Steve Offenbaker
Steve Offenbaker, Dominic Yagong’s former legislative assistant who the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported last week was among the County Clerk’s Office employees with the highest internet usage, feels like the reporter tailored the facts to fit his story.
Jason Armstrong reported in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald on Thursday June 11, 2009 that Steve Offenbaker had the highest internet usage in the County Clerk’s office, second to Kareen Forissier, a legislative assistant to then-Vice Chair Pete Hoffmann. In fact, neither Steve Offenbaker or Kareen Forissier had the highest internet usage, persay, but the highest rate of data transfer, according to the way the Data Systems report was tailored.
Jason Armstrong stands by his story and, refusing to talk about it with the Big Island Chronicle (BIC), said he doesn’t like this blog and accused this reporter, the blog’s editor and publisher, of legal and ethical breaches. He referred this reporter to Hawaii Tribune-Herald editor David Bock, who also said he stands by the story and refused to provide any statements to BIC.
Steve Offenbaker, meanwhile, said he hadn’t contacted either Jason Armstrong or David Bock before airing his grievances with BIC because he doesn’t feel like it will do any good.
Jason Armstrong, in reporting on a county worker internet usage investigation, identified two internet sites, gridiron-glory.net and assets.heavy.com, that a Data Systems report shows were visited by Steve Offenbaker on a county computer. In referring to gridiron-glory.net, “(Jason Armstrong) goes on to describe a betting option and then he goes into detail quoting sports betting addiction and a whole slew of things that are simply not related to the story and not related to my usage,” Steve Offenbaker said.
“An investigation of that site will show that it’s a fake football league with fake players that uses a computer game to generate stats and results,” Steve Offenbaker explained. ”It’s a game, a text-based simulation that the players on your team have ratings at different skill sets and the computer uses those ratings to generate the results. As for the betting option that he lists, which if you choose to play and I don’t play it, you’re picking results of games and you bet your points. If you win, you get those points and if you lose you lose those points. There’s no buy-in and no pay-out. There’s no money changing hands, it’s just for fun to guess the results of the game. I didn’t participate in it.”
As for the reference to the second site, assets.heavy.com, “If you type in that site, it redirects you to heavy.com, and (Jason Armstrong’s) explanation of the site was, it leads to a video, I forget what it is entitled,” Steve Offenbaker said. Jason Armstrong’s article states, “A check of that site Wednesday revealed a video titled ‘Fanny and the Assets.’ It focused on the buttocks of women wearing tight pants while doing provocative movements.”
“I’m not sure where that came from,” Steve Offenbaker said of Jason’s Armstrong’s reference to the video entitled, “Fanny and the Assets.”
”I don’t frequent that site. I don’t know that site. After the article came out, I went and looked myself and what the site is is basically a video-hosting site that hosts all different types of video similar to a YouTube. This particular site hosts sports highlights, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) highlights, and it goes on and on with all different kinds of genres of videos.”
Steve Offenbaker is not even really clear as to when or why he would have ended up on assets.heavy.com, possibly as a result of someone emailing him a link to a sports or a UFC highlight. ”People share that kind of thing all the time, ‘check out this play, you know?’” he said.
“At no time did I use the Internet to scope out women, to view inappropriate content, or participate in betting,” Steve Offenbaker said. ”But those facts did not matter and Jason instead twisted and turned everything he possibly could to write a story that would not present the facts and instead sell newspapers.”
So, what are the facts? “I used the Internet to check up on sport’s scores and happenings when I had a free second, and that simply is not headline news,” Steve Offenbaker said. ”Jason instead had to find some kind of angle he could create that would make it a front-page story and sell newspapers.”
Steve Offenbaker said he feels like a “pawn” in the highly publicized county worker internet usage investigation. A pawn to whom? “I can’t say exactly,” he said. ” I can tell you this: Jason Armstrong had my internet report before I did, before Dominic did, and before (County Clerk) Kenny Goodenow did. Jason stopped Kenny in the hallway at the Clerk’s office to try and get him to comment on it, and Kenny had to say, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I need to look into this.’” Kenny Goodenow clarified that he had just received but hadn’t yet reviewed the report when he was questioned by Jason Armstrong, not in the hallway, but in the parking lot. “I remember being surprised,” Kenny Goodenow said.
