Not only did this story make page one of today's edition, but apparently it has been in the works for more than a month.
Following the same pathway that has landed numerous scoops for the Globe over the years, the newspaper filed a Sunshine Law request to get the information on the councilman's flea-bitten crime spree.
Sometimes, as all reporters know, it takes time to land a big story.
Consider the Globe's page one story in its Sunday edition on the developer at 1717 Marketplace and his federal indictment, as well as his involvement in the collapse of some area banks. Great story, no doubt about it.
It was great when it ran in the Turner Report 15 days earlier and I am not happy about it because I failed to notice the information, which, by the way, is mostly from a Department of Justice news release- when it was first issued 13 MONTHS AGO. The only major differences in information I saw between my post, the news release and the Joplin Globe story is that the reporter noted several times she could not come up with any information on certain parts of it and that people would not talk to her.
Even when the Globe scores a major victory, as it did with the court decision to release the Loraine Report, it only used the parts of the report that were about former City Manager Mark Rohr and then spent more space giving Rohr a chance to explain why he thought the report was incorrect and horrible.
The parts that should have been explored in depth, the roles played by Councilman Mike Woolston and master developer Wallace-Bajjali, were never written about in the pages of the newspaper. The only ones who read them were those who went to the website and looked at the report and the depositions.
Meanwhile, this pursue the truth at all costs zeal that went into the Rosenberg stop, has not been used on many stories that the public has had every right to know, but have either not been mentioned or have been glossed over by the Globe. A few examples:
-Despite the fact that the firm is in charge of an $800 million redevelopment of the city's tornado-stricken area, the Globe has yet to examine the problems that Wallace-Bajjali have had, including a string of bankruptcies, lawsuits, an SEC investigation that resulted in them paying $120,000 in fines and repaying $1,2 million to investors, and charges of operating Ponzi schemes. And that is just part of it. As I have noted before, the only thing the Globe has ever written about Wallace-Bajjali's problems was a paragraph in which Rohr said they were no big deal. The Globe would not have had to have filed any Sunshine Law or Freedom of Information requests, the information was all in court records and other public documents.
--The Globe never told its readers that less than six months after the Joplin R-8 School District passed the largest bond issue, $62 million, in district history, C. J. Huff and his administrative team were already telling the federal government of their plan to hit up the district for a tax levy increase. That information, as well as extremely revealing information about the administration's plans for the school distict was spelled out in the Race to the Top Application- once again, a public document.
-The Globe has never filed any Sunshine Law requests or as far as I can tell, even asked Huff about the pornographic photos of Joplin High School students that former technology employee Ronny Justin Myers, who is now serving a sentence in federal prison, had on his laptop. The Globe (and other area media) never challenged Huff's assertion that Myers had no contact with students. As the later news release from the Justice Department confirmed, he may not have been in the same room with them physically, but he did not have to be since one of his jobs was monitoring the student laptops. None of this information, which was in court records, was ever published until a brief paragraph on a jump page after Myers was sentenced and that was just because it was mentioned in the news release.
-During the uproar over Mark Rohr's firing and Rohr's accusations against the city council members who voted to fire him, the Globe never mentioned that the charges were identical to ones leveled against council members who wanted to get rid of him at his previous stops. This would not have required any Sunshine Law requests since the information was in the pages of a newspaper, THE JOPLIN GLOBE, for heaven's sake, 10 years ago. Apparently, the Globe's editors did not think the information was pertinent.
-Don't even get me started on the Bruce Speck era at Missouri Southern State University and how the Globe ignored one scandal after another.
But thank heaven, we know that whenever a city councilman decides to ride with his dog in his lap, the Globe will be there asserting our right to know, filing Sunshine Law requests and moving some of its usual fluffy features to create space for some exceptional investigative reporting.
The Benjamin Rosenberg story is a legitimate one. If it were featured in the pages of a newspaper that is living up to its responsibility to be a public watchdog, it would be a definite winner.
Sadly, that is not the case, and it has not been that way for a long time.
***
2 comments:
Wondering if the dog's name is really "fu fu" or if that is a pseudonym the dog uses for celebrity reasons??
And while the Globe is doing this awesome reporting, I wish they would dig a little deeper and report how many other citations have been issued for this same terrible offense. I notice many dogs enjoying a ride around our town that is so well managed by the smartest people in the world.
It's like she said when she participated in the smearing of Ron Erwin, you have to go where the news is even if it's unpopular. Unless your name is Rohr, Speck, Huff, Besendorfer, etc.
I hope Beatty has rewarded her well for pretending to be a journalist. Practically every small-town newspaper in the area demonstrates a greater mastery of the profession.
Post a Comment