It's not the City Council that is out of step; it is the Joplin Globe

The question that is asked in the editorial in today's Joplin Globe is an excellent one.

How did (Mark) Rohr go from hero to goat in so short a time?

The Globe Editorial Board says the City Council must provide the information on why it voted 5-4 earlier this week to fire Rohr. "Without an explanation, clouds of suspicion, doubt and mistrust will haunt this council and paralyze it for some time to come, regardless of who is elected in April."

The Globe, which has stood steadfastly in Mark Rohr's corner, ends the editorial by saying, "City leadership and the community cannot move forward unless they are in step, and right now, it is the council that is out of step, not the community."


No, omniscient, all-seeing voice from above that dictates Joplin Globe editorials, it is not the council or the community that is out of step- it is the Joplin Globe.

Consider the following:

-The City Council attempted to fire Mark Rohr several months ago. Rohr, recognizing that Mayor Pro Tem Bill Scearce was heavily involved in the effort to remove him, slipped information to Globe Editor Carol Stark, who dutifully launched a series of attacks on Scearce, even using the attacks in an effort to boost sales by placing signs on Globe racks highlighting the story and making word plays on Scearce's name. While I am not sure how much Scearce knew about the gambling operation in question, the report does make it clear that there is no ongoing FBI investigation. In other words, it was political payback from Rohr with the Joplin Globe was a willing partner.

--The Globe's total idea of investigative reporting is filing one Sunshine Law or Freedom of Information Act after another and then complaining when it doesn't get what it wants when it wants it. The old-fashioned idea of reporters developing sources seems to be a thing of the past and understandably so. The stories that need to be told demand the use of anonymous sources. Naturally, editors and reporters prefer that sources be named. It takes the pressure off the newspaper and puts it on the source, but Carol Stark has let us know in one of her Sunday opinion columns that the Globe is above that kind of thing, unless someone might die otherwise. The idea that someone could lose his or her job or suffer from retaliation does not meet the Stark Standards.No wonder people will not talk to the Globe. When you have leaders who rule by fear and you let everyone know that you are not interested in hearing their stories unless they are willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of your journalistic ethics, you are never going to get anywhere near the truth.

-Even the idea that the Globe does not rely on anonymous sources is based on a lie. It simply does not use phrases like "an anonymous source." Mark Rohr obviously started as an anonymous source for the Joplin Globe and I can speak from personal experience that either C. J. Huff or someone in his administration leaked information about my case that was used in the first article the Globe wrote about it. The newspaper already had information about the connection of my book, No Child Left Alive, to the district's investigation that obviously came from an administration source, but was not attributed to anyone in administration. It would appear that the only people who meet the Globe's approval as anonymous sources are those who occasionally share a breakfast or lunch with the Globe's editor.

-How did Mark Rohr go from hero to goat? A few days ago, Carthage Press Managing Editor John Hacker reminded me of something I told him a day or two after the tornado. With the extent of the tornado damage, I noted that there were going to be millions of dollars coming through this city and one of the most important jobs the media can do is to keep an eye on how the money is spent.
The Globe ignored what should have been serious concerns about the master developer, Wallace-Bajjali, that was already nosing around the city immediately after the tornado- bankruptcies, SEC investigations, allegations of Ponzi schemes, multiple accusations of fraud. Those things do not necessarily mean that Wallace-Bajjali is not the right company for an $800 million development, but they sure do not look good. The Globe knew about these problems and except for a couple of paragraphs, in which it quoted Rohr as saying it had all been looked into and it was no big deal, it was never mentioned. Since when does the community's newspaper of record take one man's word about something this big? At the least, print the information so that the readers will be aware and can make up their own minds. In other words, the Globe had all of this information, but chose to keep it secret from its readers. Is that any different than the accusation that its Editorial Board is leveling at the City Council?

-The Globe has played the same game with Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff. To cite one example- the newspaper either covered up the allegation that former technology department employee Ronny Justin Myers had pornographic photos of 10 Joplin High School girls, or it naively believed Huff when he said that Myers had "no access" to the students. One of Myers' duties was to monitor the high school students' laptops. He had the ability to watch these students at home, violating their privacy in the worst possible way. This is not information I derived from some anonymous source, though even if it were, it would be worth investigating. This information came from the U. S. Attorney and was included in a court document. Huff has known about this since February (identities of some of the girls had to be confirmed through the school), but it was not important enough for him to tell the community or the school board and it was not important enough for the Joplin Globe to ask about it and inform its readers. When Myers was sentenced, it was finally briefly mentioned, primarily because at that point, it was put in a news release from the U. S. Attorney that was also being used by the TV and radio stations. Even then, though the story of Myers' sentencing started on page one, the information about the pornographic photos was buried on an inside jump. Were the parents of the girls whose privacy was violated ever told that this happened? Was Huff ever asked why he said Myers had "no access" to the students when he clearly did? Has anyone ever asked if R-8 laptops still have the software that enables someone like Ronny Myers to spy on unsuspecting students or teachers? When the time comes that C. J. Huff suffers the same fate as Mark Rohr, is the Globe going to cry "How did C. J. Huff go from hero to goat in so short a time?'

For the past few years, since the ascension of Carol Stark to the editor position and the arrival of Michael Beatty as publisher, the Globe has been a newspaper that has chosen sides against its readers and in favor of a few powerful individuals. It has traded its journalistic integrity for a chance to sit at the table with those it deems important. It allowed the workers and students to dangle in the wind while Bruce Speck ran roughshod over Missouri Southern State University, even advising Speck on how to control the media. It has allowed more than 200 teachers to exit the R-8 schools in the past two years while parroting the Huff version of why this had happened.

And now, with the firing of Mark Rohr, a favorite of Carol Stark and the Globe, the newspaper is once again whining that no one will talk to them.

Why should they?

They have already told us they are not listening.