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Publisher Dale claimed that he could not understand what all the fuss was about. "It's a bunch of hogwash," he said in a TV interview. "I don't think our reporters are second-class citizens. They can get appointments just like anybody else." And his paper devoted considerable space to explaining that all was shipshape at probate. "It is common knowledge," wrote Enquirer Reporter Caden Blincoe, "that the awarding of appraiserships is a way of returning favors—a form of dispensing political patronage. Patronage is not a dirty word in American politics." Or in the city room of the Enquirer.