One of the things we have heard repeated over and over since May 22, 2011, is how lucky we are to have had the right people in charge of our government and major institutions when the tornado hit.
Undoubtedly, remarkable things were done during the weeks and months after the tornado, but when millions and millions of dollars started pouring in, it was more important than ever that the news media do its job and keep an eye on those who were in charge of that money.
It is amazing how fast millions of dollars can slip through your fingers-especially when you see a natural disaster as an opportunity to remake a community or a school district on a grand scale, simply because you have more money than you have ever had before.
Instead of providing a watchful eye on the decision makers, the Joplin Globe, for instance, has taken a different approach. It not only served as a cheerleader for the big-dream faction of city government and for the administration of the Joplin R-8 School District, it has made it its mission to refute any criticism of the status quo.
There could be any number of reasons why the Globe is taking this approach. It could be what I have referred to as the Chamber of Commerce Syndrome. If people think our schools or our city government has problems, they are less likely to locate their businesses here or move into this community. So instead of shining a light on the darkness, the newspaper participates in the cover-up.
A primary example of that was Publisher Michael Beatty's e-mail to former Missouri Southern State University President Bruce Speck telling him he was halting Sunshine Law requests, transferring a reporter who had been doing his job to another beat, putting Speck together with Editor Carol Stark to talk about "positive" stories the Globe could do about Missouri Southern, and advising him on how to handle the media.
If the Joplin Globe had done its job before and after the hiring of Bruce Speck, it could have saved dozens of jobs, ended the nightmare of Speck's reign, and restored order to the embattled faculty and staff at MSSU.
Of course, those are not the people the Joplin Globe is working for. The Globe has made it clear that the people it represents are those who attend the formal dinners and those who really understand what is important, unlike the rest of us who serve simply as nameless chess pieces as they play their endless games.
I am sure those were the people who were telling the Joplin Globe not to worry about the hiring of Wallace-Bajjali as the city of Joplin's master developer. "Don't be concerned about the SEC investigation, It was just a little thing. They only had to pay $120,000 in fines. That's pocket change."
Or "don't worry about their involvement in two bankruptcies. It was a good strategic move on their part." How about "that lawsuit that says Wallace and Bajjali was running a $3 million Ponzi scheme is nothing. How do I know? David Wallace told me so and he has great things in mind for the city of Joplin."
So the Globe has written nothing about the lawsuit, I cannot recall anything more than one paragraph about the SEC investigation, which offered no details, but just assurances from City Manager Mark Rohr that it was no big deal.
And if Mark Rohr says it is no big deal, then to Michael Beatty, Carol Stark, and those at the Joplin Globe, it is no big deal.
Most of this information was available before the city of Joplin entered into a contract with Wallace-Bajjali. Not one word of it appeared in the Joplin Globe.
That is not to say that the city council would not have entered into an agreement with Wallace-Bajjali if all of this information had come out prior to the hiring, but wouldn't it have been nice to have made the decision with all of the facts at hand?
The same approach has been taken with the Joplin Globe's coverage of the Joplin R-8 School District. A clear example of this is the recent arrest and conviction of district technology employee Ronny Justin Myers. The crime Myers was convicted of involved setting up a sexual encounter with an underage girl at Northpark Mall. When he was arrested, he told investigators in February that he had pornographic photos of 10 Joplin High School students on his laptop. According to a sentencing memorandum, a public document, filed in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, they were able to confirm the identities of four of those students.
That confirmation had to have been done with the help of R-8 Administration, and yet Superintendent C. J. Huff issued one statement about Myers' arrest, saying that Myers worked in the administration office and had "no access' to children.
After the truth came out, the Globe (nor any other media, for that matter) never pushed Huff to explain himself. In fact, the pornographic photos (and at least one video) were never mentioned in the newspaper until a one-paragraph note toward the end of an article after Myers' sentencing, a mention, I might add, that probably would never have been made had it not been included in the news release issued by the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Ronny Justin Myers was the employee who monitored the laptops that had been provided to all Joplin High School students. He had remote access to those laptops. If this invasion of privacy is not "access to students" then what is?
