McNiven Meanderings:         I’M NOT THE ONE RUNNING FOR PUBLIC OFFICE

Folks, this last Tuesday, Heights Water District Candidate, Michael Macki (who I don’t know and have never met), came into our office and placed a ‘letter to the editor’ (LTE) on behalf of Judy Bailey. I was not at the office when he came in on Tuesday morning. I asked my staff member who brought it in so that we can get a phone number for this other person to confirm and authorize the letter as well as get a town or city for them at the end of our letter. (We do this for a number of reasons for the first LTE. 1. Make sure the person is a legit person. 2. Make sure they are aware of the letter as well as authorize the letter. 3. Make sure we include a town or city at the end of the letter.)

Note, this politically motivated LTE was previously emailed to us by another candidate to be published as an LTE with the four candidates’ names at the end which YCN denied as they were all current candidates.

My staff called candidate Michael Macki to get Judy Bailey’s number so we could get her confirmation and authorization for the same letter in the paper. However, after my staff member got the phone number for Judy from Michael, he asked what the problem was and then said that he (and his associated candidates) are entitled to have equal time in our newspaper and basically demanded that we put the LTE in the paper. I just happen to overhear the conversation, his tone and entitlement of which I immediately took over the call. I let him know my name and who he is now talking to and that it’s my newspaper and that I don’t have to allow anyone or any LTE if I don’t want to. But for him to start going off on our staff like that and saying our newspaper is biased and demanding we give him equal time and opportunity is absurd. I told him to listen carefully for what I was saying to him but he kept talking over me as well as yelling and so I hung up on him, even after trying to explain to him where he was incorrect and what we were doing to no avail.

I have no patience for illogical and unreasonable people who think they can just walk in our office and have an attitude and tone of entitlement and basically demand that we publish something in our newspaper. I do admit that I was not slow to de-escalate the situation once he started going off on our newspaper like that and then for him to say that they are entitled the same time and opportunity in our paper? As you can imagine, I did not take the call very warmly or lightly.

For the record, here are the facts.

1. Our newspaper is not a radio station or television station that adheres to those kinds of FCC rules and/or regulations that give equal air time, etc.
2. Our newspaper is not a government entity that has to adhere to open meeting laws like school districts, water and sewer districts, irrigation districts or any other government formed entity that is using public taxpayer funds to operate.
3. Our newspaper does not have to publish anything in our newspaper! We are privately owned and operated. We CHOOSE and ALLOW others to publish information in the newspaper even when it’s absurd, outrageous, politically motivated, out-of-touch, or complete non-sense.
4. Our newspaper prides ourselves in being your trusted, hyper-local, weekly newspaper focusing on the hard news, issues and events that affect our communities, taxpayers and residents in Yellowstone County.
5. Regardless if you are a “so-called” Republican, or Democrat or green party environmentalist, we will still focus on the issues that we feel are important to our readers, subscribers and the taxpayers of Yellowstone County. We are a fiscal newspaper! We will follow the money! We will hold any elected official accountable to how they spend, vote and allocate taxpayers’ money! We will even opine AND report on how our elected officials are either good or bad stewards with our taxpayer funds! We have our certain locations in the paper to do that, news and information on front page, LTE section, weekly columnists, legal section and editorials.
6. We strive to do all that with respect, dignity, and a sense of community, week after week, but I digress as I did not do this with Michael Macki as he was going off on our paper and demanding equal opportunity. We don’t give out participation awards here! We are not DEI; we are the Yellowstone County News!
7. If our newspaper is not important enough and/or relevant to read, then why were you even trying to put a political LTE in our newspaper? In my opinion, you can buy an ad and that’s how the free market works. We are not government funded (like you know who). I think you owe our newspaper and reporter an apology. Despite your ill-informed entitlement mentality and tone (which essentially sounds like a liberal out-of-touch Democrat to me). Despite your efforts to usurp our policy of how we publish letters and put someone else’s name on the letter. That’s a loophole other people have also used in the past. Despite your tone, arrogance, and entitlement mentality as a candidate, we called Judy to confirm she was a real person, approved the letter, and got her location so we COULD publish it.  

We DON’T HAVE TO publish it, but we are CHOOSING to because WE CAN despite your ill-informed demand which makes you looks uneducated and out-of-touch with reality.

Now this, if I were a voter in the Billings Heights Water District, I would caution anyone voting for a new candidate like Michael Macki who jumped to conclusions telling himself his own story before listening intently and completely. He listened to respond, not to understand. I believe the Billing Heights Water District does not need a new board member in training, especially for the already soap opera deemed Heights Water District which I could write a book about.

Lastly, I’ve learned over the years being elected to public office three times, that a great characteristic of good leadership is listening to others, using good tone, and work through conflict resolution in a positive way; these characteristics will get the best results. The last thing the Heights Water District needs is another board member that is out-of-touch, ill-informed, and lacks self-control and restraint. I’ve heard my mother say many times that it’s easier to catch flies with honey than it is with vinegar. This might be some good unsolicited advice I could give to Michael Macki, (and even myself), BUT I’M NOT THE ONE RUNNING FOR PUBLIC ELECTED OFFICE!

JDM

P.S. I’ll opine on the Heights Water District Election and candidates in next week’s paper.