Steve Offenbaker has resigned as legislative aide to Dominic Yagong and, despite the insinuation in Jason Armstrong’s story, he is not quitting as a result of the county worker internet usage investigation. ”I was never asked to resign. I had submitted my resignation prior to any of this coming up, because I had another opportunity and I had to go take this class that I’m taking now. My resignation was submitted on June 1, and that is the only reason that I resigned, was to pursue this job — cleaning unexploded ordnance.”
For someone who is in the business of quoting people, it’s interesting to me that Jason Armstrong would not be quoted by me. Instead of hearing or responding to any of the grievances that Steve Offenbaker aired to me about his story, Jason instead acted defensively and chose to criticize me personally for my own body of work — and then refused to offer any specific details about his allegations of legal and ethical breaches. Needless to say, having known and considered him a colleague the past eight years I have practiced journalism on this island, I’m disappointed by our interaction on the telephone yesterday.
I want the readers of this blog to know that if you have any complaints or concerns about any of the content of this blog, please feel free to share your thoughts with me by emailing newswoman@mac.com or by calling at (808) 938-8592. I will not shut you down, even if I disagree with you. If you believe that I have committed legal and ethical breaches somewhere down the line, contact my attorney, Martin Berger, at (808) 969-4888, via email at martin@mablawyer.com or via snail mail at P.O. Box 11240, Hilo, HI 96721.
June 18th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Usage is NOT the same as downloading videos. Watching digital videos, as any tech geek will tell you, DOES eat up large amounts of bandwidth.
I don’t know either party but I think you hit the nail square on the head. Either Jason was told he had an ax to grind or he was practicing Yellow Journalism is its worst form, smearing the innocent by slanting an article just before a Council vote.
It is timing of the article that gets me, two weeks before the Sith Lords took over.
I smell the odor of a dead rat. UGH!!
ANYONE that is willing to clean up UDX gets a Gold Star in my book.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Tiff:
I am not surprised st all by Jason’s reaction to you. Everyone I know that has gone to the sites and looked at them for themselves comes away with the same opinion…”wow did he twist that to make you look bad”.
The problem is that most people won’t go look for themselves. they will simply take Jason Armstrong’s word for it.
I encourage everyone to take a look at the sites. If you feel like I do that it was a misrepresentation used to sell some papers please e-mail Dave Bock at dbock@hawaiitribune-herald.com Jason Armstrong at jarmstrong@hawaiitribune-herald.com and Ted Dixon the papers publisher at tdixon@hawaiitribune-herald.com I don’t know Dave Bock, but I do know a little about Ted Dixon and it is my hope that if enough people contact the paper that he will look into this, and not be happy with what he finds.
I will be happy to answer any questions or comments posted here.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
If you feel that you have been misrepresented then by all means push back.
One of the big problems we have here is that people don’t complain enough.
I’ll check out the site you mention.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Please do Rob. Look at both sites, then read Jason;s story again, see what you think
June 18th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Steve got a raw deal for things that were blown out of proportion, context, and manipulated in a way to drag his name through the mud, and the name of the good Councilman from Hamakua. I checked out these unremarkable youtube-esque and sports sites and didn’t see anything questionable.
And frankly? I spend a good portion of my own downtime at the office perusing the blogs of Hawaii and the Honolulu Advertiser. So to that end, I’ll throw stones as soon as I vacate the glass house I live in.
Tiffany called it out as it was a while back. This internet abuse was a red herring.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Mr. Armstrong has every right to be defensive as the article he wrote–and the HTH editorial staff actually published on the front page–was such a steaming pile of manipulative dog s#*t. The question of the hour is whether he is more upset about being used by the political players in Hawaii County to aid in their coup or whether it is about being so clearly exposed as having no journalistic integrity. His manufactured “facts” actually could be construed as slander, IMHO. Shame on you, Mr. Armstrong, and shame on the HTH staff for running such garbage.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Checked out the site…. Offenbaker got reamed.
Poor reporting in this instance.
Witch Hunt was on long before…. Off was scapegoat.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if Yagong found a replacement that was interested in Social Media and valued the connectivity of what things could be on this island?
June 19th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Sorry, I don’t believe a word that Kenny Goodenow says any more, he was such a little weasel, lying to Brenda Ford’s face in the last council meeting. It was a disgusting show of what really goes on around there. Seems he considers himself the secret 10th council member. Sickening.
See for yourself on channel 52, unless they cut that part of the video out and claim technical difficulties.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.;
Friday, June 26, 2009 at 12:00 noon;
Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 9:00 a.m.;
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.;
Friday, July 3, 2009 at 12:00 noon; and
Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 9:00 a.m.
