Thursday, March 15, 2007

Et tu Brutus?

PLEASE SUPPORT WTIP!

True North gets a lot of email; some complaints; some compliments; and so far requests from three local organizations who object to having a link from True North to their web pages, even though it is made abundantly clear that the links are a simple service to readers and do not imply any endorsement either way. WTIP is the latest to request that their name not appear on this august page. We are honored that they thought they had an affilitation with us. Sorry, it ain't so.

No problem. WTIP's name shall not be sullied. We are here to serve the whole community; the strong and the weak. One would have expected a greater degree of resistance to pressure from WTIP, but they have to be cognizant of the ever present need for contributions and cannot rock the collection plate.

The issue, in part, lies with those who feel that some venues for the exchange of ideas are better, more important, and more worthy than others, and that those that allow the expression of uncensored thought and ideas that would not otherwise be heard are somehow distasteful. But mainly it comes down to responding to the outside pressure of those who do not like non mainstream thought being freely available to the community. As one of our regular contributors is wont to repeat, just follow the money.

We love WTIP. It is extremely important to the vitality and identity of Grand Marais. It is an unbelievable asset to the whole community and much appreciated even by those of low character who produce this blog and the several thousand uncultured who have read at least part of it since its inception. WTIP is literally a shining beacon on the hill, at least a beacon of service, culture and information. We are but a small candle lost in WTIP's bright light.

There are questions WTIP's board should be asking itself. They include: What about courage? Wherein does courage lie? What is the the "nature" of the WTIP organization? What is the role of public radio in a community such as Grand Marais?

We had kind of hoped that demonstrating a bit of independence and backbone would have been somewhere in the answers.

To show that we have no hard feelings we will continue to urge our readers to support WTIP every chance we get.

Beware the Ides of March indeed!

As ever, and in support of WTIP,

True


March 15, 2007


Owners of True North:

We request the removal of the "WTIP - Real Public Radio" link from the blog
site truenorthgm.blogspot.com, effective immediately. Due to the nature of
our organization we do not wish to be affiliated with this blog.

We appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.


WTIP Board of Directors

Dehlia C. Seim, President
Hyla Napadensky, Treasurer
Jonathan Hedstrom



Request sent by email to:
truenorthgm@gmail.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

True,

You are too hard on WTIP. To be fair they do have to consider the bottom line. There are a no doubt a lot of people in the community that do not like what is posted on True or the comments you allow and are WTIP's supporters. Obviously they complained.

WTIP cannot exist without broad community support and they know they have to work hard to accomodate the conservative side, but can always count on the the progressives no matter how they treat them.

Anonymous said...

WTIP is making me think of MPR! Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

WTIP's demand reflects on the whole community, but considering the date, perhaps it thinks itself Caesar's wife!

Anonymous said...

What a shame that WTIP has slammed True with this request.
It brings to mind a time when Molly Ivins was under the gun at the Texas Observor for saying some things people did not like. Not only did the paper refuse to back down, they published the offensive writings in her first book, called "Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?"
As for being too hard on WTIP, well, I guess True probably hopes for a little support from his friends, if not his adversaries.

Anonymous said...

One has to wonder, was this thought up by the WTIP board or something orchestrated by MS. Seim?
Whichever, it shows extremely poor judgement. And it is a sad commentary on the climate in this community that people have to be so fearful.