What a concept.
The Trump administration has ended the lease agreement for three public golf courses in Washington. The Interior Department said it was terminating the lease because the nonprofit that runs the courses have failed to meet the terms of the lease. That, at this point, is all we know. The D.C. bureaucrats who operate the courses say they have done a wonderful job. If so, it will be the only case I know of where D.C. bureaucrats have done a good job at anything, but I’ll withhold judgment until I have, you know, some actual facts.
Personally, I don’t see why the District of Columbia, a small area carved out of Maryland (and formerly Virginia) expressly to house the government of the United States should have any golf courses. Parks? Sure I get parks. Museums? Ok. But golf is an elitist sport that is too time consuming and expensive for a lot of people, takes up a ridiculous amount of space, and has been criticized by environmentalists and other critics for centuries. It is not, in other words, an unalloyed benefit to communities, society, and certainly not governments.
Until the public and the news media know, as in the question that should begin any ethics inquiry, “What’s going on here?,” there should be no criticism of the Interior Department’s action at all. None. And yet, just yesterday when the announcement came out, a Trump Deranged friend was certain, certain, that it was nefarious. Why? Because President Trump is evil!!! EVIL!!!
The news media’s coverage of this relatively minor story has been a parody of anti-Trump bias employing innuendo, false framing, speculation and presumption of guilt. Let’s take the Associated Press, shall we?
In the very first sentence announcing the fact that the leases have been pulled, AP speculates that it is “a move that offers President Donald Trump an additional opportunity to put his stamp on another piece of the nation’s capital.” Has he or anyone else said that he plans on calling them the “Donald J. Trump” Golf Courses? Well, no, but you know how he is.
Next: ” [T]he move gives Trump, whose private company has developed numerous golf courses in the U.S. and abroad, the chance to remake links overlooking the Potomac River and in Rock Creek Park.” Does it? I don’t know that. But let’s say it does: it also gives him a chance to flood the areas and make them giant skating rinks, or to build Federal prisons, or state-run grocery stores like the lucky denizens of New York City will have under Comrade Mamdani, or Big Beautiful Basketball Courts. That’s not news, it’s biased, psychic assumptions. Yeah, but you know the only reason Trump is President is to line his own pockets, right?
Then we get anote that one of the leases covers “a site that is part of Black golf history.” There are Historically Black Golf Courses? I did not know that! Oh, I see what’s going on: Trump is a racist, see, and this is more evidence.
The AP hit piece closes with a paragraph that throws in everything but the metaphorical kitchen sink to suggest that something diabolical is afoot because, after all, Orange Man Bad.
The Department of the Interior’s decision comes as Trump rebrands civic spaces in Washington and deploys National Guard members to the streets for public safety. The Kennedy Center added Trump’s name this month after the center’s board of trustees — made up of Trump appointees — voted to change the name of the performing arts space designated by Congress as a memorial to John F. Kennedy. Trump is also in the midst of a construction project to build a ballroom on the White House’s East Wing, and he has put his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace.
To be fair, that section could have included even more matters irrelevant to the story. The AP’s reporters fell down on the job. It could have mentioned Trump’s 34 felony convictions, or that he was once a freind of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, that he launched an “insurrection” after the 2020 election, that he wrote mean things about the director of “The Princess Bride,” and it s well-established that, as Stephen Colbert memorably said, the President is Putin’s cock-holster.
Every one of those reminders and triggers to the Trump Deranged—you know, the readers the AP considers to be good Americans—would have had exactly as much valid places in a story about the Interior Department canceling three golf course leases: none whatsoever.
I’m truly sick of this crap, and everyone, regardless of party affiliation, should be. It’s not just biased and unethical journalism, it’s atrocious journalism, and it is indefensible.
Ethics Alarms 
At least he’s not invading countries and kidnapping their unpopular elected leaders – and their families.
#22!
OBE?
Does that mean that you approve of people stealing elections and ignoring the actual results?
Only if Donald Trump opposes it….
What the AP has done, and what all too often is a part of mainstream media, is sometimes referred to as speculative journalism, which in the best traditions of journalism is easily seen as an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. There, of course, is a place for speculation, especially informed speculation. An argument could be made for biased speculation. But, all too often speculation is presented as if it were news analysis. And, all too often in print media and on media websites, it exists in the same section as news, rather than in the opinion section where it belongs.
Early in the AP article is this: “While it was unclear what the Trump administration’s plans are for the golf courses … .” At that point, for a discriminating reader, an alarm bell would ring, and that reader would move on to something else. But, speculation of this sort easily feeds into biases and has a large and willing market, so it won’t be going away.
The AP, on its website, at least, gets a tiny bit of credit because it put this biased speculation in a section where any manner of falsehood, unwarranted claims, distortion of facts, and so on, would be at home, the Politics section.
I’m pretty sure Rock Creek golf course is a historically black golf course. I’m not sure about the other two. But running golf courses so they make a profit or simply break-even is a dicey proposition. The number of people playing golf has been declining for decades. It’s expensive and takes a lot of time and is hard on an aging body. And it’s very difficult to be any good at it at all.
Municipalities and counties lease their golf courses to operators as a matter of course. Governments are not capable of managing golf courses. All the public courses in Phoenix are leased out by bid to pros who run them and pay the city a fixed payment. Presumably, if the course isn’t run as required by the terms of the lease, the city can terminate the lease and install a new operator.
As I recall from an article I read years ago, Rock Creek golf course has struggled for most of its existence.
Needless to say, the Trump organization includes golf course operators. They have the know-how and the people to run golf courses. I don’t think it’s unfair to assume the now former operators of the D.C. golf courses were in violation of the terms of their leases or operating agreement and have been for a very long time, and their deals were terminated as a result, and more competent operators will be installed. I bet the courses have been absolutely shambolic to date and the former operators are operators of color, so it will be made into a racial thing.
I suggest (with tongue planted firmly in cheek, since it will never happen) the conversion of at least one of these golf courses to a well-designed shooting sports facility. “Every golf course is willful and wanton misuse of a perfectly good rifle range,” is a truism among members of the shooting public, as is the T-shirt slogan I often sport, ” Long-range shooting: It’s like golf, but for men.”
I played a lot of golf for fifteen years. It was good for business. I noted the similarities between golf and hunting. “What did you shoot?” “Birdies” and “Eagles” and “Double Eagles” or “Albatrosses.” And a certain breed of golfer goes out first thing, early in the morning. They’re known as “dew sweepers.” I’ve never hunted but I couldn’t help thinking there was something basic going on when I’d get up first thing and play nine holes and be back home before anyone else was awake.