Shannon’s Soapbox: Watchdogs, Not Lapdogs
“Too aggressive.” Do you know how many times I’ve heard that phrase uttered by officials and leaders in this county regarding my journalism? Far too many. This phrase is interesting because it’s not one you typically hear people say to men. Women are stigmatized for all sorts of things, but when did assertive become aggressive?
I have concluded that there are “some” leaders and officials in this county that aren’t accustomed to big city journalism in their small county and maybe they have become too accustomed to “healthy” scrutiny, brown-nosing, and looking the other way.
Maybe some officials and community leaders see it as agitating the officials or negative press, but we wouldn’t need Freedom of the Press if we were just patting backs in reporting, now would we?
Fear of truth and lack of transparency is not the fault of the reporter, but rather the officials’ and leaders' ignorance of what a reporter's job is.
Or maybe they do know what a reporter's job is; they just believe if they complain enough they can shut down good journalism. And it’s worked for them in the past. I know this from personal experience.
A couple of years ago when I was with another media outlet, there were several instances of alleged sexual misconduct going on in the Weakley County school system. As a reporter investigating the alleged incidents, I sent out an FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request for information on sexual assault complaints over a period of time and was met with immediate backlash. But not to my face. No one ever contacted me personally about it.
A meeting was requested with my then-publisher by members of the Weakley County School system including Erica Moore and then director of schools Randy Frazier, Weakley County Sheriff Terry McDade and District Attorney Colin Johnson. I thought it an odd group of people to have a meeting regarding a FOIA request.
At this meeting I was labeled as “too aggressive” and that my reporting on certain things had been negative. Their goal: to shut me down. And it worked with my then-publisher who made a point to have a conference with me and my then-editor, and that I was to “leave the school alone.”
Then came the story I investigated about a local woman fighting a custody battle. The opposing attorney, Roy Herron, thought he could put me on the stand to testify about my source and the sitting judge, Michael Maloan, stated that “He didn’t know of any law preventing me from testifying” as I continually stated in the courtroom, “I will not be testifying.”
A recess was held and I called Paul McAdoo, a TN media attorney, who walked me through step-by-step what to say regarding the Reporter’s Shield Law. A law a Judge ought to know that protects reporters from testifying about their sources. Even after reading the law to Maloan, he said a hearing would be set at a later date on my reasoning for not testifying. No hearing was ever set and I was not allowed by my then-publisher to report on this incident.
Then there were some issues with officials calling my former editor and publisher regarding questions I asked concerning incidents or articles I wrote regarding incidents.
There was an incident in Greenfield with the now former Chief of Police chasing an unarmed man out of a city court room and firing shots while pedestrians stood nearby. His body camera was not on. But heaven forbid someone ask questions.
Then there was the WCLTRG (Weakley County Long-Term Recovery Group), which I investigated for over a year and won a Tennessee Press Association award for my reporting, but members of that group complained to my editor/publisher as well and I was told to “lay off” them for a while.
All this, and then I resign, for that and other reasons.
I start working for another outlet and all is mostly quiet for a while, then I got promoted to Assistant Editor. The school, once again, requests a meeting with my new publisher after blacklisting me for months (not sending me any press releases related to the school or answering any questions from me) and the same things were said by them. Some concerns were expressed by them about a story I never even wrote. A clarification piece on a softball coach at Weakley County Schools terminated for a relationship with a student, written by then Dresden Enterprise Editor Sabrina Bates.
After that, there were some changes in the company and I took over as Editor of The Martin Post and Editor of The Dresden Enterprise. The school still has me blacklisted from receiving any press releases-choosing instead to send them to my publisher, Daniel Richardson, who in turn has to forward them to me. Public press releases. Press releases they share on their Facebook page.
Most recently an incident happened at Greenfield Schools where the school system sent a press release out to every news outlet but us. They didn’t even include the publisher this time. An email was sent to the school system requesting the reasons, but no response has yet been received.
This entire time these people think they are hurting me, my job, my position, my work, but they aren’t. They are only hurting themselves and the community. Taxpayers need to know the reasoning breaking news is not getting to them. And I’ve been informed by numerous parents that even parents aren’t being notified of incidents happening at their children’s schools.
Officials hurt their own reputation by not being transparent and forthcoming. Not all news is good news but guess what - we report on that too.
We are watchdogs, not lapdogs.
While fluff pieces can be good, and pieces focusing on businesses, community events, sports and other positive things in the community are great, there is a reason that investigative journalism is important.
Holding leaders and officials accountable for their actions, policies, and more is extremely important, both statewide and on a local level. And if that light falls on you, be transparent. Communicate professionally with reporters.
Blacklisting reporters, refusing to give quotes or explain things is petty, ignorant and unprofessional. To say the least.
There have been some smaller towns that have even sought revenge against “aggressive” local reporters by hitting them where they would hurt the most: their finances. This is what happened in Delhi, New York. In another town, a Sheriff was caught discussing “getting rid of” one local reporter in a small Oklahoma town. Then there’s Marion County Kansas where a Sheriff didn’t like a reporter looking into him and he got a Judge to sign a warrant based on a bogus affidavit and raided the local paper there, which prompted The New York Times to investigate and spotlight the incident.
Truth is important. Good or bad. I’ll say it again: reporters are watchdogs, not lapdogs, and you will never see lapdog reporting from me.
