The Joplin Globe: Not a watchdog for the public, but a lapdog for C. J. Huff

One thing I always provided myself on during 22 years of covering school board and city council meetings was that I recognized a major story when I heard it.

I wasn't the only one. Reporters all had an eye and ear for news in those days and we could cut through whatever agenda some politician or official was trying to push and make a game effort at getting at the truth.

At the May 27 Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting, the district's CFO Paul Barr provided one of those moments that 20 years ago would have had the reporters salivating.

During his report, Barr revealed that the C. J. Huff Administration had gone $8 million into debt due to a "might as well" list- Huff and his administrative team saw something they wanted and figured they "might as wel" buy it now instead of buying it at some later date, or not buying it at all.

The "might as well" list included such items as artificial turf for all of the football fields, lighting for football fields, an expansion from four to eight tennis courts, and those were just the items Barr mentioned.

Even worse, the board was being asked to hire a company at a cost of approximately $45,000 to put a proposal together to borrow enough money to cover not only the $8 million "might as well" items, but also $5.4 million in unexpected occurrences such as problems with the old mines on the Joplin High School site.

This is what the Globe's education reporter Emily Younker wrote about the financial situation:

NOTHING

Not only did the words "might as well" never reach the pages of the Joplin Globe, but the post-board coverage did not even mention that the school district was going to have to take on short-term and long-term debt because of unforeseen circumstances (some of which were foreseen, but the administrators ignored warnings) and a "might as well" list of items that could well have waited during a time in which the district's reserves are at a dangerously low level.

What did the Globe concentrate on?

As usual, the emphasis was placed exactly where C. J. Huff wanted it. In this case, it was on his proposal to put a health clinic at the high school. Board members had told him not to pursue it last year, but he continued to do so do. This time, they once again tabled it, but Ms. Younker indicated that it might be brought up again at the June board meeting and then she wrote another story, which landed on page one of the Sunday Globe, which attempted to make Huff's case for the clinic.

The Globe also did not report on Huff's comments during the work session that he would like to get his hands on the money the Salvation Army received in donations following the tornado, but has not yet spent, something in the neighborhood of $5 million. He wanted to use this money to keep his Project Hope alive.

Project Hope began as a grant which enabled the district to hire mental health professionals to help students and staff deal with the aftermath of the tornado, but as with many of the programs the Huff Administration has launched through matching grants, the funding is gone, the purpose is gone, but Huff is already converting Project Hope into yet another initiative to keep students from dropping out of school.

Though the push for getting the Salvation Army money was not mentioned in the coverage of the board meeting, Huff's "need" to keep his Project Hope alive was the subject of yet another Sunday Globe story.

Apparently, Globe Editor Carol Stark is content to have C. J. Huff call the shots when it comes to her newspaper's coverage of education. Pushing two of Huff's pet projects and not even mentioning $8 million worth of "might as well" fluff projects does not seem like the actions of a newspaper that should be informing the public.

Instead of acting as a watchdog for the people, the Joplin Globe is content to serve as a lapdog for C. J. Huff.