A Funny Thing Happened

In a discussion with a local resident recently, a reference
was made to this publication as "your underground paper."

When I replied "an underground paper?" the reply was,
"well it isn't the Iron County Reporter."

I took all this to mean that there is an element in the local
population that attempts to minimize the impact of this
publication by using diminutive labeling that circulates
through the community. I would expect nothing less from
those who feel threatened  by our efforts. They're so very
used to having the local press being supportive of every burp
and utterance that they are unable to deal with a real analysis
of their actions. And to top it all off, they depend heavily on
the local rumor mill to support their agendas.

Here's what makes the comment so funny. We publish our
ISSN number (that's the number the Library of Congress
issues to serial publications) at the head of this web page.
I don't see that anywhere in the Reporter. And we openly
subscribe to the Journalism Code of Ethics. Don't see that
in the Reporter anywhere, do you? It isn't there as a promise,
and it sure isn't obvious in their work. Finally, our Associate
Editor, Ben Smith, was granted White House press
credentials for President Obama's visit to Marquette last
year. We didn't see anyone from the Reporter there either.
We know what an "underground paper" is. Those were
published in Romania under the Ceausescu regime. That 
certainly isn't the case for this publication, not by a long 
shot. But calling it an underground paper does show how 
desperate some of the people comprising the Iron County 
political machine have become of late. And that's truly 
funny.

That presents us with the next funny rumor making the 
rounds. We've heard from several sources that Judge
Schwedler intends to resign before the end of his term 
and recommend Melissa Powell, our current prosecutor, 
for the position.

If this "rumor" happens to be true, well that wouldn't be
very funny, would it.

Bill Vajk