By Steve Hunley
The only really bad thing about being a weekly newspaper is preparing an editorial on one topic.  Hardly a week goes by that I don’t hear from people wondering why I didn’t write about this or that.  There’s so much that happens nationally and locally that it is usually difficult to decide what I might editorialize about.  This week’s editorial is about this and that, covering a range of things that are going on.

 

STUPIDEST QUESTION EVER

Olivia Nuzzi may well have asked the stupidest question ever posed during a presidential press conference during the history of the United States.  A reporter for New York magazine, Nuzzi asked President Trump, “If an American president loses more Americans in the course of a week than died in the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be reelected?”  Ari Fleischer, press secretary to President Bush, posted, “It’s clown questions like this that can make the briefing a waste of time.  The only point of the question was to provoke.  Not learn anything new.  Nuzzi claims it was a legitimate question, although Fleischer’s post provoked her into replying, telling the former press secretary, “Oh, shut the f_ _ _ up.”

And there are still people who wonder why people have cut the cord and pay no attention to people like Olivia Nuzzi.

 

 

HMMM… COULD IT BE HYPOCRISY?

If anyone doubts the bias of the mainstream media, one only has to look at the news coverage relating to Tara Reade’s accusation former vice president Joe Biden sexually assaulted her while she served on his senatorial staff and compare it to that of the accusation made against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.  What happened to the daily trumpeting by the media . . . and Hollywood types screeching, “A woman must be believed!”  What happened to the crazed-looking types who gnashed their teeth, wore sack cloth and ashes and wailed (not to the Lord of course as most of those people don’t believe in God), but where are they now?

The media coverage of the accusations is proof positive of the clear bias of the mainstream news media and there is no denying it.

It would be astonishing if we weren’t used to it by now.  New York senator Kristin Gillbrand was asked if Democrats were contradicting themselves in their reaction to the allegations made against Brett Kavanaugh and those against Joe Biden.  “No, and I stand by Vice President Joe Biden,” Gillbrand croaked.  “He’s devoted his life to supporting women, and he has vehemently denied this allegation.”  So did Kavanaugh.  In fact, Brett Kavanaugh denied the allegations made against him as vehemently as anybody possibly could.  Tara Reade has had people she told about the alleged assault come forward and speak on the record.  Reade’s mother apparently called into the Larry King Show to repeat the charge in 1993.  Kavanaugh’s accuser, on the other hand, couldn’t remember where the alleged assault took place or when, not to mention everyone she cited as being there said they weren’t.  Yet Gillibrand thought that was plenty of reason to label Brett Kavanaugh as an abuser of women.  Apparently, women must be believed, until they aren’t.

Nor is Kristin Gillibrand hardly the only female hypocrite running around.  Actress Alyssa Milano has come under some scrutiny by feminists and progressive activists who aren’t hypocrites.  All Milano could offer up was questioning the evidence.  “I just don’t feel comfortable throwing away a decent man I’ve known for 15 years in this time of complete chaos without there being a thorough investigation.”  The evidence against Biden is better than it was against Brett Kavanaugh, but Alyssa Milano gave the Supreme Court nominee no such courtesy.  Nor did she show the slightest reluctance to ruin the life of a man who was very decent.  Now Milano is Tweeting she sees and hears Tara Reade, which probably is a great comfort to Ms. Reade.

 

OUCH STACEY!

Congressman William Lacy Clay, interviewed on the “Tangazo” podcast, didn’t have much nice to say about Stacey Abrams’ openly campaigning for the Democratic vice presidential nomination.  Abrams was the failed Democratic nominee for governor of George in the last election cycle.  Abrams lost by some 50,000 votes to Republican Brian Kemp but has insisted she is the legitimate governor of Georgia, a view shared by nobody else.

Congressman Clay said he thought it “kinda inappropriate” for Abrams to be so openly angling for the job as well as “somewhat offensive.”  Clay doesn’t appear to think Stacy Abrams was the winner of the Georgia gubernatorial election, hardly surprising as Kemp was sworn in and all.  Clay burned Stacey when he said, “You know, at the race track you cannot show up at the winner’s window with loser’s tickets.  You haven’t won anything.  You can’t show up at the winner’s window with loser’s tickets and demand anything.”  Wonder if that just got too real for Stacey?

