Day Seven: Joplin Globe still silent on pornographic photos of Joplin students

Some regular readers of the Turner Report have accused me of being relentless in my criticism of the area's newspaper of record, the Joplin Globe, for not publishing anything about the sentencing memorandum that revealed that former Joplin Schools Technology Department employee Ronny Justin Myers admitted to having pornographic photos of 10 Joplin students.

Most of those who have accused me of being relentless have thanked me for taking that approach.

That being said, it is time that I turned down the heat, especially in light of the content of today's Globe. I am sorry to say it does not include even one word about this scandal, but today, and I am only giving the newspaper a break for today, the lack of a story is perfectly understandable.

After all, the newspaper only has one reporter, Emily Younker, assigned to the education beat, and she had another assignment today.

Over the past few days, Ms. Younker has searched every nook and cranny for stories about the Joplin schools, uncovering the news that the district is seeking a new mission statement for Joplin High School and Franklin Tech, finding out that parents and business and faith-based Bright Futures partners were writing messages for the future at Irving Elementary, and lest we forget it, an update on the building projects.

All of that paled in comparison to Ms. Younker's story at the bottom of page one of today's edition. At Carol Stark's Joplin Globe, the news that a former Joplin School District employee, whose job included monitoring high school students' laptops, admitted to having 10 pornographic photos of Joplin students on his computer, is nothing compared to the possibility about writing about the burial of a man's beloved St. Bernard.

You can't blame Ms. Younker. That is the kind of story that has become the bread and butter for the Globe during the Carol Stark era. Three or four reporters do all of the hard news stories, while other reporters do by-the-numbers cutesy features or write criticism in which they compete with each other to show how much more refined their taste is than that of the people who subscribe to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, those who wonder if Ronny Justin Myers had access to their children's laptops will have to find out that information elsewhere.

Thank you, Joplin Globe.