biasness* | ˈbīəsnes |

noun

1 prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair: there was evidence of bias against foreign applicants | the bias toward younger people in recruitment | [in singular]: a systematic bias in favor of the powerful.

• [in singular] a concentration on or interest in one particular area or subject: he worked on a variety of Greek topics, with a discernible bias toward philosophy.

• a systematic distortion of a statistical result due to a factor not allowed for in its derivation.

2 in some sports, such as lawn bowling, the irregular shape given to a ball.

• the oblique course taken by a ball as a result of its irregular shape.

3 Electronics a steady voltage, magnetic field, or other factor applied to an electronic system or device to cause it to operate over a predetermined range.

verb (biasness*, biases, biasing, biased) [with object]

1 (usually be biased) cause to feel or show inclination or prejudice for or against someone or something: readers said the paper was biased toward the conservatives | editors were biased against authors from provincial universities.

2 Electronics give a bias to: bias the ball.

PHRASES

cut on the bias (of a fabric or garment) cut obliquely or diagonally across the grain.

ORIGIN

mid 16th century (in the sense ‘oblique line’; also as an adjective meaning ‘oblique’): from French biais, from Provençal, perhaps based on Greek epikarsios ‘oblique’.

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I have had the distinction of appearing in three recent issues of the Comstock Chronicle. Karen Woodmansee wrote a couple of editorials and Elaine Spencer-Barkdull gave me a left-handed mention in her letter from the Publisher when she made her proclamations about the Chronicle merging the Dayton Valley Dispatch and the Comstock Chronicle into one paper for the winter. There will be “no biasness or satire” found between the sheets of her fishwrapper,  she proclaimed. And of course, we learned Commissioner Lance “The Victim” Gilman was left with no choice but to sue me for defamation.

Winter has been hard on papers here in “The Richest Place on Earth”. I remember some particularly lean years in the mid-1970’s when The Gold Hill News didn’t put as much food on the table as we would have liked. And the newspaper business is getting tougher with each passing day thanks to what you’re doing right now.

Thank you, Zach and Elaine

That’s why I am so thankful Zach and Elaine came back and didn’t let me buy the Chronicle one short year ago. They gave me the chance to start The Teller for around $30.00 and a little elbow grease.  In just under a year, I have moved the needle further with less head and heartache than I ever could trying to kill myself with a deadline every Wednesday evening. As I said in the preamble of this timely Letter To The Editor, selling ads to businesses who are already known to the community is tough sledding.

To her credit, Elaine has kept the paper afloat with local ads. Being the “County Paper Of Record” allows the taxpayer to subsidize The Chronicle with legally required ads and foreclosure statements. This, along with being the paper of record for CMI and TRIC, has allowed her to at least not miss a deadline. But the ad revenue is drying up and the cost of paying someone else to do all the production is taking its toll on the Chron. They will scale back to one color and try to transition to the internet. This means continued tough sledding for the fishwrap.

Thanks, Santa Gilman!

Interestingly the traffic for The Teller enjoyed our best month since we started nearly a year ago. With Santa Claus Gilman delivering me an extra large lump of coal in my stocking with his howling protest of us calling his self-interest over public interest BS, our readership eclipsed 4000 unique visitors in December. Each visitor read an average of 2.5 articles making our “readership” 10,000 or there abouts.

The number of people who read The Teller is amazing. Elected officials and regular Joe’s across the state are regular readers. And we continue to grow. The right people hate what I write it and the right people love it. Meanwhile the same 300 people who read the Chronicle continue to dwindle and soon we may only have one sheet of paper to light our fires with.

Paradigm Shift

The Teller started as the lone voice of support for Sheriff Antinoro during Lance Gilman’s failed recall effort. However, it has become much more than that.  I realize I need to scale some of my grenades down a couple of notches and become a kinder, gentler version of myself. Yet the outrage I share is caused by the shenanigans of waste, corruption, and self-interest over public interest. The outrage will only stop when the shenanigans stop.

And that time is coming. The election season officially began this week with the first tier of Nevada’s unique two-tier system of filing for political offices ending on Friday, January 12th at 5:00. Justice of the Peace Eileen Herrington filed for re-election learned the happy news that she will run unopposed as the filing deadline for Judicial candidates closed. Like it or not, another political season is upon us.

Commissioner Gilman’s failed Recall Election of Sheriff Antinoro will be seen as the pivot point in the power paradigm of the County. The folks who think they run this county got spanked by the ones who actually do.

We all exist in our own paradigm of “biasness“. It is the prism through which we view the world. And recognizing this allows us to view other paradigms clearly provided we are open to them.

As the old guard sails into the distance of the rearview mirror, We The People gaze forth into the brightness of our future.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre.

*appologies to Daniel Webster for playing with the definition. Elane Spencer-Barksdull invented biasness in her “Letter from the Publisher”, and I couldn’t resist making note of it here…

 

 

And Now a Word From Us.

Thank you for reading The Teller and tell a friend.