What's with Jim Walsh getting the assignment from The Times Media Group to do both pieces on actions taken at the Mesa City Council last week?
Most people who live here didn't even know they were on the agenda ahead of time.
That's the way it goes here in Mesa. And when two people take the time to engage in public discussions they get called "critics". Nice job you got, Jim Walsh! For some reason, 'the Tribune Staff Writer' Jim Walsh took the time to highlight former Mesa City Councilmember and former council candidate Verl Farnsworth in both pieces where Walsh writes that Farnsworth "ripped officials' plans" on the proposed desert land auction and called the hotel land deal corporate welfare. Walsh also called them both "Critics" publishing that Farnsworth [and current Councilmember Jeremy Whittaker] made comments about the new construction of a Marriott Hotel on that land sale nearby Sloan Park that was "attacked" by both Farnworth and Whittaker . . "But Mayor John Giles fired back . . . "
Any reasonable person might question Jim Walsh's choice of words - do they reflect some kind of bias rather than being fair-and-balanced in his writing? That's second-hand information tainted by Times Staff Writer Walsh. Was he present in-person last week to witness the public discussion of the two items? Furthermore, both articles are slanted right from start: Re: 132-acre Desert Land Auction City officials say the land "could become another Las Sendas." Re: Mesa Hotel Deal Why is the City wanting to "help maximize Cactus League revenues", when it's only about one Billion-Dollar MLB franchisee the Chicago Cubs, owned by the Billionaire-Ricketts Family where Spring Training here in Mesa only lasts a few weeks? Taxpayers already footed the bill for $200M to build Sloan Park . . . and Mayor John Giles says that the hotel "is expected to generate $200,000 in bed taxes". Great Return-On-Investment, huh? Mesa to auction prime piece of pristine desert
Here's what you might you not know about The Marriott Family:
Excerpts taken from The Marriott Family's Civil War from The Washingtonian 10 Jan 2018 John Willard Marriott III invited reporter Marisha M. Kashino to explain why he's going against his own family, which happens to control THE LARGEST HOTEL EMPIRE IN THE WORLD . . .This isn't easy for him Religion was the center of their life. He was expected to adhere to the Mormon faith. . . _________________________________________________________________________ POST-NOTE: Maybe "the critics were right" . . .
