Lockwood Headed For Stint In Journalism Purgatory?
Maybe Frank Lockwood is a newsman after all. Lockwood? He’s a former reporter for the Idaho Statesman and Twin Falls Times-News who served as Gov. Phil Batt’s press secretary for the past nine months. Now, he’s called it quits. Said Lockwood: “They need somebody on this job probably who’s a little more partisan than I am.”
Translation: Batt needs someone who believes the governor walks on water, even when he’s sunk up to his arm pits in alligators.
Journalists make poor true believers because, by nature, we look for character flaws, check trashcans for incriminating evidence and rarely gush. A press secretary, which is a glorified term for PR flak, must view his boss, agency or product through rose-colored glasses to survive. They lose a piece of their soul and credibility for that privilege. It’ll be interesting to see where Lockwood lands. And how much penance he has to do should he decide to return to the media fold.
New Mexico doesn’t appreciate racism, either
New Mexicans gave America’s Promise Ministries a fine howdy-do during a recent summer camp at Mountainair, N.M. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, for example, issued a “Proclamation of Un-Welcome” to the Christian Identity church, which he said poisons the Internet with white supremacist propaganda.
The Sandpoint church teaches (stop me if you’ve heard this tripe before) that whites of northern European descent are the only true Israelites and that Jews are children of Satan. That’s not the kind of message that will win you friends and influence people in New Mexico, which has a rich mixture of ethnic groups.
In fact, it hardly plays up here in lily-white North Idaho. Still, Mountainair has an edge on Sandpoint in the war against racism. Summer camps end.
Howman finally puts the district first
Bob Howman, Bonner County schools special education director, finally did something right for his district. He quit. In doing so, he removed himself as a central figure in ongoing controversies and saved the district any need it might have had to buy him out of his contract.
Howman overspent his budget and mystified district employees by claiming he was an ex-Supreme Court clerk, pro football player and Olympian. Also, he was caught on tape leaving an expletive-deleted phone message that indicated his department’s accounting books weren’t in order. Despite all of the above and more, the old school board renewed Howman’s contract. Maybe that’s why two of those trustees now are on the outside looking in.
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