After a period where I hailed the renaissance of the Metro Pulse I am saddened to conclude that while some aspects of the paper have improved Barry Henderson continues to be an abject embarrassment. Henderson has had a distinguished newspaper career and is very well respected in East Tennessee. Even the best reporter and writer can get too involved in a story and allow their own personal prejudice to leak into the writing. One thing is clear, Barry Henderson cannot be objective when it comes to recently elected Knox County Commissioner Greg “Lumpy” Lambert.

In today’s Metro Pulse Mr. Henderson writes a Commentary that strongly implies that Greg “Lumpy” Lambert pointed a loaded gun at a WATE Television cameraman. This is a blatant lie and I find it impossible that Barry Henderson could not know as of press time that the gun was unloaded. Henderson states that a “tirade of letters from hither and yon defending him” had been delivered to the Metro Pulse. In typical Metro Pulse fashion only three of those letters were published. I wonder how many of those letters pointed out that the gun was not loaded? Both Uncle and I made a issue of this on KnoxViews and at SayUncle. Gene Patterson also covered it on his blog as did Terry Frank and David Oatney on their blogs.

You might say hold on Number9, Barry Henderson knew that the gun was unloaded and that WATE specifically asked Lumpy Lambert for that demonstration, but it is still a violation of safe gun handling practices. It might encourage some youngster to play with a gun and so on.

Really? They why does Henderson write, “When the media converged on him, Lambert took the opportunity to point his pistol into a TV camera lens, a blatant violation of good gun-handling practices, though he had also passed the pistol safety course required for his state handgun-carrying permit.” It sounds as if Mr. Henderson would be relieved if Mr. Lambert were to lose his handgun-carrying permit.

Why does Henderson write, “As a gun owner since I was a teenager, I believe in the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and I have no quibble with the state’s laws allowing for properly educated persons with clean records to be licensed to carry them. But there are bound to be some exceptions, some people I wish had no immediate access to firearms.” Haven’t we heard this train of thought before?

Is Barry Henderson saying that only “special people” like him should have the right to own a firearm?

The purpose of the Commentary is to convince the public that Knox County Commissioner Greg “Lumpy” Lambert is dangerous to both himself and the community. Yet what is so puzzling about Henderson’s Commentary is that he is much harsher on Lumpy Lambert than he is on Tennessee State Senator Tim Burchett. Henderson has no problem with Burchett’s actions of using a firearm to detain burglary suspects but he conveys that Lambert is a menace to society. In which case did a suspected murderer point a gun at the victim? Does Mr. Henderson stands alone in his perspective of Mr. Lambert’s actions? What do you think of what Mr. Henderson wrote?

Lumpy Lambert addressed the camera issue on KnoxViews in plain English that even Barry Henderson could understand. Mr. Lambert wrote, “The cameraman was operating the camera; the gun was aimed off to the side of where he was standing (this would have still been improper had the gun not been unloaded and rechecked before shooting the footage). I am ok with the way they ran the footage; it is common for reenactment footage to be aired without a disclaimer as to how the footage was shot accompanying it. More footage ended up being cut than was used; this is common with news interviews. I think the coverage was somewhat fair the still shot of me pointing the gun was a bit sensational but that is what draws viewers.”

So what is Barry Henderson really up to here? I agree with Metro Pulse contributor, Publisher of the Hellbender Press, and KnoxViews blogger Rikki Hall when he writes about the Metro Pulse Editorial two weeks ago, “That is an opportunistic editorial. The robber didn’t steal anything from Lumpy, but MP [Metro Pulse] did, like a gull steals from an osprey. The editorial is clearly a reaction to Lumpy’s efforts to investigate Tyler Harber’s county employment and not to him successfully defusing a dangerous situation and expressing mercy for the man who pulled a gun on him.”

While no one knows who wrote the Editorial in Metro Pulse from two weeks ago it appears today that it was written by Barry Henderson. The question is what will Metro Pulse do now after two biased Editorials? Will there be a correction or will this yellow journalism be allowed to continue? This is an outrage, a character assassination, and a cheap political payback. It crosses the lines of decency and responsible journalism.

Posted in uncategorized on November 29th, 2006 by #9 | RSS 2.0 |