Can school officials still spy on students and teachers? What steps have been taken to ensure that this will never happen again? Have any steps been taken?
The Joplin Globe has not asked and if, by chance, the questions were asked, the Globe did not feel the need to share the answers with its readers.
Another example of the Globe's electing to write of the Huff Administration only in glowing terms can be found in its coverage of the departure of more than 200 teachers from the Joplin R-8 School District in a 13-month period.
You cannot allow a ludicrous statement like C. J. Huff's that people are leaving because their spouses have found jobs elsewhere and they had to move to stand since it is so easy to prove it inaccurate. The names of all of the people who worked in the district are available on the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) website.
Call them.
I know. It's a stretch, but actually call these people and ask them why they left. If the Globe had done so, it would have found only a handful who left because their spouses found work elsewhere. Many of the people would probably have told the Globe they do not want to talk about it, which would be a clear sign to anyone with intelligence that there is something amiss in the Joplin R-8 School District. I have no doubt some would have provided the Globe with stories that would have shocked its readers.
That is probably why those people were never called. After all, if people think there is unrest in the school district, it could look bad for the community. Doesn't anyone ever wonder if having a school district with that much unrest could be even worse for the community.
Of course, there could be another reason for the Globe's reticence to do any investigative reporting on Joplin city or Joplin R-8 school officials.
Has anyone invested more time and space in building the myth of these heroes of the Joplin Tornado? Wonderful things were done by many people after the tornado, but when millions of dollars are at stake and thousands of people are affected, there is a need for someone to stand up and demand answers.
The Joplin Globe has failed its readers miserably.
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15 comments:
The Globe is a horrible newspaper. The only "extra" news is what they have in sales circulars. Their only stories are feel-good dramas, which are fine, but they've neglected to tell people what they really need to know. Our country's founders fought for freedom of the press, to preserve and instill the right of the people to know what their government is doing at any given time, including local entities. The Globe has failed to do its primary duty as a paper. Its best use is that of cage liner.
I am disappointed in the Joplin Globe's failure to report news that significantly affects the people.
The reporter assigned to cover R8 has a relative who teaches in the district. I would not want to report negative news about my parent's boss or work environment for fear of jeopardizing their job.
I know why 1 teacher left only because they happen to be friends of ours...It was not because a spouse got a job elsewhere either! I heard about the terrible things from this person about what took place at McKinley School.....absolutely terible! Before learning what i kearbed about Joplin R8 i would have never dreamed they are so corrupt. Now that i know i see it daily.
Autocorrect sorry!
Good reporting on the lack of leadership in Joplin. Clowns and crooks run the show. MSSU is nowadays a joke; the school board elected to freeze tax revenues for 3 years so that they could shovel upfront cash to the master plan guys; Rohr is a thug; the Chamber is useless. In every instance, the Globe is straight down the money line.
I tried to educate Debbie Wooden about the destructive effect of the TIF in Monett and the probability of Joplin doing even worse, but she was not able to use it thanks to Globe politics.
The city of Joplin may have the most inept management in Missouri.
The Joplin Globe has served this community well, Mr. Turner. It is you that has failed it miserably.
You were a failure as a newspaper editor, a failure as a teacher, and your Turner Report, Inside Joplin, and those other ridiculous blogs are going down in flames.
It is laughable to think that anyone in Joplin is going to support a cheap-looking, tabloid trash blog, which tries to build readership by attacking good people like Angie Besendorfer and CJ Huff. You were quite acurately described as a bully. You have such an inferiority complex that you have to make yourself feel better by attacking people who contribute more in five minutes than you have in your entire miserable life.People do not want to pay for a subscription to the Joplin Globe, which has real news, why would they pay for a cheap pretender who has never met a lie he wouldn't print? I certainly hope Joplin will not have to put up with you much longer. Move somewhere else, start on your next failure and stop attacking people who have reached a status you will never attain- they are decent human beings.
