Knox County Commission and the Jack McElroy lawsuit
Late Wednesday on the Upfront Page, the blog of News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy, is a response by Mr. McElroy to a post I put on KnoxViews and Say Uncle on Tuesday questioning whether the E.W. Scripps ethics code had been violated by Mr. McElroy’s lawsuit against Knox County Commission for a perceived Sunshine Law violation. I questioned the News Sentinel “preference to defend the County Mayor and attack his opposition”. The other issue that was disturbing was the fact that the News Sentinel sued each Knox County Commissioner personally as well as suing them as Commissioners. I felt and still feel that crosses the line. It seems to be a form of intimidation. Because of that I felt the question of an ethics violation should be considered.
Mr. McElroy has given his reasons for the lawsuit and in other news the County Law Director John Owings told the public during the County Commission Intergovernmental and Finance meetings on Tuesday that the News Sentinel has agreed to drop the individual lawsuits. I am glad to know that and it was the right thing to do but the question still exists why was this done is the first place.
Blogger “Old Hickory” has a lengthy post on the Upfront Page which is worth the time to read. Old Hickory explains, “the News-Sentinel is widely perceived as falling in line with the Ragsdale faction and chooses not to engage, analyze, investigate, and report on the sordid details of those political power plays gone badly awry, giving observers and writers the impression that the News-Sentinel is an additional projectile in Ragsdale’s pop gun aimed at bringing about a commission that is more receptive to his closed universe of local government and continuing the build a platform to hopefully garner attention, publicity, and consideration as a gubernatorial candidate for 2010.”
The News Sentinel has written Editorials suggesting that the Knox County Fee offices be audited and that Knox County Commission undertake Ethics reform. At this time maybe the best thing for the News Sentinel to do is to lead by example and review the Ethics of its Editorial Board and it’s closeness to County Mayor Mike Ragsdale.
YouTube Channel 9 coverage of the County Commission meeting on the McElroy lawsuit:
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII
