Dear Warren Buffett:
You recently shared your annual stockholder report. There was more than the usual passing interest that similar reports receive. As an oracle, soothsayer, expert bridge player, friend of Bill (Gates) and all-around financial guru, when you speak or write, the world listens.
But you apparently failed to receive or read the memo from Hamilton County Commissioner Curtis Adams to cease and desist with all the negative vibes on the economy.
Mr. Adams believes that if the media stop reporting the news, the economic doldrums will end. It is that simple.
No longer do you have to acknowledge “doing some dumb things,” or explain how you lost 9.6 percent in book share in 2008. When the media stop reminding the public of the economic pitfalls, all will be fine.
You are well positioned to get the ball rolling. You own the newspaper in Buffalo, N.Y. Get on the phone and tell your editor and publisher that you are banning any negative economic news. Those few words will put the country and the American consumer on the road to recovery. Exercise your right as the owner and use your First Amendment prerogative to proclaim that freedom of the press stops when the stock market plummets.
No job? No worry. That is merely a figment of the media’s imagination. Credit tight? Not really. That happens when people don’t want money; another media fabrication. Cars sitting on dealership lots? No, no, no. Houses with foreclosure signs in the front yard? Mere graffiti by someone with a sick sense of humor.
There is a saying that when all else fails, blame the media. So, go for it.
Mr. Adams used his bully pulpit to put on the media’s doorstep the blame for the ills that face not only America but the world.
Surely, Mr. Buffett, with the respect you have and the broad dissemination of your words you will consider using your bully pulpit to spread the Adams message.
Thank goodness you are not invested in the broadcast business because Mr. Adams gave them short shrift in terms of responsibility for moving the public and their attitudes. Whew, you dodged one there, so take one mark off the “dumb things” list but don’t advance to “Go.”
For the Adams message to have impact, embracing and enforcing his approach has to stretch outside the county lines of Hamilton and into other areas that respond to your clarion call.
The economic underpinning may be coming undone elsewhere, but within the square miles of Hamilton County, life will be like a box of chocolates — to take advice from another sage.
Time was when Mr. Adams heard the word “toxic” and thought the Environmental Protection Agency was on the job; little did he know that the dreaded Superfund term of the 1970s would be tagged to loans with little or no value, spread around the world.
Strike that word from the lexicon.
As President Obama appoints White House czars to oversee numerous functions, Mr. Adams could follow in the footsteps of the leader of his former political party and be named Hamilton County czar of good news. He will be the wizard behind the green curtain a la “The Wizard of Oz.”
For the Adams philosophy to take hold and spread from sea to shining sea, other voices need to chime in.
Mr. Buffett, this is one for the ages and you are the perfect person — a commander of riveted attention when you publish — to take on the Adams challenge.
Tell everybody that you “approved this message” with a little assistance from Curtis Adams.
To reach Tom Griscom, call (423) 757-6472 or e-mail tgriscom@timesfreepress.com.
