The Joplin Globe and those juicy page one rumors

The Joplin Globe spent a considerable amount of space in today's edition exploring whether City Councilwoman Trisha Raney lives in the city limits,

The reason this is a story, the Globe notes, is because of "rumors and Facebook posts."

I am not one of those purists who believe that rumors have no place in the news. Often they play a prime role in the things that happen and therefore, they should be reported and the truth should be discovered.

Debby Woodin, who wrote the page one story, has had a long and solid journalistic career with the Globe. What a shame that the editors are now using her to chase down rumors about Bill Scearce and Trisha Raney.

The story makes it clear that Raney lives in Joplin. The headline does not.

"Council member says she has moved," the headline reads.  If people are not familiar with this story, that headline is certainly not going to make them want to read it. For those who are familiar, it makes it look as if there is still some doubt about where Ms. Raney lives.

The subhead reads, "City Clerk: Council packets delivered to Trisha Raney at Joplin address."

A better use of the time might be doing some research to see where these stories are starting. The rumors, combined with the Globe headline (there are going to be people who will just scan the headlines and say, "Sure, she says she lives in the city" and never bother to read the story) may be enough to make a difference in the April 8 election.

The rumor has already been given credence by the Globe's regular "guest columnist" Anson Burlingame on his blog:

It seems that Trish Raney, very much in my gun sights as a candidate, lived in Joplin when she was last elected. However over the last couple of years she evidently began a relationship and later married a man living in Webb City. Supposedly she now lives in Webb City with her husband but still owns a home in Joplin.

The question of course becomes is she a legal resident of Joplin, which she must be to run for City Council. I make no attempt at a legal judgment on that point. But if someone actually lives “out of town” but still owns property in Joplin, that does not sound like a residence, at least to me. I would think one must actually live in Joplin to qualify as a candidate for city council.

When a writer has someone "very much in my gun sights," (an unfortunate, but telling remark), he had better make absolutely sure he is right. There is a reason, for instance, why I back up what I write with multiple sources and often with supporting documents.

The Globe's role in this election is being carefully scrutinized and it should be. If it wants to explore the Raney story, it needs to find out just who is planting those rumors...and it is time, long past time, that the newspaper cuts any ties to Anson Burlingame. 

Thoughts on Mark Rohr and corruption on the Joplin City Council

Mark Rohr has been one busy ex-Joplin city manager.

Let's review. In the month since the Joplin City Council fired him by a 5-4 vote he has done the following things:

-He promised to expose corruption on the City Council.

-He called the five council members who fired him liars and damned them all to hell. (He's the one who said they would get their judgment in the next life.)

-He came close to tears (that seems to be a requirement for the people the media have described as heroes of the Joplin Tornado) and shamelessly brought his children into his speech (another thing that those same heroes of the Joplin Tornado seem to like to do).

-He was hired as the new city manager of League City, Texas.

Since Mark Rohr's firing, I have watched the coverage, both online and in print and it has been, for the most part, unabashedly pro-Rohr. In its editorial pages, the Joplin Globe has done everything but tell voters that the two council members who were with the majority and fired Rohr should be voted out of office (and I am sure that editorial is coming).

In their now-independent blogs, former Globe bloggers Anson Burlingame and Geoff Caldwell have referred to the five council members as "The Feral Five," and "The Bloc of Five" with Burlingame insisting that the pages of the Loraine investigation that we have not seen have people describing Rohr as a bully. How he knows this, I have no idea, but that accusation is probably in those pages. Though it does not appear their blogs receive a great deal of traffic, both men are staples on the Globe's editorial page and Burlingame, in particular, has made it clear he intends to influence the outcome of the April elections.

The Globe has painted the five council members as the ones who are responsible for not releasing the entire report, even though the last time I looked there are nine council members, all of whom know what was included in the report...and Mark Rohr knows what is in the report, as well.

The Joplin Tri-State Business Journal also included several pages in its most recent edition that appeared slanted solidly on Rohr's side.

And those media have made Rohr's characterization of the five who fired him as being a part of a good old boy network that is intent on stopping progress from coming to Joplin, sound like a fact, instead of what is, a talking point planted by Rohr to influence coverage from people who were already inclined to be on his side.

