And if they did, why? The why is probably the relevant question because it does appear there may have been some orchestrated agreement amongst local media not to mention a national bestseller that prominently features Coos County. So why?

If the media’s job is to inform the public why omit such a newsworthy event? The book does call into question the efficacy of government support for a world class golf course that by all accounts seems to hoard its many annual visitors on the self contained Bandon Dunes resort allowing them to escape for only the barest quick meal at the occasional local restaurant in the nearby city of Bandon. The Dunes is the darling of the power elite in Coos County, calling the Dunes a “remarkable community partner”, so that may explain it. Perhaps, the Dunes had nothing to do with the blackout or maybe it was orchestrated by then SCDC executive director, Ron Opitz, now deceased. This is pure speculation on my part.

On the topic of SCDC, however, I have some issues. Commissioner Nikki Whitty advised once that SCDC was formed to act as an intermediary between the public and the government because businesses didn’t like dealing direct with the government. A year ago, while covering the Coos County Road Department, New Year’s Eve layoff for The Sentinel, I sat in on a meeting with commissioners and ORC and Ron Opitz wherein Opitz kept pressuring the commission to ‘get to a yes’ on a mineral lease with ORC. Opitz was in fact, lobbying the County on behalf of ORC and I probably still have the recording. Yet his salary is paid by public funds given annually into a ‘private’ corporation. Why is the public paying a private corporation to lobby on behalf of another private corporation? The private corporation ought to pay its own lobbyists.

This feels like a conflict of interest to me but The World (a member of SCDC?) was also present at the meeting and to my knowledge has never raised any question about the ethics of SCDC.

So back to the why would local media omit the news of Pulitzer Prize winning author, David Cay Johnston’s book? According to a 2009 US Governors’ estimate, for every million dollars spent on infrastructure 40 jobs are created. Using this general metric the $47M gas pipeline half of which is in Coos County or $23.5M and the $35M Southwest Oregon Regional Airport terminal should have created 2,340 jobs. That didn’t happen in Coos County. So where are the jobs? Where in the local economy do we find evidence of the profits made on the construction of just these two projects? Where are the jobs and where is the money?

Maybe Free Lunch was black listed specifically to keep people from asking these questions. If true, the next question is, why would local media willingly participate? What is in it for the local media to leave their readers, listeners and viewers, uninformed?

Lastly, The Dunes, ORC and the proposed Jordan Cove LNG port all benefit from enterprise zone status.