June 19th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Does anyone take the HTH reporting without a laugh? Not as bad as WHT, but still need more than just a grain of salt!
June 19th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Doc said, “don’t believe a word that Kenny Goodenow says any more.”
The most valuable asset in public service is credibility, and does Apparatchik Comrade Goodenow ever have a credibility problem.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:16 am
I find this deception perpetrated by the MSM and the Council to be a stunning indictment of Politics as played on our isle.
Tiff, is there a national recognized media organization willing to investigate this can of cockroaches?
After 35 years in the business we all learned an engineer’s reputation for integrity was EVERYTHING to them. I personally knew of 2 that violated that trust and the result was they left engineering as a field.
I find the actions in the 5 Council members and Kenny Goodenow to be the opposite direction, immoral, repulsive and disgusting.
If some one made a mistake and were duped by others they should stand up and publicly admit it. If not I say ‘hang em’.
Where is their shame?
June 19th, 2009 at 8:33 am
I like this idea: “national recognized media organization willing to investigate this can of cockroaches.”
June 19th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Scapegoating journalism again??? It’s the standard M.O.for HTH it seems! That story was terrible and digressed completely in order to smear with a broad brush stroke. Remember when Naeole was the brunt of the smear campaign last year? They kept digging up dirt on her and then it became Yagong’s turn. Shame on you Armstrong, Bock and Dixon! East Hawaii in particular suffers from very poor journalism. Jason Armstrong is a very weak journalist (of course we know he’s not reading this blog!) His MANY typographical and grammatical errors are one thing but then his stories so often entirely miss the point or are just so weak and insipid as to serve the status quo. I wish he’d get a backbone and yes, I wish editor David Bock and publisher Ted Dixon would start showing respect for the readership of this side of the island but their publication is a daily insult to the intelligence of people here. Here’s what David Bock actually said to us, when we complained that West Hawaii Today had better stories, more national and world news and was, in fact, A BETTER PAPER..”The people of the east side don’t want more news. They want more sports.” The substandard quality of The Hawaii Tribune-Herald is a major part of why things are the way they are.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Irony! Previous posting is another chance to pass comment on Hawaii Tribune-Herald because Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce is planning to honor the fact that HTH is a ‘pillar of the business community’. (A pillar of the ‘business as usual community’ more like it!!!) See previous story! Thanks Tiffany for including this information and for your blog which allows commentary on the so-called ‘pillars’ of our community’!
June 19th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I looked over the sites mentioned as promised and found them to be very sportsy sites.
For myself I do a lot of casual browsing as a form of multitasking when on hold on the phone or various such moments.
While I don’t feel that anything particularly embarrassing has taken place I can see that pursuing private interests on the public dime is not a good idea. But I do believe Steve has apologized for this and I do believe that more interesting examples of web surfing by others are out there that just, by some happy stance, haven’t been released to the public.
Hard to imagine that hundreds of computer bound employees aren’t drifting off task – some in minor and some in major ways.
It is all a tempest in a teapot. But is certainly take position as a distraction form real issues and when stuff like this become front and center I always look to the wings to see what might really be going on.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Rob,
I’m glad you looked at the sites. The issue for me is not about my surfung habits being written about, my issue is that the public was led to believe that i have a gambling addiction and spend my day watching women in tight pants work out. neither of those things occured, they are not even close to the truth. this story is something right out of the national equirer. If the Trib would just print an apology on the front page in the same font as the original story I’d be happy.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I’ve been here 30 years Steve, don’t hold your breath waiting for that without a lawsuit.
June 19th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
surf on your 3G phone. that’s a lesson to take away from this.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Anita:
Well that is one lesson, Don’t surf at work…..I;m not really all that concerned that Jason Armstrong wrote about my internet usage. I’m upset about the clear manipulation of the story to be headline news when it was not.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Steve if HTH writes a hit piece your a good guy. They’ll be proven as usual to be jackasses.
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:34 pm
[...] few minutes into our conversation, Jason claimed that I misquoted him here, (please note that my reference to him in that blog entry offered no direct quotes). He accused [...]
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I have been following these comments for weeks now and I think Steve has an ax to grind with just about any newspaper journalist that doesn’t agree with his slanted opinion and so far all I can see is opinion because no one has given us any real info it’s just a he said she said pi*****g contest – so just keep pi***n on each other it is rather humorous to see grown men act this way!!!