Some questions we should consider:

-Where is the corruption that Mark Rohr promised to reveal? It was a great sound bite, but he has not produced any evidence that there is widespread corruption on the Joplin City Council. An allegedly stolen sticky note is not corruption, its elementary school name calling. Unless, of course, Rohr's corruption allegations are centered around his (successful) attempts to woo Globe Editor Carol Stark into fighting his battles with Councilman Bill Scearce.

-Why are the five council members being described as part of a good-old-boy network, when the most secretive group involved in the April city election, the Joplin Progress Committee, has received contributions from many of the major power players in the city- and none of their contributions are going to anyone who voted to fire Mark Rohr. Apparently, they don't make good old boys the way they used to.

-Why is the media acting like Wallace-Bajjali has disproven the accusations in the Loraine report? The last time I looked, all they did was provide their own version of the facts and did not disprove anything.

-Why is the media ignoring the bankruptcies, fraud accusations, and securities violations, as well as numerous lawsuits involving Wallace-Bajjali. As far as I can recall, it has never been brought up in any of the local media except for a paragraph in the Globe, which quoted Mark Rohr as saying none of it amounted to anything.

Some final thoughts

If the Joplin Globe is successful in its legal efforts to force the city to release the complete report, this is what I expect will occur:

-The report is not going to be what the Globe, Anson Burlingame, or any of the other Rohr supporters would expect. The council members who voted to fire Mark Rohr were not taken by surprise by the reaction. Rohr's influence over the Joplin Globe is well known. Two council members, Trisha Raney and Jack Golden, voted to fire Rohr, knowing full well that it could cost them their council seats. That is not the way good old boys usually operate.

-Bullying may have been a factor in Rohr's dismissal, but it was not the deciding factor. I would say there were things that occurred that the five council members saw as Rohr abusing his office. We probably will wonder why the other four did not join them in their vote. The allegations could have prevented Rohr from landing the League City position and could have landed the city in a lawsuit. When Rohr left Piqua, Ohio, he successfully sued someone who accused him of wrongdoing. I reported the following in the June 3, 2007, Turner Report:

The Family Abuse Shelter of Miami County, Ohio, is $3,000 richer, thanks to a settlement of a libel suit brought by Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr against a Piqua, Ohio, businessman who Rohr says defamed him while Rohr was Piqua's city manager.

According to an article in the March 29 Dayton Daily News, Rohr had initially won his lawsuit against Gustin, but the jury voted not to award him any money. A retrial was ordered, but will not be held thanks to the settlement.

Rohr sued Charles "Mo" Gustin after Gustin claimed police cruisers had been to Rohr's house three or four times to check out domestic abuse complaints;

Rohr said his lawyer, Grant Kerber of Troy, suggested the donation. Rohr liked the idea.

"My sole objective was to send a message that you can't go around saying untrue things about someone without repercussions." Rohr said.

Rohr said he thinks he made his point.

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."

Investigator's report rips Joplin Globe's investigation into Councilman Scearce

Joplin Globe Editor Carol Stark's efforts to help City Manager Mark Rohr came in for criticism in the investigative report issued Tuesday night by Osage Beach attorney Tom Loraine.

Rohr reportedly went to Mrs. Stark with information about an FBI investigation into Councilman Bill Scearce involving former tenants of his who were involved in a gambling operation. Rohr's discussions with Mrs. Stark took place after a failed attempt to fire Rohr last summer.

Tabbing Scearce as the ringleader of those who wanted to get rid of him, Rohr gave Mrs. Stark the information and she dutifully had reporters write about the situation as if it were the second coming of Watergate.

Why that story was important and how she came to plaster it on the Globe's front pages for several days is not included in the report...because Mrs. Stark refused to allow Loraine to interview her.

"The editor of the Joplin Globe has refused to make a statement concerning knowledge she purportedly had about Mr. Scearce acting with any gambling activities."

She was not the only one who would not cooperate with Loraine, according to the report.

"Similarly, people that had inside information about the FBI questioning of Mr. Scearce, to wit: Police Chief Lane Roberts and former City Joplin Policeman James Altic, who is now chief of City of Seneca, have refused to give any details of an alleged FBI report that led to an indictment and conviction f Joplin "bookmaker" Lovett.

"When offered to reveal facts that would support wrongdoing by Mr. Scearce, both Lane Roberts and James Altic refused. Roberts allegedly swore secrecy required by the FBI. Any continuing investigation against Councilman Scearce was clearly disavowed by the General Counsel of FBI K. C. division.

