Times Gives Billy Powell Special Treatment

Yesterday The Gainesville Times had a story about Commissioner Billy Powell’s foreclosure on the office building at 329 Oak Street in Gainesville.  Billy owns a 17,000 square foot building in downtown Gainesville, that he has not paid the mortgage on since January 2012.  The story seemed to be well written and thorough.  One question that was not asked, however, was what is Billy doing with the rent he is collecting from the IRS if he is not paying the mortgage?  Maybe he used it to take the fishing trip with his buddies during the last week of the election?  His answer would have been interesting.

My problem is with the process.  Fairness is not judged by the result, but the equality of the process.  That is a key difference between Republicans and Democrats.  Democrats only want to judge fairness by who wins–and anytime they don’t win then the result is “unfair” in their estimation.  However Republicans believe that if the process by which the winners are chosen is unbiased and equal for all participants, then the process is “fair” and the result is not only fair but just.  (I will be addressing this issue of fairness and how it relates to the issue of illegal immigration my good friend and illegal immigration advocate Arturo Corso brings up again this weekend.)

The Times online chose to block the comments by the public in the Billy Powell article.  As readers of the online version of The Times will recall, in prior stories of Commissioner’s Lutz and Gibbs’s personal financial issues, the comments were enabled.  And if you read the comments, they were… well harsh.  I can only deduce that The Times is giving Billy some special treatment, and I say that is unfair or at the least inconsistent.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.