Liberal media around here ignores State Rep. troubles

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

Though I’ve been inundated throughout my career by the notion that the media is liberal, my experience tells me otherwise. I have long contended that the biggest media outlets are corporately owned: NBC by Westinghouse and General Electric, ABC by Disney Corp., CBS by Viacom, CNN by Time-Warner, Fox by Rupert Murdoch and don’t forget Sinclair that runs Channel 3 and others.

Corporations by their very nature are not liberal. They either want to turn back the clock or just keep things the way they are because they’re doing rather well, thank you.

My most recent brush with the hogwash that the media is liberal is right next door to us in the 42nd District of the State Legislature. The area covered includes neighbors Otsego and Plainwell and some rural areas of northern Kalamazoo County.

I stumbled onto a story published nationally by the Rolling Stone that suggested 42nd District Republican State Rep. Matt Hall, House Minority Leader, has a serious gambling problem and has shown alarming signs of domestic abuse. I forwarded this story to M Live.com from the West Michigan area, but the response has been crickets.

I thought it would be of public interest to learn that a man who could be Speaker of the House next year has been accused of such troubling behavior.

Calhoun County authorities, according to Rolling Stone, investigated an accusation against Hall of domestic violence by his girlfriend in 2019, but he was never charged. He was also accused of interfering with a 911 call.

Rolling Stone also published a headline that reported Rep. Hall spent $73,000 in a little more than one month on gambling in Indiana because that state had no restrictions on sports betting at that time.

Police records said Rep. Hall in September 2019 was rushing to place bets across the state line in Indiana after he temporarily lost track of his gambling money, which he later found it inside his car. 

The police report claimed Hall “was driving fast and scaring [his girlfriend]. She became upset and asked him to stop driving in such a manner and just skip gambling for the night,” the report originally from the Daily Beast said. Hall refused, the couple argued, and she called the police.

Hall appears to have had a history of making bold bets by that time, records reviewed by Rolling Stone indicated. An account associated with the lawmaker’s personal email appears to show he had placed roughly $73,000 in online sports bets in a span of just 33 days the year before.

The woman companion in the car in 2019  seemed to blame Hall’s behavior on his desire to gamble, which was suggested by a tape recording.

Rolling Stone maintained the responding officer recommended charging Hall with domestic assault, malicious destruction of property, and interfering with a 911 call, but Hall was never arrested. 

Furthermore, the woman later recanted her story and the couple is still together.

Rolling Stone reported, “The magnitude of Hall’s alleged gambling history came to light as the result of a data breach at the site he apparently used to track his bets. Hall’s personal email account appears in the leaked user database of Action Network, a sports gambling news site whose app allows users to track their bets across a range of different sports books. Hall’s Action Network account appears to have been linked to five separate sports books…

“The amount wagered in the first 33 days represents more than the entire yearly salary of a state legislator; at the time, Michigan state lawmakers were paid $71,685 annually. 

Hall and his comrades and staffers vehemently deny any wrong doing and insist this is a political witch hunt engineered by Democrats.

My only serious problem with this is that this is not being reported here in good old West Michigan. And why is that?

Hall has developed a reputation as being a friend and champion of the gaming industry. In 2020, he introduced a bill to repeal a ban on campaign donations from casino interests. In 2021, he proposed legislation that would have legalized betting on horse races.

Hall has remained a loyal Trump supporter, speaking at a rally in support of the former president earlier this spring.

Hall, who is seeking his third two-year term in the House, also was accused of sending threatening messages to a woman while a student at Western Michigan University 20 years ago.

Hall ousted incumbent David Maturen in the Republican primary in 2018 for the 63rd House District, which since has been redistricted into the 42nd. His residence then was listed as Emmett Township. He since has been reported to be living in Comstock and now Richland Township. Doing the math with that, it appears he already should be term limited at six years.

He is the only Republican on the ballot in August 2024. His Democratic opponent in November will be Austin Marsman, a graduate of Martin High School.