The Joplin Globe has failed this community miserably

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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