Commentary

In my last blog post I unapologetically wrote that I would not be selecting my man or woman of the year and that I would not be writing a year in review of 2022. It is so old hat.

Embarrassingly, however, the Arizona Republic’s left-leaning editorial board decided to name WNBA player Brittney Griner its ‘Arizonan of the Year,’ and in doing so screwed-up its lead paragraph saying, “A week before the Russian Army invaded Afghanistan, Britney Griner ….”

Of course, they meant to write Ukraine, not Afghanistan, not to mention that Griner, 32, wasn’t even born in December 1979, the year Russia invaded Afghanistan.

I would have thought that when the decision was made to go big and bold, plastering a color photo of the tattooed Griner across all columns of Page One of its first edition of the year, while making the outlandish statement that she “captured the public’s eye more intensely than anyone else in 2022,” the proofreader would have been more thorough.

Heavens … I’ve had proof reading errors in publishing my blog, but theirs was colossal, considering the emphasis they placed on the subject.

That aside, the mere fact that they believed the story of Griner, who was jailed in Russia for nearly a year for smuggling cartridges of cannabis oil in her luggage, caught more attention than Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, is ludicrous.

Lake was heavily criticized in the paper’s news coverage and in its opinion columns, and received national television coverage during the campaign, even after she lost.

In a seemingly apologetic conclusion to the Republic’s piece, the board noted, “It’s not out of any personal valor or past achievement that we name Brittney Griner “Arizonan of the Year,” but as a solitary person who got caught in the tectonic shifts of history (Really?) and became our state’s most important newsmaker of 2022.”

Curiously, the paper didn’t mention other persons considered for its honor.

It’s unfortunate that I prematurely named Nancy Pelosi my January Fool’s Day recipient, because the Republic’s editorial board would have been my choice.

Coincidentally, turning to the paper’s comic section, David Wiley Miller, creator of the comic strip “Non Sequitur,” seemed to have the Republic in mind in his latest strip.

Two gentlemen at the bar are talking about things getting back to normal now that the holiday season is over.  One of them says, “Wait … Really?  You mean we’ll get back to being informed through reliable, vetted reporting from established news sources?”

The other fellow responds with, “OK … OK … I stand corrected on my misuse of “normal.”

I will be returning to my commentary on political news as soon as the topic warrants it, and I will be looking for a little humor to lighten things up in 2023.

In the meantime, may God continue to bless the United States of America.