On Sunday, the Oklahoman published a lengthy report detailing the excessive travel-related expenses that Governor Fallin has accrued since taking office. The report was very thorough, objective and would have been much more interesting had the Tulsa World not done the exact same thing 12-weeks-ago.
Here's the headline and lead from Sunday's story in the Oklahoman:
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin's travel expenses add up
Since taking office 21 months ago, Gov. Mary Fallin has spent more than $273,000 on travel paid for by taxpayers, an analysis by The Oklahoman has found. During that time, Fallin logged 56 trips, more than half of which were unrelated to state business.
And the headline and lead from this July 23rd report in the Tulsa World:
Fallin accrues more than $250,000 in travel expenses
More than a quarter of a million dollars in public and private funds have been spent on travel and related security for Gov. Mary Fallin, her family and staff.
In all fairness, the Oklahoman's coverage was a bit more detailed. They shared sidebars and graphs and even profiled the state plane, which is seriously called The Spirit of Oklahoma. But still, aren't these two papers supposed to be sharing content or something?
The answer is yes, because the Tulsa World republished the Oklahoman report. So basically our state's largest two newspapers paid three reporters to write the same damn story in a 12-week time frame? And they're supposed to be sharing content. It's like they killed one bird with three stones. And they wonder why the newspaper industry is struggling.
Oh well, at least the Oklahoman writers were cool enough to give us a veiled shout out:
Some of Fallin's trips have raised eyebrows in the Capitol and drawn public criticism on social media blogs and discussion boards.
Would you look at that! We're now a "social media blog!" That's amazing. It doesn't beat the "obscure local social blog" label that Mike McCarville tagged on us several year's ago, but we'll take it. I'm already working on my next post —10 Must Have Social Media Apps for Oklahoma Businesses — as you're reading this. Maybe I should give Mike Koehler, Patrick Allmond and the Blogging for Whatever lady a regular column.
Anyway, both the Tulsa World and Oklahoman reports told us what regular Lost Ogle readers already knew: Mary Fallin, just like the governors before her, enjoys vacationing and traveling on the taxpayer's dime. They only difference is that the Governors before her were generally big government Democrats who didn't run on campaign platforms like shrinking government and cutting wasteful spending. Therefore, they didn't look like two-faced hypocrites whenever they took the state plane to Puerto Rico or California or Tempe or Laz Vegas or Washington or Ireland or even Grand Lake for a weekend.
TLO Links:
Mary Fallin urges Oklahomans to vacation in Oklahoma…unless your name is Mary Fallin...
Why was Mary Fallin on the stage during the Fiesta Bowl trophy presentation?
Here are a few pictures from Governor Fallin’s vacation to Puerto Rico…
Where in the world is Governor Mary Fallin?