"When I asked Mr. Scearce to request the original 302 report of his questioning about Mr. Lovett, Scearce agreed to request any record. He has done so in writing through Mr. Genisio (his lawyer) inquiring to the FBI.

"After consulting with the FBI General Counsel, I find no credibility in a theory of a continuing investigation of Mr. Scearce. If the Council of Joplin wishes to force Lane Roberts to testify or face discharge (note: this was before Roberts' recent retirement announcement), I will pursue this matter. In light of the statement of FBI General Counsel and the passage of time without indictment, I believe Bill Scearce to be innocent of participating in gambling activities with Mr. Lovett.:

At that point, Loraine took a shot at the Globe coverage:

"I also do not find any ethical violations have occurred in subsequent newspaper developments on this 'non-story.' "

Loraine said that if these kinds of accusations against Scearce continue, it could "invite a defamation lawsuit. I can find no evidence that Mr. Scearce has committed crime or an ethical violation of his official duties as a city member.

"When the 302 FBI report arrives, I believe there will be no continuing investigations of Mr. Scearce."

Reader: Carol Stark, Joplin Globe have sold out their community

The following is a reader's response to my post about today's Joplin Globe editorial in which the Globe indicated that it supported whatever Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff or City Administrator Mark Rohr suggested because it was better to be doing something that is unpopular than to be doing nothing.

If Napoleon said it's true, then it must be so, said the dumb beasts.

No decision is worse than an unpopular decision? What kind of stupid reasoning is that? No decision was so urgent that it needed to be made without full consensus of the public. It appears that the editor and publisher of the Globe have completely overlooked the fact that the original East Middle School could have been ready for the students in August of 2011 at minimal cost to taxpayers. Why have they not investigated this fraud? That the buildings are not what voters paid for reveals abuse of public funds. Where is their investigation? They see nothing; they hear nothing; they report nothing. And therefore, they are a waste of natural resources.

Carol Stark has sold out her own community. What a pity and a shame. If the whole purpose of a newspaper is to protect and promote the public interest by keeping government within its bounds, how can they justify their pulp newspaper? One might as well read a rag off the rack at the Walmart check-out lanes as to seek valuable information from the local news outlets. I will never pay the Globe a dime again as long as the current publisher and editor are in place.

Anson Burlingame is an idiot; the Joplin School Board race is not about me

I don't make a habit of calling people idiots, even when their behavior would certainly seem to indicate the label applies.

That being said, Anson Burlingame is an idiot.

One sign of how far the Joplin Globe has fallen over the past few years has been its eagerness to make this man out to be some sort of wise thinker whose columns should appear in the newspaper's pages. The Globe tried a failed experiment a few years back of setting up certain people in the area as bloggers. At first glance, it seemed like the blogs were a success; they were filled with reader comments.

Unfortunately for the Globe, most of the comments were from their own bloggers, bickering with each other.

How much they were paying these people for their wisdom I have no idea, but the experiment came to a screeching halt a couple of years ago.

Since then, the Globe has propped up the two "conservative" bloggers, Burlingame and Geoff Caldwell, by providing them with regular space on the editorial pages as "guest columnists." Both of them were featured on today's opinion page.

Burlingame's column shows just how little the man knows about what is going on in Joplin.

Joplin Globe: We know what is good for Joplin- you can't handle the truth

For those few remaining Joplin Globe reporters who remember the days when the Globe, in its own fashion, attempted to report on the problems in Joplin, these last few years have been torture.

The newspaper made no effort to dig into the background of former Missouri Southern State University President Bruce Speck, opening the door to a five-year nightmare for those who were able to remain employed after Speck had done his damage.

It is not as if it was difficult to find the warning signs. In five minutes of research, I was able to dig up enough to know that the Board of Governors should have interviewed more than one candidate for the position.

The Globe finally got its act together for a brief time and tried to investigate the Speck Administration, then Publisher Michael Beatty and Editor Carol Stark not only pulled off the only reporter who was trying to investigate what was going on at the university, but they even offered Speck advice on how to control the media and offered him ideas of puff pieces they were willing to write for him.

That made the veteran reporters, the ones who know what journalistic ethics are, question just what was happening to their newspaper.

Instead of playing the traditional newspaper role, the Globe was trading its integrity for access and a seat at the table.

The situation with this area's newspaper of record has grown even worse since May 22, 2011.