When it became evident that Bruce Speck was on his way out as MSSU president in late May, the Globe did start producing a bevy of stories about his pending ouster. And, the Globe did a substantial amount of reporting about the City Hall shenanigans involving Mark Rohr and Bill Scearce. Those are two minor points in defense of the Globe. As a public watchdog of taxpayer monies and tornado recovery funds, the Globe has failed the city of Joplin miserably. The Globe has provided more stories about the awards it has won for its tornado coverage that the myriad of problems associated with the tornado recovery. As a lifelong reader of the Globe, I agree that there is way too much fluff reporting and not nearly enough of substance. I am still baffled by the fact that the Globe has stopped covering the legal maneuvering of Jeffrey Bruner and his attorney. How is that not newsworthy?
6:34--
Really? They are good people? They've bankrupted your district and are getting ready to run out while the getting is good. Turner is the only one telling the truth about what has happened to R8. If that truth is too painful for you, then stop reading. You simply wish to make a personal attack and will use any story, whether your comments are relevant or not, to do so. That's the stuff of tabloids.
If you have lived in Joplin for very long you will realize that the Globe will never go after anything. The Globe, city counsel, school board and high-profit local companies are all in bed together.
Actually, it was lying idiots like Turner who turned me from off reading lie-papers. An entire generation of white men -- the only ones able to read -- from reading the newspapers. Why pay good money in order to read stupid crap put out by liars who hate you and everything you stand for? I got out of the habit of reading newspapers when the Internet came along, preferring to read news put out by people like me or people who thought like me. The end result is that most newspapers are on the ropes because of a lack of readers and advertisers wanting our particular demographic -- White men with money. Even M$NBC and CNN have lost half their audience the past few years.
Yes, I'll grant that the Joplin Globe goes ass-to-mouth with the Joplin school board, the administration, the crooked Joplin Police Department and the local Good Ol' Boys network. And so? It could only be worse if Turner and Turner's Tards were listened to.
I see, right now, that Turner's attempt to create an on-line lie-paper "Inside Joplin" has been downgraded to a mere free blog on blogspot. What else was to be expected? Turner was run off for a reason from his chosen career paths of journalism and teaching. Now nobody wants anything to do with him.
The community supports this corruption. Nobody has any idea that things can be "better" -- better for who? -- nor do they have any reason to change things. The young who did have ambition or drive to do better moved on to greener pastures, leaving the same old crooks in power. Why not? At least the crooks in power have some dim understanding that they can't steal everything or mess up to where the precious apathy necessary to keep them in power boils clean away. Besides, no matter how stupid and corrupt they are, things are still better off than if you allow a lying imbecile like Turner to really mess them up.
When you understand that, you understand why Bruce Speck and CJ Huff get to do whatever they please just as long as they don't get too greedy or uppity. After all, why not have the educrats of the local college and school district do whatever the people in power want them to do, as opposed to what some rogue teacher with nothing except some pathetic blogs wants done?
I read Turner's blogs in order to hear Turner lie and bitch. There is some real anguish coming outta Randy Turner, if not any self-awareness.
Turner is so funny.
It is impossible to take seriously anything written by a racist bigot. Both reflect ignorance, which is what 11:23 personifies.
11:23 is one of the ranks of the Internet paranoid who sit hunched over their computers deluding themselves into believing they rule the universe from their narcissistic realm.
Anonymous 7:08 am and 7:31 am are what is known as Turner-Tards, engaged in what is called "projection." The moment they hear a "discouraging word" of Reality, they immediately get into conniption fits over hearing a Voice from the Past telling them that no, there is no such thang as pretty unicorns which crap rainbow candies, and that there is a sorta "Law of Un-Intended Consequences" which are even more malevolent than those of Murphy.
Turner hasn't failed this community because he is a liberal whack-job that has been banished long ago, both as an editor and journalist, this year as a public school teacher. The Joplin Globe, while it may or may not fail this community is a recognizable part of this community, whereas Turner and the Turner-tards are alien, and thus alienated from community standards -- and rightfully so.
To the racist jerk so proud of using the "tard" label: Mark Twain is quoted as having said, "Better to remain silent and appear a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Perhaps you should follow suit.
The "tard" man is almost funny to read. It would be funny if it didn't make my head hurt trying to figure out what he is talking about. He sure has something against Randy but seems obsessed with him. Better watch out Randy you have an obsessed fan!
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