America’s No. 1 Outdoors Role Model and the Curious Incident of My Local Paper in the Night-Time

“'Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?'

'To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.'

'The dog did nothing in the night-time.'

'That was the curious incident,' remarked Sherlock Holmes.”

-- Arthur Conan Doyle, Silver Blaze

File under: "You know you're in Trump Country when...".

Next month an "inaugural Outdoor Expo" will be held at the Bank of Springfield Center, which is a 7,700-seat multi-purpose arena which bills itself grandly as located at "1 Convention Center Plaza" but everyone knows is really on the corner of 9th and Adam here in Springfield, Illinois.

According to the article in my local newspaper, this event:

...will include multiple activities centered around outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, camping and survival.

Actually, describing it as an article is not strictly accurate.  It's really just a glowing press release for the event, which is completely understandable since local paper is sponsoring it:

“The State Journal-Register is excited to host the Outdoor Expo and provide Springfield and central Illinois residents with fun entertainment, helpful outdoor information and connections to local businesses,” SJ-R General Manager Eugene Jackson said.

And this is perfectly fair.  From election debates to recycling programs, newspapers routinely use their platform promote events they sponsor (if I owned my own local paper, I would be promoting the hell out of The Professional Left podcast and every cause my family and friends are involved with.)

To make its pitch for this Expo, State Journal-Register's leans heavily on the credentials of their "celebrity headline speaker".  In fact, the headline and seven of the nine paragraphs in their press release are spent lauding him and his many accomplishments.  According to the SJ-R, their celebrity headline speaker is not merely:

...a vocal pro-hunting voice and avid outdoorsman.

He is --

 "America’s No. 1 Outdoors Role Model"

-- who has --

...racked up numerous accolades as he has championed the outdoors, including being named favorite “Hunting Personality” by the readers of Outdoors Magazine.

-- and has an "award-winning" teevee show on the Outdoor Channel.

As if that weren't enough to wow you, in addition to his work for various charities (and being rock and role star!) the SJ-R's celebrity headline speaker is also:

...an outspoken proponent of 1st and 2nd Amendment rights, serves on the board of directors of Gun Owners of America and has served continuously on the NRA board of directors since his initial election in 1995.

In case you're unaware, the Gun Owners of America is a extremist gun-hording splinter group that split with the NRA because the NRA wasn't bloody, batshit crazy enough.  And it should come as no surprise to anyone that the SJ-R's celebrity headline speaker is on their board because the SJ-R's celebrity headline speaker is none other than Ted Nugent.

Once again, we turn to Eugene Jackson, who is now both the SJ-R's General Manager and its Director of Advertising (which should chill anyone who still holds out any hope for courageous and unbiased local news):

I am so thrilled to bring America’s No. 1 Outdoors Role Model Ted Nugent to Springfield as our headline speaker for this amazing event. We look forward to an exciting day of fun for all ages.

But what about the rest of Ted Nugent's extensive CV?  All those other things for which Ted Nugent is famous but which somehow never made it into Eugene Jackson's paean to  America’s No. 1 Outdoors Role Model?

Here's a small taste from Think Progress, April 20, 2017:

Nugent’s 2012 comments about Obama — who he has called a “piece of shit” and a “subhuman mongrel” — are far from the only threat he’s made against prominent Democrats. As the Daily Beast chronicled, Nugent discussed shooting Harry Reid during the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in 2015. In January 2016, he called for both Obama and Clinton to “be tried for treason & hung.” Nugent once called Clinton a “worthless bitch” and called for her to “ride one of these [guns] into the sunset.” He told Obama to “suck on my machine gun.”

Yeah, this is the treasonous scumbag that General Manager of the SJ-R is just fucking tickled pink will be headlining his "exciting day of fun for all ages" Outdoor Expo a month from now:

None of which you would know about if you were just an ordinary citizen who relied on what passes for "journalism" these days down here in Trump country.

Paypal:  Because My Local Paper Spent All Its Sponsorship Money on a Raving, Blood-Drunk Racist