Sorry, Angie, the Globe's a little behind; you're still being sued

This has not been a good week for the Joplin Globe.

It started with a totally useless and heavily promoted "investigative" piece on an FBI probe of vice in the Joplin area. The only information that was revealed we already knew and the rest of the story was the Globe telling us what it was unable to find out.

Of course, it did enable the newspaper to take another swipe at Councilman Bill Scearce for daring to lead the move to fire Editor Carol Stark's favorite city manager Mark Rohr.

That article was accompanied by a Globe editorial whining about the FBI not releasing information and redacting all of the names in the report.

That was something my students had to deal with when we did the annual third quarter civil rights research project- the FBI redacts the names of living people. I would guess my students did a better job of mining FBI files for information than the Joplin Globe.

After that came the debacle of the Globe's coverage of TAMKO CEO David Humphreys' launch of drives for petition audits of the Joplin R-8 School District and the City of Joplin. In a page one article (that it took two Globe reporters to write), we learned only that C. J. Huff in a magnanimous attempt to save the taxpayers money had called the state auditor's office and asked for an audit. Humphreys' statement on why he was asking for the audit was nowhere to be found on page one, though that was the story, Humphreys was relegated to the inside pages.

At the same time, the Globe felt the need to accompany the story with a handy Bio-box, in which we learned that Humphreys had contributed $120,000 to State Auditor Tom Schweich and was a founder of Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School.

Those were certainly accurate bio-bits, but the Globe failed to mention that Humphreys donated half a million dollars to the district in the days following the tornado, that he is a major employer in the city of Joplin, and he pays a lot of taxes.

In another transparent effort to sway the story C. J. Huff's way, the Globe ran a poll on its website asking if the readers wanted an audit, mentioning that it would cost $70,000 to $100,000.

Despite the blatant attempt to make the poll turn out the way the Globe wanted, the last time I looked, people still wanted an audit.

The end of the week wasn't any better for the area's newspaper of record.

At 10:04 p.m. Thursday, an article by education reporter Emily Younker was posted on the Globe's website, revealing that former Royal Heights Principal Larry Masters' lawsuit against former Joplin R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer had been dismissed.

The Globe was a bit late with that information in more ways than one.

The story was first broken six days earlier in the Turner Report and had already been featured earlier in the week by the local television stations.

Of course, you can always argue that the Globe takes the time to make sure it has the story right.

After all, Younker's article had quotes from Besendorfer, now the chancellor of Western Governors University, about the conclusion of the lawsuit.

"I knew that I had conducted myself in an appropriate manner, as I always strive to do. I'm happy that my colleagues at the Joplin School District can move on," and she continued to talk about her "important work" at Western Governors University.

I don't know what time Younker talked with Besendorfer, but the lawsuit had already been refiled hours earlier than when the story was posted. Only this time Besendorfer had the company of her former boss, C. J. Huff, and former colleague Stephen Doerr as defendants.

Not a good week for the Joplin Globe, that is for certain.

Don't worry about the Besendorfer lawsuit. The Globe should have an update with the information about Huff being a defendant by sometime in July.