 

 

CHRISTMASTIME IN THE CITY

Well, progressives hate using the word Christmas and I don’t know how they feel about Santa Claus currently.  They might be interested to know Santa Claus is alive and well and campaigning in Tennessee’s 15th House district.  Tall, lanky and clean shaven instead of bearded and stout, Matthew Park has offered up a smorgasbord of tantalizing goodies for consideration in his bid to unseat incumbent state representative Rick Staples.  Park has published a Black Agenda Report.  The 15th District is not a black majority district, but has a significant black population.  Park is clearly bidding for black votes with a sweeping confection of tasty treats and freebies.  Among Park’s recommendations are allowing the black community to supervise police departments, giving away this and that and a host of other things that will never pass the Tennessee General Assembly.  In fact, Park’s agenda is less likely to pass the legislature than for progressives to have manger scenes in their yards.

Park is enlarging on his existing platform where he is for restorative practices, which emphasizes therapy instead of punishment and calls himself a “prison abolitionist.” Park is also loudly against the death penalty.  One wonders if the families who have lost loved ones to violence, including drive-by shootings are prison abolitionists?

Matthew Park’s platform is a re-warming of the usual social justice warrior’s diet of pablum for progressive people who never did quite manage to grow up.  Matthew Ocasio-Cortez Park is running well to the left of Staples and former County Commissioner Sam McKenzie.

Staples is the incumbent representative up for reelection.

McKenzie is the husband of City Councilwoman Gwen McKenzie, the vice mayor of Knoxville.  McKenzie served eight years on the Knox County Commission, although East Knoxville has nothing to show for it.  Evidently the McKenzies are looking to collect as many government checks as they possibly can.

 

 

SPEAKING OF MEDIA BIAS

Another good example of media bias is the coverage being given several GOP governors over the proposed re-opening of their respective states following the China virus.  Greg Abbott of Texas, Brian Kemp of Georgia and Kristi Noem of South Dakota have been pilloried by the press and practically accused of putting everybody’s lives in danger. Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, is doing much the same thing in his state, but you haven’t heard a word about it. Of course Polis is a Democrat and that would only matter if he was a Republican.

 

THE CHINA CONNECTION

Elizabeth Rowland has jumped into the race to succeed Bill Dunn in the Tennessee General Assembly.  Dunn has served admirably since 1994 and is retiring this year.  All the candidates running to succeed Dunn are women.  County Commissioner Michele Carringer, Knox County Board of Education member Patty Bounds and now Elizabeth Rowland are running.  Carringer and Bounds will face off in the Republican primary, while Rowland is going to be the Democratic nominee.  Rowland’s father was Michael Y. “Mike” Rowland who served a few terms in the Tennessee legislature.  There aren’t many folks who recall it, but Rowland left the Tennessee General Assembly to run against Congressman John J. Duncan, Sr in 1976.  Rowland, young and handsome, could give a heck of a speech and was a pretty friendly fellow.  Jimmy Carter was the Democratic presidential nominee and most folks don’t remember, but Tennessee was Carter’s second best state in the nation after his native Georgia.  Jim Sasser beat Bill Brock for the U. S. Senate that year, but Congressman Duncan, who ran scared, won easily.  If Mike Rowland couldn’t win, no Democrat could.

A successful attorney, Mike Rowland died in 1998.  It remains to be seen whether Elizabeth is her father’s daughter, or takes after her mother.  Elizabeth Rowland is the founder and board chair of something called the “TN – China Network.”  Evidently Rowland worked for the highly respected Covington – Burling law firm, an elite Washington, D. C. law and lobbying firm in Beijing.  Considering the many recent exchanges between the US and China has been about the origin of the coronavirus, that particular tie might not do Elizabeth Rowland much good politically.

 

 

KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL HYPOCRISY

The Knoxville News-Sentinel happily jumped on Mayor Glenn Jacobs with all four paws over the  salary issue.  The Sentinel has always liked low-hanging fruit and immediately questioned whether Jacobs and the officeholders participating in furloughing county employees would give up their own salaries?  Informed they could not legally do that, the Sentinel changed course and wondered if Jacobs and his fellow officeholders would donate their salaries to charity.  Jacobs indicated he would consider it, but the mayor is better off financially than many of his colleagues, which put the others on the spot.

The Sentinel knows a thing or two about employees.  There are few businesses as expert in running off long-time employees than the Knoxville News-Sentinel.  The publisher and the editor of the News-Sentinel are surely pretty well paid, but somehow, I don’t think they took a pay cut or donated their salaries to charity.  The Sentinel still has a publisher and editor while the lesser lights, which include veteran reporters and columnists have all pretty much disappeared over the years.  Odd how nobody mentioned that.