promptly hoodwinked by inscrutable real estate people. The house he bought was falling apart. However, the article was really and inadvertently about due diligence. That is a responsibility that all potential property buyers must exercise before purchasing a property. Just because you bought trash doesn't always mean it's the other guy's fault. The buyer bears some responsibility, too. This even applies to people from California. He (and apparently his Broker) selected an inspector. Also, apparently, the inspector was very bad. The inspector seemed to miss a lot of things that even my 19 year old grand daughter would find. Long story short, he bought the house and incurred about $40,000 in repairs after he bought it. Right away, the Broker and the inspector are subject to a lawsuit, however the reporter for the DMN never mentioned it. Instead, he thought it would be cute to quote the purchaser's California friends as describing the Dallas/Fort Worth area and Texas as, "Flat, Wasteland, Conservative, and Cowboys." This is a writer on the Dallas Morning News.
Now, rather than offering suggestions on a remedy for Mr. Hines problems, the writer proceeds to further describe flaws in the house.....and Dallas.......and Texas. Firstly, the broker, previous owner, and the inspector are all liable because of not disclosing any known defect information or incompetence. Secondly, as written above, the purchaser has some "due diligence" responsibility. It would have helped if some intelligence was present. If the DMN wanted to be a service to the community, they should have researched this issue and publish an article that would help the subject of the article and the population in general. Instead, they launched into a tirade of criticisms because the purchaser "didn't know anything about Texas." Now, that is a crackerjack defense.
Now, our knowledgeable DMN writer felt compelled to inform all readers that, altho the house was 60 years old, it began to "sink into the ground." Folks, I have never known a house to sink into the air. Furthermore, if a house had foundation repairs made, that should have been disclosed. If a house is on expansive clay soil, there would have been problems (big problems) over 60 years. There should have been warranties available from reputable foundation repair companies. Of course, plumbing repairs usually accompany slab repairs.
Speaking of slabs, one of the pieces of wisdom imparted by the purchaser was, "Inspectors should go under a house." Did you ever try to "go under" a slab house?
In fairness to the writer, he did proceed to offer some fairly solid (but hardly technical) advice to potential purchasers in future encounters.
On the same page as the above article, a news story appeared regarding the death of a young lady while in police custody. It is a sad story, but in my opinion, the police department was painted into a bad light. Apparently, the young lady was arrested and placed in custody, after demonstrating some bizarre behavior with her boy friend. However, she died from some type of reaction while in custody. She would have been normally transferred to a medical facility, but Dallas-Fire Rescue cleared her for transport to jail. I wasn't there. I don't know the full story, but the Dallas Police Department was not held up to a good light. Protests were scheduled.
Again on the same page, Child Protective Services in Kerrville came under fire for what was characterized as "suicide watch rooms." Apparently, there was a mural painted on the wall depicting an angel cradling a youngster as they flew up into heaven. When it was discovered, it became a cause celeb for upper management to fight among themselves. Lots of finger pointing. The manager of the facility said, "My wife painted that angel in the timeout room about 10 years ago to show love and protection to children and she is just devastated at the interpretation of the monitors." Well, of course, that's not newsworthy.
Doesn't sound like a suicide room to me, but again I wasn't there. However, made for a good story. Some politician will get some mileage out of it. I just needed some accurate news.
The final article on the same page was about the brew ha-ha created in Frisco when it was proposed that 10 minutes be added to each class day to allow an earlier release for Summer Break each year. I agree with the writer, Sharon Grigsby, that such a change would be nearly catastrophic to the tight scheduling each parent has in shepherding their young'uns to school. The real culprit in presentation seems to be administrative. Apparantly, there are options. That's not a slam against the Texas or Dallas area, but it doesn't say much for local administrative skills.
Folks, all the above was on one page of the Dallas Morning News on one day. There are virtually unlimited other examples. It just doesn't seem like the DMN cares to root for the home team, anymore. There are probably too many conservatives in their market area for their comfort. It's ironic that the conservatives are mainly the ones that subscribe to the paper and buys advertising space.
If the Dallas Morning News doesn't need me, I certainly don't need them. It is with some sadness that I must announce our divorce after 54 years.
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