Eyebrows have been raised on the fact that Persinger is charged with helping keep the city solvent though he himself declared personal bankruptcy shortly after being elected to the council in 2005.
Persinger attributed his bankruptcy to he going through a “rather lousy, rocky” divorce, which left him with a substantial amount of debts. He said he held off as long as could, but in the end was left with no other alternative.
“But as far as it making any type of an impact on anything to do with the city or me as a councilman — absolutely not,” Persinger stated. “My bankruptcy had nothing to do with my ability to manage money. I’ve managed money all my life virtually, and never had an issue. Bankruptcy is not something I’m proud of, but it’s one of those things that had to happen. And my ability to manage money because of it has in no way affected the cut and dry spending of the city.”
Why did it take so long for the Neosho Daily News to address the bankruptcy, which was detailed in the March 7 Turner Report? The issue was first raised Sept. 7, 2007, in Neosho Forums. Neosho Daily News staff members are regular readers of the Forums and occasionally comment on issues involving Daily News coverage.
And while bankruptcy should not be considered a scarlet letter that would keep someone from public service, Persinger was already a councilman with responsibilities for voting on how city money was spent at the time his bankruptcy was declared. It was information the public deserved to know in 2005 when the filing took place. That responsibility belongs to Persinger.
Once the issue became public, thanks to Neosho Forums, the responsibility shifted to the Neosho Daily News. For the city's newspaper of record to ignore this kind of story was an abdication of responsibility...and though I am inclined to give the Daily the benefit of the doubt on this one...it also leaves the newspaper open to charges of keeping the story under wraps because Persinger's wife works for the Daily.
Worse, once that decision was made, it became more difficult for the Daily to address another significant issue...the DUI Persinger's opponent, Heather Bowers, received in 2005, which has been followed with charges of driving while suspended and driving while revoked. That issue, too, is addressed in today's Daily:
A recent incident has worked out for the good, Bowers said.
In December 2005, Bowers received a DUI.
“The same year, I ended up in court with my baby’s father,” she said. “When it comes to choosing paying the lawyers for one thing or another, or paying to get your license reinstated, I chose paying the attorney for that.”
In October 2006, Bowers was again cited for driving while revoked, this time in Springfield, Mo. Charges were filed in Greene County in April 2007. She has since been placed on two years unsupervised probation and paid $1,000 in fines, according to court records filed in Greene County.
“I went up going to Springfield with a friend of mine and actually went through another roadblock and didn’t have my license again,” she said. “And I was already eligible for reinstatement and everything and that became another issue.”
On March 19, Bowers was charged with driving while suspended, a Class A misdemeanor. Her license was suspended because of an accumulation of points. She said she was driving home from work, doing 15 miles an hour in a 25 mile an hour zone, when a Neosho police officer did a U-turn on seeing her vehicle and pulled her over in a friend’s driveway on suspicion of driving while revoked. Bowers said the check was not done through a license check, because her SUV is actually registered to her parents.
“I’m not a troublemaker or anything. I’d say it was situational,” she said. “You know what? I can walk to the square. It’s slowed me down a bit, but my campaign’s still going. I haven’t skipped a beat or a day’s work. Politically, it didn’t change much, because it’s not going to change the truth about the sediment in the water.”
Had the Persinger bankruptcy been written about immediately after the Daily discovered its existence, it would have been much easier to write about Ms. Bowers' problems with the law.
It should be mentioned that story also was first noted in the Neosho Forums on March 25...by Persinger's wife. It took 12 days after that for the candidate's problems to find a spot in the Daily.
Instead of dealing with these situations as they came up, the Daily has put itself in a position of essentially springing these issues on many voters who were unaware of them just two days before the election. Perhaps since both candidates have negative information about them in today's Daily, they will offset each other and it will make no difference at all.
Hopefully, all of this will serve as a lesson to the editors at the Daily. When you have information that the public has every right to know to make a fully informed decision, print it. It is easy to come up with compelling reasons not to publish a story, and you may momentarily anger some readers by doing so, but you will have no problems maintaining your credibility.
8 comments:
God but I love that reasoning: "My bankruptcy has nothing to do with my ability to handle money." Where in the world did Neosho get this jerk?
Randy...when you are done saving the Carthage Press can you spare some of your precious time to help Neosho...and the rest of the world.
Good job pointing out all the Neosho paper should have done....what about the fact that you launched the hatchet job on Persinger, but didn't do the same with the info. on Bowers?
What hatchet job? It is a hatchet job if he did not file for bankruptcy. He did, I might add at a time when he was sitting on the Neosho City Council and making decisions on city finances, and neither he nor anyone else made that information public until it was mentioned on Neosho Forums. It is a hatchet job if it is not true. This was right on the money, or lack thereof.
As for Ms. Bowers, the first I knew about her problems was when Mrs. Persinger posted the information about it on Neosho Forums and I was not able to track down the DUI and did not know about it until this morning. While I do consider the DWR charge to be of concern, I did not intend to print anything about the DUI until I had the documents to back it up.
It ain't a hatchet job because nobody at all addressed the success Matt appears to have had at the gambling tables of the Casinos since he declared bankruptcy.
yep, his neighbors say he won between $35000.00 to $50000.00 at one sitting ? could have paid of alot of debt !
Randy, please tell me how hundreds of newspapers in this country manage to get an edition out every day without your help.
You know all the answers to all the questions in journalism. Why are't you working as a consultant to the newspaper industry. You could make a roaring success of every one.
With all the great widom, you would be a millionaire in a week.
Your ego astonishes me. I don't think I have EVER met anyone who proud of himself. It amazes me.
Neosho has issues. Both newspapers were contacted by Heather Bowers months prior to election. She was trying to raise awareness of the health risk in Neosho's drinking water and the inability of the city to be honest and truthful with it's citizens. Neosho was telling people to call a plumber. Passing the buck is not OK when you are an agency responsible to the people. Neosho was aware in '04about the sand in the water and the DNR was the one that verified with Ms. Bowers that Neosho had problems. The DNR also told them to discuss it with the affected public. Rather than do what the DNR said, the council and the city decided to risk the health of the community to spare it's reputation.
The problem with the GLOBE and the Neosho Daily news is that things are only printed when it benefits them, not when it could stop an entire town from consuming the dirt that was coming through the water to residents. Had they taken the story from Ms. Bowers, the health of Neosho would not have been placed in danger and she would not have ran for council. Yes, drinking bad water was another issue that Persinger twisted...also that his main concern was the junky gunk in the water. Why then did he lie about it for the past year plus?
Yes the press is owned by the gov and the gov is a circus. The ringleaders, corrupt politicians.
Post a Comment