Since that day, Carol Stark and company have played the role of cheerleader for Joplin city and school officials. Ms. Stark has done everything except put on a skimpy uniform and shake her pom-pons to make sure that neither she nor the Joplin Globe can be accused of standing in the way of what City Administrator Mark Rohr and Joplin R-8 leaders C. J. Huff and Angie Besendorfer see as essential for the success of the governmental bodies they represent.

If something has the imprint of the school district, the city of Joplin, Bright Futures, Rebuild Joplin, or anything of the sort, the newspaper function of shining light to reveal to the public what is happening is shut down, and we are left with the idea that we must put our complete trust in the administrators who have been hired to lead our city and school district and the public-minded citizens who have joined in to boost their efforts.

In the days immediately following the tornado, that instinct was understandable; when two and a half years have passed and the hero worship continues, the newspaper is forsaking its primary responsibility of informing its readers.

Millions of dollars have passed through this city and millions more will be spent before our recovery is complete.

Take the case of the master developer Rebuild Joplin recommended and then Joplin city officials chose to handle the tornado-damaged portion of the city. While the Sugar Land, Texas, firm of Wallace-Bajjali has many accomplishments on its resume, it also has an involvement in two bankruptcies, an SEC investigation, which resulted in $60,000 fines for both David Wallace and Costa Bajjali, and a lawsuit which accuses Wallace-Bajjali of running a pyramid scheme. It has also run into numerous delays with its Amarillo project. With the exception of one paragraph in which the Globe quoted Mark Rohr as having looked into the SEC matter and not having any problem with it, the Globe has simply left the story untouched, as if the truth would somehow be anti-progress, or maybe printing it would cause the Globe to lose its seat at the table.

The coverage of the Joplin R-8 School District has been reprehensible. Michael Beatty, Carol Stark, and company decided early on that C. J. Huff and Angie Besendorfer's version of school progress would be the only one that would be covered in the newspaper.

It seemed like it took forever for the Globe to realize that more than 200 teachers had left the Joplin School District, something that had never happened here before. Then it allowed, apparently without any skeptical follow-up questions, C. J. Huff to blame the mass exodus on spouses finding jobs in other cities.

When R-8 technical department employee Ronny Justin Myers admitted that he had pornographic photos of 10 Joplin High School students on his laptop and it became apparent that Huff had known about this since February and never warned the public, the students, teachers, or even the Board of Education, in nearly every other school district in the United States, this would have been a scandal of epic proportions- a convicted sex criminal had access to Joplin High School students' computers and that fact, and the accompanying invasion of privacy, were simply brushed off by the Globe brain trust, mentioned only in passing when quoting from a news release issued by the U. S. Attorney's office following Myers' sentencing.

There are numerous other examples I could provide about the Globe's coverage of the Joplin School District, but I will limit myself to one.

On the first day of filing for Board of Education offices, Board President Jeff Flowers, former Board President Randy Steele and two other candidates circumvented (violated would be a better word) the rules, used the board members' own keys, something that non--board members obviously would not have, to give themselves the advantage of waiting inside a warm building for the opening of the filing period so their names would go at the top of the ballot.

Five days passed and not one word has been written in the Joplin Globe about this ethical breach. What is the big deal? After all, this is the Joplin Globe's version of Joplin, where a chosen few can choose to ignore the rules, create their own, and read Globe editorials and columns that praise their creativity and criticize those who dare question their policies. Those people, after all, including the ones who did not violate the rules and wait in a warm building for the filing period to begin, are the ones Michael Beatty and Carol Stark see as standing in the way of Joplin's progress.

To reward those who, wittingly or unwittingly, circumvented the rules, the Globe offered considerable space on today's opinion page for one of the candidates who waited inside to introduce himself and tell why he is running for the Board of Education.

It did not hurt, at least from the Globe upper hierarchy's way of thinking, that the candidate's beliefs could just as easily have been written by C. J. Huff or by whomever it is that write's C. J. Huff's words.

I hope the board will offer all other candidates the same amount of space, also in the more heavily read Sunday edition, to introduce themselves

I have sympathy for the hard-working veteran reporters at the Globe who have seen a paper that during the Edgar Simpson days was  a tough-talking tiger searching for the truth into the Michael Beatty/Carol Stark version, a toothless tabby that is reluctant to print the truth until their friends in school and city administration have signed off on it.

I have more sympathy for the people of Joplin.