Real journalists not employed in Halls
Brian Hornback posted yesterday about an innaccurate story in the Halls Shopper, in which a biased writer (who admitted to Brian that she didn't like him) published a bold-faced lie-that he"spent the weekend boasting that he will be rewarded with the plum political office of his choice."
The writer of the piece is one Betty Bean (you have to wonder if that is her real name) who falsely asserted that County Mayor Mike Ragsdale would decide who our Commission candidates were and that he had promised Brian Hornback the office of his choice.
Now I am naturally skeptical of government in general and of incumbents in particular, but I seriously doubt that Mayor Ragsdale is conspiring to reward Brian with an office. Being involved in public service is not a picnic-largely because of people with vendettas like Ms. Bean. If Brian Hornback were to run for a Commission seat, I'd be glad to vote for him because he is, I believe, a person of integrity, whether Mayor Ragsdale chose him or not.
If Ms. Bean is familiar with how political parties work, she would know that Mayor Ragsdale cannot arbitrarily choose candidates. In a situation such as we have this year, some delegates support Mayor Ragsdale, while some support Steve Hall. While briefly a candidate, I was actively calling and campaigning to delegates for their support.
It is one thing for the media to make false accusations. It is yet another thing for the press to make false accusations that are based in complete ignorance and stupidity about how political parties work. Real journalists actually do research. Ms. Bean might try this method sometime.
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 7:22 AM
5 Comments:
Mr. Oatney,
Assuming that everything that Mr. Hornback and you say on this subject is true - and I believe it is - but ...
Many liberals (rightly or wrongly) assume that the Republican party has a well developed hiarchy that has, or will, choose the "real" candidates (the critira for what "real" is are mixed and varied). These "real" candidates will be "approved" at the Republican conventions, district meetings or whatever, and since after all the leadership "approves" them they must be OK so the rank and file will quickly fall into lock-step.
Betty's story has legs just because it plays up to the stereotypes of Republicans and southern politics in general.
Now, since Mr. Hornback has stated multiple times that this is not true (and again, I believe him)he can not accept any job without stirring up great scandal since this will create the preception of a "fix." But, you say, Mr. Hornback never was going to accept a job since one was never going to be offered to him. True - Betty gets her coup without doing any work. Additionally, her coup (worthless as it is since it was never going to happen anyway) has the allusion of putting Mr. Hornback in box that he can't get out of without great scandal: "I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you! There's a Republican fix going on in here!" (to paraphrase from the 1942 Humphrey Bogart movie Casablanca). So when Mr. Hornback doesn't get his new job (which was never going to happen anyway) it'll look like Betty's intripid reporting did him in. Personally, I think she used faulty intelligence to invade Mr. Hornback's space. I rack it up to one of those things that people do.
SteveMule
I am sure you will agree that Ms. Bean's actions were morally and ethically wrong. Brian's District Convention has the right to nominate him if they ever wanted to, and that wouldn't be Mike Ragsdale's doing.
Unfortunately, it is as you say-he's in a box because of this woman who doesn't have a clue about the inner workings of politics.
It is one thing for me to disagree with a member of the press, I still respect that they are a well-read professional. This was both uneducated and unprofessional.
Mr. Oatney,
Actually, I thihk this woman does understand politics very well. Very well indeed. As for sneaky and underhanded, well, yes. It's true - she did a first class ROVE'ing on Mr. Hornback and for reasons that I won't go into here that's now part of the game.
SteveMule
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Dave,
Thank you for your post.
I understand that this writer has a negative piece on the Knox County Commission Chairman this week, she obviously has a personal agenda on every article she writes.
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