What? Why is this the headline in this morning’s newspaper?
This was, quite simply, not “news.” Mayor Blangiardi had no serious opponent, and his reelection was a foregone conclusion.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Scott Saiki was being knocked off by transgender activist Kim Coco Iwamoto, in what appears to be the first time a sitting speaker has lost a reelection bid since Tadao Beppu was beaten by a Republican in 1974, and the first time a speaker was ousted in the Democratic Primary. It’s historic in that sense, and sets off an internal struggle to fill the power vacuum in the House.
That’s news.
The fact that the Blangiardi story remained as the headline in the Star-Advertiser delivered to homes this morning reflects incredibly badly on the newspaper’s judgment, and their advanced planning for election day coverage.
A head-shaking decision, for sure.
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Agreed! I still don’t know if there was going to be a third printout or if the results are now final (?)
Ian,
Your news that the Honolulu Star-Advertiser is not printing the news is not news. Nothing new here.
I agree, Ian. They couldn’t have picked a more boring, meaningless headline. The front page looks like a political promo ad. Bad judgment call. They need to make up for it the next day, when everyone has forgotten about today. Which people will do. It’s a TikTok world now. The US president was almost assassinated a month ago. It seems like it happened twenty years ago. Adults, not just kids, are living in the moment, and that is really dumb.
former former former former youknowwhatimean
Legacy media is a dog being wagged by its tail. Not worth the paper it’s printed on. Need another alternative paper, owned by area citizens, not billionaires.
Will saiki ask for a recount? Can he?
If he wants to realize he got beat by more than the first round 😀
SA is more of a propaganda print. Its editorial editors act unethically by directing selection to certain candidates. That’s a no no in Journalism! Patti Epler, Civil Beat, has been quite outspoken on the lack of ethics in such a direction by a news media. Bravo to Kim for finally replacing Saiki.Glad that the voters finally woke up in that district.
And did the paper miss the story about Clayton Hee’s loss? He spent a lot of money for a state senatorial race on TV ads admonishing us to be grateful for all he has done, all the while shown planting kalo. Now at least he’ll have time to plant more. By the way, USA Today had a much complete story about the election. When they’re better than the Star-Advertiser . . . .
My father was a journalist. A few friends keep criticizing me for not supporting the SA. I keep telling them that he (and I) cared about NEWS not newspapers! We are so lucky to have Civil Beat!!!
Hi Ian,
My first reaction was to generally agree but then after reading the entire paper one sees that the Saiki/Coco story was the lead story in the Local section. That’s in my opinion where it belongs as that district only reps several thousand people while the Mayor reps 1 million. On that basis alone I respectively disagree even with noting Saiki was sitting Speaker in his House roll and Mayor won by a large margin. What’s also ironic is one commenter complaining about billionaire owners and then another heaping praise on CIvil Beat…owned by a BILLIONAIRE owner. And so it goes….
The problem with your assessment is that Saiki wasn’t just the rep of that district. He was House Speaker, who affects the entire state, more than the City and County of Honolulu represented by the mayor. So on that basis, I disagree.
Thank you Ian. Fair point. But our type of dialogue is what I wish our country could do more of. You have an opinion and so do I…we both express our differences and make note then move on.
Exactly right. Thank you.
Thank you Joe I. and Ian L. Wish there were more of these kind of civilized assessments. Things have become so offensively polarized that it takes courage to share an opinion. I think we are all the poorer for it. There are times when a well-expressed opposing view point has caused me to reconsider and sometimes even change a position.
Thanks for a voice of reason and identifying the affinity bias embedded in the local journalism ecosystem. Echo-chambers get smaller and less impactful when journalists lean in for the political powers at be. SA is consistently on track, but other alternatives do not inspire tolerance or diversity of thought if talking points challenge the core beliefs of their political own tribe. Departure from core tenets of journalism make things worse. The experiment many not be in line with Pierre’s and Pam’s original vision affectionately known as the Blair Witch Project. There is a lot of pertinent fact that will never clear the moderators there, and the silence is deafening. Truth should be accommodated and never retaliated against, or a free press becomes a fading voice of the past.
There are implications under the surface regarding the re-confirmation of the People’s Republic of Blangiardi. Look at the turnout percentage vs. the population of Oahu. Total votes for the Mayor demonstrates that his “Team” showed up being those in the orbit of the C &C of Honolulu. The protest vote for Choon is notable as well. In full disclosure, I am a political donor to Mayor B; nobody should get a preordained rubber stamp though. That level of validation could impact the rate at which our property taxes will increase to cover the City’s bond rating and runaway labor costs.
That much unity promotes deeper potential for corruption. The FBI is far from done exploring irregularities in city corporate culture. The honest services tactic appears dead in the water to seek justice for sins of the past administration. However, if business as usual remains unchecked; then you may have much more interesting Court cases to observe in the 2nd term. A losing coach will always coddle his team, and play hard against the opposition because that is the only way they keep their job. We The People need to be concerned about how we are the opposing team and subject to a pending shakedown to cover fiscal improprieties of cost overruns. Just $0.02, probably not even valued to that amount.
Tadao Beppu was speaker when defeated by Republican Dan Hokada in 1974.
Thanks for that info. But this is may be the first time a speaker was ousted in the Democratic Primary.