Life Of Jason

While I am usually a big fan of the Community Free Press, I cannot allow an article printed in today’s edition that provides a false image of the proceedings of City Council to go without bringing this misinformation to the public’s attention.  The column, written by Jackie Melton, has been written in such a way as to take unrelated information and connect them in an attempt to paint a false image of the City Council and staff.  This article is presented in the Free Press as a news article and not an opinion piece.  As such, the reader is left with the impression that the journalist is presenting a truthful report of the City Council and the actions taken within the Council chambers.  As I am about to show, the whole facts of the situation clearly show that Mrs. Melton’s article as she has written is misleading the public.  Whether it was intentional, I cannot say.  I will present the facts and allow you to make your decision as to the intent of the author.

In the piece, Mrs. Melton writes about Interim City Manager Evelyn Honea congratulating Councilman Gary Deaver for his being named Volunteer of the Year by the Rotary Club of Springfield South East and that she asked people to join her in a round of applause for Mr. Deaver.  Mrs. Melton then writes “On several occasions in the recent past, Mayor Carlson has demanded the public observe strict rules of decorum in Council chambers, even threatening their removal from the chambers if they are not observed.”  She then lists several examples of the Mayor speaking to citizens in three different Council meetings.

Now, if you took what Mrs. Melton has written as the complete truth, it certainly would look as if the city staff and the City Council were being hypocritical in giving applause to Councilman Deaver while denying that same opportunity to others.  The article casts the Mayor and Interim City Manager Honea in an unfavorable light.  However, the facts that Mrs. Melton left out of her article clearly show that not only was the action taken by Evelyn Honea in line with the actions of previous Council meetings but that the incidents where the Mayor address individuals who were applauding or cheering in the Council chambers were not connected at all to the time in Council meetings where people are honored and applauded.

If you look at the video of various Council meetings, you will see that various people have been held up for praise and applauded at the beginning of the meetings.   Many times in the past former City Manager Bob Cumley would report about a staff member who attained special recognition and that person would be applauded by those in attendance.  These times of recognition are consistent between all Council meetings and that proper decorum for Council meetings is to have these times where people are applauded for accomplishment is at the beginning of the meetings.

In this, the City Council meetings have been consistent.

The times that Mrs. Melton brings up regarding the Mayor’s comments to citizens did NOT occur during these opening times of the session.  The times that Mrs. Melton was referring to happened during the part of the Council meeting where bills were being discussed and debated by the Council.  In other words, the business part of the meeting.  The times that were alluded to by Mrs. Melton involved members of the gallery applauding or yelling when someone addressing the Council made a particular point in their speech.  They were not lauding someone for an accomplishment and recognizing achievement as was done in the opening parts of the meeting when applause and cheering was allowed.  The Mayor was pointing out that during the time of reading the bills and debating them that such outbursts were not in line with the decorum of City Council meetings.

In this, the City Council has also been consistent.

In the writing of her article, Mrs. Melton left out that vital information which clearly shows the two situations are not connected in any manner.  When you look at the whole of the situation it’s very clear that Mrs. Melton’s article creates a false impression to the public of the procedures of Council meetings.   The situation of Mr. Deaver’s recognition and the outbursts referred to by the Mayor are completely different circumstances.

I wrote Mrs. Melton earlier today regarding her column and asked why she left out vital information that would have given her readers an accurate portrayal of the events.  This was a private e-mail communication.  Instead of the common courtesy of an e-mail reply, she posted my e-mail on her blog site without my permission and then responded to the questions without ever actually giving a solid explanation as to why the vital information I’ve just shown you was left out of her piece in the Community Free Press.

She writes on her blog: “First of all, let me just note that I feel it is in the interest of my readers to have all the facts, I hope in the links and supplemental information I offer and CFP offers they will be able to access “all of the facts.” I give readers the facts that I feel are pertinent on any given issue. Truth be known, I am given a word count of 550 words for my “Council Notes” column, which appears in every issue of the Community Free Press.”

Now, if you notice, Mrs. Melton never says that she feels she has an obligation to present all the facts to her readers…just that it’s in their interest to have all the facts.  That might explain why she left out large pieces of factual information from her Free Press piece.  If someone wants to see the whole story, they could find a link somewhere on the Community Free Press site to the videos of Council meetings and then watch them all to see the differences in the situations that were incorrectly linked by Mrs. Melton.

I can certainly understand the pressures of having a word count for a column but that is no excuse for leaving out information that gives the reader of what is supposed to be a news story an accurate picture of the situation.  She could have easily used only one quote from the Mayor and then used the remaining word space to inform the reader of the facts I’ve shown earlier in this blog.  Mrs. Melton chose not to do that and for that we have to question her judgment in presenting what she feels are the “pertinent” facts.

Mrs. Melton also on her personal blog takes pains to call out and question reporters of other news sources such as the News-Leader’s Wes Johnson and former editorial writer Tony Messenger.  She uses her recent criticism of Johnson’s piece as a defense for her actions:

“As far as including “all the facts,” ask any reporter if they are able to include every fact of every issue they cover. I recently mentioned Wes Johnson of the News-Leader not including information about a resolution here, not to disrespect or question Mr. Johnson, who I happen to have a great deal of respect for, but because I thought it was worth noting.”

It’s worth noting that in the piece in question, Mr. Johnson was not talking about the resolution that Mrs. Melton references in her blog.  As such, Mr. Johnson’s article was not misleading his readers.  She certainly implies that by titling her blog entry “In the interest of including all the facts…”

She also takes issue with Tony Messenger in this piece where she calls him out for among other things being lazy in his reporting.   “Apparently, reporters like Messenger refuse to spend the time required to track down who IS responsible for inserting it. If it was Jetton, fine, I have no problem with that, but to consistently smear someone with doing something they have denied doing with no proof or substantiation, in my opinion, is just wrong.”

Wouldn’t implying that Council members were being hypocritical in applying rules of decorum when the facts do not substantiate that claim be just as wrong as what she’s accused Mr. Messenger of doing?  (And for the record, if what she posted regarding Mr. Messenger is accurate and complete then he would be in the wrong.)

Now, I cannot say that her omission of the facts in the Community Free Press article was intentional.  Because Mrs. Melton is not a neophyte when it comes to Council meetings you have to wonder why she would tie together in her piece two items that clearly do not have any connection.  Even if it was just an accidental impression of hypocrisy on the part of the Council it is still misleading to the readers of the Community Free Press and I hope they will print something in their next edition that will inform readers of the complete truth so that they can make a sound judgment based on all the facts and not just those Mrs. Melton felt were “pertinent.”