Special message for those who think I shouldn’t run the Trump vs Fire Marshal stories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTvsxTgzPjk
At 1:23:56 in the video above, Donald Trump praises the local fire marshal at a rally in Pennsylvania yesterday (Monday). This comes after Trump accused fire marshals in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Friday and Columbus, Ohio yesterday of being politically motivated in their decisions about crowd size.
This is a special message for all those blasting me for running stories about Donald Trump and his issues with various fire marshals around the country. First of all, I appreciate your concerns and always pay close attention to the criticism. I’ve tried to answer each of your questions and complaints over the last couple of days and will continue to do so. Anybody who would like to write a column explaining why my news judgments are in error, reach out to me and I will make arrangements to publish it on STATter911.
In an effort to put my position in perspective, here’s a scenario, along with a few questions, that should help you understand my point of view.
Capacity for the gym is 3,500. Campaign was told by fire marshal they couldn’t let anyone else in. #trumpinpa pic.twitter.com/bdwMnU0DjN
— Julia Hatmaker (@JuliaHatmaker) August 1, 2016
The video above is from yesterday’s event where Donald Trump praised the fire marshal.
Let’s pretend businessman Joe Blow from New York has gone to a handful of cities around the country holding his very popular self-help seminar in large meeting rooms. In each of the cities he ends up having a run-in with the local fire marshal over the number of people who can attend the event. Mr. Blow takes his complaint public each time, both during the seminar and afterwards with the news media. In those complaints, Mr. Blow questions the integrity, competence and motive of the fire marshal involved. Here are the questions:
- As firefighters, knowing what you know about these sort of disputes, would you naturally default to believing the problem is with all of the fire marshals rather than Mr. Blow?
- Would you immediately come to the conclusion there is a conspiracy by the fire marshals against Mr. Blow?
- Would you be making excuses for Mr. Blow?
My guess is that most firefighters would naturally come down on side of the FMs (which has been the case with the majority of these commenting, even many Trump supporters). Don’t you think you would likely assess these facts and, unless presented with very clear evidence otherwise, stick up for the fire marshals?
Now, knowing that Mr. Blow is going from city to city blaming his problems on local fire marshals, here are some more questions:
- Wouldn’t you want the word to get out to all fire departments?
- Wouldn’t you want your fire marshal to know that Mr. Blow could be arriving in your city soon causing the very same problems?
To me, it doesn’t matter if Mr. Blow’s last name is really Trump, Clinton, Johnson, Stein or any other name. Who I am voting for on November 8 also has no impact on whether I run these stories. In simple terms, I see it as interesting and unusual fire service news that I think should be widely shared.
While I generally avoid presidential politics, there will be times, like this, that I think the stories and lessons are important enough to share with those who read STATter911. I understand and respect that you may not see it that way. So, feel free to start blasting.
Previously:
Donald Trump complains about Colorado Springs Fire Marshal’s ‘incompetence’ over capacity issue
Donald Trump — stuck in elevator — was rescued by same fire department he blasted
Donald Trump’s praise left a fire department defending itself about safety
‘Politics at its lowest’ – Donald Trump after Columbus fire marshal keeps people out of event
