Jerry Cunningham, Maryville attorney and Blount County Mayor is disappointed with the Daily Times, Maryville and Alcoa Tennessee's hometown newspaper. From Cunningham's perspective the paper has been unfair to his friend,Blount County Circuit Court Judge W. Dale Young, who is currently the subject of a judicial review by the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary.
Cunningham has gone so far in support of his friend that he recently spoke at a rally sponsored by the Republican party where he castigated the judge's critics among them the Daily Times newspaper by saying,
“It disappoints me,” he said. “Because it’s not The Daily Times I grew up with.
“I have not met anybody who is not upset or troubled by the unfairness of the reporting.”
... it's not the Daily Times I grew up with...
Its certainly not Jerry. The Daily Times I've been reading lately is far different from the one I grew up with which was a rag perpetuating the "Good Ole Boy" establishment of Blount County, Tennessee. When I was reading the Times in the sixties and seventies it had some quaint policies about news reporting. The most memorable was its policy on stories about women. The times under the leadership of its former publisher, Tutt Bradford, would not publish a story about a married woman under her own name i.e. if "Sue Jones" received an award as an outstanding educator the story had to be published as Mrs. Edgar "Sue" Jones wins education honors. I'm not even sure if they would publish the "Sue."
Once there was a story about a suicide of a woman who was the wife of a prominent Maryville businessman. It was reported as a gunshot suicide, but the Times(at that time)never dug into why the County Coroner and others were at the scene as part of a clean up crew after the woman's death. I know this because a reporter from a neighboring newspaper attempted to enter the home and was told "there's no story for you here" by the Coroner holding a mop in his hand.
The Times today is a paper that digs for news and is not afraid of hurting the feelings of the ruling establishment. The new Daily Times is bringing Maryville, Alcoa, and Blount County into the 21st Century. It's about time.
A bit of perspective of the recent rally where County Mayor Cunningham was the main cheerleader: Blount County has a population of 116,000. Only 125 people (mostly County officials and Republican Party stalwarts) showed up for the meeting.
1 comment:
I think this rally was actually taking the Daily Times out behind the woodshed for reporting against the good 'ol boy network. The newspaper had the nerve, after all, to report on some misconduct of Judge Dale Young. We can't have that. The paper stepped out of line by reporting the truth.
This rally was a joke.
Judge Young may be a "good man". He is not under investigation for being a bad person. He's under investigation for doing some bad things. No one set out to "attack him". He brought this on himself by his own conduct.
Signed: One of those Anonymous Bloggers
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