It’s All About Fireworks and Freedom

As we celebrate our Independence next week, let us think about what it means in our everyday lives. We watch how Justice works – or doesn’t. We worship as we please. We come and go at Liberty. We even speak our minds freely.

A story teller is rarely taken to task over proof. That is why a whisper campaign is so effective. The unreliability of spoken “facts” is also why print media is considered most credible. The CBS debacle, Rather’s Resignation, and other such slanted news broadcasts revealed a sickness in reporting that shook everyone’s faith in both print and telecast news. That’s why TheDogPress is careful.

We respect Freedom Of The Press and The Journalist’s Creed. We take exception to news items presented as “facts” when they are not. This editor reads between the lines and understands how the power of the pen can be manipulated. Most lies are only uninformed gossip but they can be dangerous and hurtful. 

A classic example is the Boulton Case. How do you know when someone says they “know” something that they really do? Ask how they know it. Note how they respond. It usually turns out that they heard it, meaning they actually know less than you do! After all, you get TheDogPress <grin> which accurately reports news and limits editorial opinion to the section you are reading now.  I am said to be critical of AKC. I plead guilty.  My defense is that I’ve been an AKC disciple and reporter for over forty years, thus I report the bad with the good.  Judges are far from perfect but it rankles me when people slander each other in order to curry favor with AKC.

In the real world I'd be lauded and awarded but I’m not Drudge, I am just a “dog person.” So I question why AKC has been so amazingly non-specific about exactly what Boulton is alleged to have done? His terminal transgression seems defined by the “damn fool” remark which was taken out of context and as proven in the Trial Board, was in response to a hypothetical question, not about his friend Frank Sabella as has been widely whispered.  Pondering the immense implications, a reasonable person must conclude that no one would make such derogatory comments on national television in the context in which they were shown! Who among us would work so hard to become a group-level judge and then risk it all, repeatedly, on camera? For the record, I have never spoken with George Boulton and know him not. I am simply posing logical questions.

AKC can do laughably stupid things but ignorant it is not. AKC can afford the best legal advice, PR people, and marketing firms but that doesn’t mean it always consults before acting…. In this instance, historically speaking, the charges against Boulton should have been added to the “never defeated” AKC brag list.  And true, a couple of years ago, a controlled press would have coyly presented it as a lesson to all judges who would dare to step off the beaten path. AKC mouth organs would’ve had a field day blabbing the “news.”

One might envision the faithful panting over inevitable results they were forbidden to talk about until the Trial Board added its stamp of approval to that which AKC intended. Suddenly, instead of howling in ecstasy, insiders were left gasping in disbelief when the trial backfired!  Judges who would have been effectively warned “get out of line - get out of work” were strengthened instead of chastised. What happened?

The inescapable fact is that George Boulton is NOT the fool he was portrayed to be. A fool would have bowed to the inevitable, accepted the consequences. Instead, an innocent man sought help. He hired a top notch lawyer who could not be intimidated or out-lawyered. Blowup!! The fireworks crowd is getting restless. Nothing has properly ignited….

Now comes Damage Control. Imagine yourself in a meeting wherein the only recourse is to either admit defeat (unheard of!) or dip into the black powder barrel and blow up that pesky decision. Someone suggests there might be “evidence” that the trial board didn’t know about. A quick-thinking member of the brain-storming session says it wouldn’t be hard to leak the existence of “more evidence” and that favor-seekers would happily shoot off their mouths about it and effectively defuse the mess. The decision is made to send the mindless minions out to convince people that what happened didn’t. Count that mythical meeting as Fireworks Failed!!

The fireworks turned into a dud smoldering at both ends. Either this guy AKC considered worthy of its ultimate stamp of approval turned into a blithering, loose-mouthed idiot or AKC’s judgment of judges is dead wrong. Should we believe the temporary lure of stardom made a successful guy throw away a lifetime of achievement for the opportunity to throw repeated insults at the sport and his fellow judges, week after week, episode after episode? No?  Okay, then he is the same person AKC sent out (up until that very day) to represent the corporation and the sport.  It is either - or.  Take your pick.

Hmmm, so perhaps AKC realized the rocket could turn into a bomb so it re-loaded the PR weapon? Someone decides to prove Boulton is a fool and therefore capable of doing and saying the unthinkable of which he is accused? The word goes out that Boulton signed a contract he didn’t read and only a fool would do that!!! We might assume that the TV producers were using a standard contract that hundreds of attorneys have haggled over and refined. So “foolish” Boulton signed the contract without reading – or understanding it.

There, that proves everything.

Get ready, here comes the grand finale, the big bang. Uh oh, this thing has a very Short Fuse! That is us they are talking about!  Every person who ever bought a house or a car should forfeit it because we didn’t read what we believed to be a standard contract? Surely we have never signed a contract we didn’t fully understand?  Who ever understands a contract? In fact, is that not why they have attorneys and judges? To interpret such contractual agreements? How insulting!

Bad Fireworks set off alarms. Somebody call the fire department!!! These bombs might be termed “judgment errors” but would surely cost a corporate exec his job if it ever got out to the stockholders. Actually, this is more like government. Stockholders are voters. We are the people who elect Delegates who represent us to the governing body. That is why we celebrate our Declaration Of Independence.

For those who find the seat getting hard, the fireworks too long delayed and thunder rumbling, remember where you live. When you celebrate next week, let it be about “Liberty and justice for all.”

Think of these words from the The American’s Creed by William Tyler Page as printed in the April 13, 1918 Congressional Record “a Government of the people by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed.”

George Boulton has filed an appeal.  Is it the end of the show, the "Grand Finale" or the beginning of more fireworks?

AKC vs Boulton 1 - Trial How the nightmare began and the charges.