Friday, September 18, 2009

Globe finally runs lyrics of Speck's "Pink Slip Blues"

It took six weeks, but the Joplin Globe finally ran the lyrics of the Bruce Speck song that is one of the 23 complaints lodged against him in the report that will be presented to the Missouri Southern State University Board of Governors during its 1 p.m. meeting today.

The uproar from the song, which was performed before the Joplin Rotary Club Aug. 6, began almost immediately, but has been totally ignored by the area's newspaper of record until now.

Of course, most of the Globe story revolves around how Rotary Club members were not offended by the lyrics.

This far into the Speck controversy, and the Globe still has not explored how Speck was hired in the first place. This seems odd, considering that the newspaper editorialized against the idea of interviewing just one person for such an important position. With 41 candidates, why set up just two interviews in the first place, and then actually interview only one person after the other dropped out?

And why did the Joplin Globe never interview more than one (one is all I have been able to find in their online archives) person about Speck's record at Austin Peay?

And then when the controversy over Speck finally comes to a head, the Globe tried to make up for its lack of good old fashioned shoe leather reporting with its traditional blanket Freedom of Information request.

No matter how the Bruce Speck turmoil plays out, the Joplin Globe has certainly failed miserably in its watchdog role.

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