WARNING: EDITORIALIZING, BELOW

LOCALS ONLY (all others turn back now!)

By Tom Scanlon

I’d like to begin this column by boldly stating:

“I heart Dave Creighton!”

I’ll get back to that, and explain why, after meandering around a bit. 

Now, I’d like to clearly mark the above as “opinion,” and note that this column is, indeed, a column. As opposed to a News story.

As the Editor of this newspaper, I have journalistic license to opine, with the understanding that “editorializing” will be clearly marked, as such.

The Editor’s Editor (a.k.a. my wife) felt that a News story last week, in which I covered the City Council retreat, “had too much of your opinions.”

I don’t necessarily share her opinion of my opinionizing, but I will accept it, as: a) she’s almost-always right; b) I’m often-wrong; and c) just about everyone I’ve asked agrees with her.

I’d like to digress, by accepting full responsibility for my mistakes in judgment. I have no one else to blame (or I gladly would). 

That said, let me offer several excuses (choose whichever seems most believable):

-A-Rod accidentally injected me with steroids, causing moods swings and arrogance in my otherwise agreeable nature.

-My blood sugar that day was too low. Or too high. Or both. (Whichever makes me seem more sympathetic.)

-As I was typing, and possibly due to Global Warming, the sun was in my eye, causing me to type “grumpy” rather than “highly respected,” with regard to Mr. Creighton.

-Due to the Recession, several thousand of my brain cells were, sadly, laid off.

-The Retreat was so relatively non-newsy, I stooped to gratuitous hyperbole, in an attempt to entertain, rather than simply inform.

It was pointed out to me that, in characterizing the veteran councilman Creighton as  a grumpy pessimist, and Mayor Dean Bunkers as a “forward-charging optimist,” I was giving my unofficial seal of approval to the latter, at the expense of the former.

This was not in any way my intention; yet even the possibility that the story could be read that way disturbs me, and shows I was not doing my job very well, at all.

The quotations I used certainly back up my characterizations. Creighton repeatedly called attention 

to mistakes he said the City Council has made in the past, when “we were spending money like drunken sailors” and “we were lied to and lied to.”

And Bunkers, who has said on several occasions he does not want to get tied up by dwelling on the past, quite optimistically stated that Ocean Shores would emerge from the Recession long before the rest of the country.

Yet, as an avid reader who attended the Retreat told me (when I asked him): “You should have just stated what they said, and let the readers draw conclusions.”

I won’t argue that.

I will argue that “pessimist” is a slander. It takes 

one to know one, and I’m one. 

I’m not just a pessimist, I’m a worst-case-scenario-ist. I not only view the glass as half-empty, I worry that it might be poison (or, almost as bad, Ocean 

Shores drinking water).

Dave Creighton has been going around saying that, if we don’t get our act together, Ocean Shores is in big, big trouble. We have to learn from our past mistakes, he keeps saying.

And that’s one reason why I heart him.

Personally, at least.

Professionally, I love (I’ll stop using the annoying “heart,” you’re very welcome) this guy, because he is a journalistic gold mine. Quote factory.

Where some people say something outrageous, stop to think about it, and then back-pedal, Dave Creighton will publicly say something outlandish, stop to think about it, and then say something even more over-the-top.

When I first started covering City Council, I suspected he was a cast-off from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” But, as I watched other politicians cautiously dip their big toes in issues, I began to revel in Creighton’s head-first plunges.

I’m not going to say I always think he’s on the right track, but at least you know where he stands.

And I’m not going to say we could use six more Dave Creightons on City Council, but maybe one or two.

Well, that’s enough opinionizing, even for a clearly marked “column.” Let me leave you with the pledge to keep opinions and/or characterizations out of News stories.

I’d also like to add one more excuse:

-Temporary Creightonitis.

tscanlon@northcoastnews.com