Mr. Stearns,
Thank you for the opportunity to respond.
We are acting in good faith in our coverage of this story. We have a
responsibility to report on such matters, and to do so fairly and
objectively. We are allowing all sides to be heard. Before the original
story was written, our reporter offered to sit down with Ms. Moore and go
over the report in detail. Ms. Moore declined to do so. When she changed her
mind and asked for the opportunity to rebut the report in more detail, we
accommodated her request. That led to our follow-up story.
I would point out that the first mention of these audits came in a public
meeting of the city council. We would not be much of a newspaper if we
didn't follow up on a report that called into question the handling of our
city's finances. I would also point out that there was no shortage of city
staffers taking partial responsibility for the money transfers.
Anyone running for public office - or running a newspaper, for that matter -
puts himself or herself into the position of being second-guessed. That goes
with the territory.
As for your request that you be allowed to exceed the 300-word limit, I must
decline. I'm confident you can make your point very effectively within that
amount of space.
Thank you.
See the earlier exchanges from this discussion in the discussion section of the previous post. See the following exchanges in the discussion section of this post.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Reply from Baggett
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5 comments:
Mr. Baggett,
Your claim of good faith feels a little disingenuous for the following reasons.
This information has been available since June, but is only just now
making its way to the front page of your paper just before the
election.
You have made a major issue out of a transfer of money within the city
as if it were someone taking money from the city. Even if something
were to have been done wrong, which it does not seem to have been, it
would not have been an issue of intentional wrong doing, wrong doing
for personal gain. it is an issue of accounting practices within the
city.
Your obligation to publish important information does not seem to
extend itself to wrong doing on the part of the Good Old Boys of City
Council. Where was your ongoing story of a monstrous conflict of
interest when Jason Bienski failed to recuse himself from voting on a
TIF brought before city council by the man who ran is political
campaign. Or how about the connection from Keen Rigister to the Mayor
a connection that allowed this witch hunt to be orchestrated.
Mrs. Moore did not respond to the report because she trusted that the
paper would be fair and even-handed and she knew the facts would speak
for themselves in that case. Unfortunately, she seems to have over
estimated the integrity of the paper.
Further, I do not know if it is true that you were involved in a fund
raiser for Conlee, and I doubt that you would be forth coming if you
were, but it certainly does seem that you are doing what you can to
get him elected by any dastardly means.
Bryan has a reputation for its long history of being run by a good old
boy system. It is wrong and you are playing to it. Bryan is also
known for its good natured people. My guess is that they will not
tolerate this. - Hugh Stearns
Mr. Stearns,
You are of course entitled to your opinion of me and my newspaper, but in
civilized circles there are limits to what is considered fair criticism. I
would suggest a little more fact-checking before going so far as to besmirch
my professional reputation without cause or factual basis. Although my
in-laws hosted a Conlee fundraiser on their property, I had nothing to do
with it whatsoever. What they do on their land to exercise their political
rights is their business, not mine. I have been asked to participate in
hundreds of such events over the years, but have steadfastly maintained a
policy against any political involvement other than covering and commenting
on political matters in the newspaper. Take all the shots at me you want
based on what we say in our paper, but make sure you get your facts straight
before you accuse me of unethical behavior.
Mr. Baggett,
How ironic that you would show such indignation for having been
accused of something that you feel is wrong. While your in-laws are
certainly free to hold and support any political connection that they
wish, this is a close enough connection, especially as you are
smearing his opponents name, that it would have warranted disclosure.
It seems that on several occasions we have seen the Eagle fail to make
some rather obvious connections with this particular group of
politicians, even as you grasped to make flimsy connections
implicating Mrs. Moore. While I would not wish to overly globalize
this, indeed I do question the ethics of your behavior in this case.
As you have already pointed out, yours is a place to be second
guessed. - Hugh Stearns
Interesting:
If Dan Garcia (whom I am assuming, but have no proof is the same Dan Garcia who is intern for Fred Brown) can not only write letters to the Editor, but then turn around and share his world view as a guest columnist - then why can't Hugh Stearns be a guest columnist on this issue?
Katy Stewart
I have no idea who Brad Evers is but he sent this. Thanks for contributing Brad.
RE: Shame on Hugh
Dear One and All,
As usual Hugh Stearns is on the wrong side of the
issue again.......
Mary K. Moore as Mayor of Bryan just ain't gonna
happen!
This is the very same Mary K. Moore, who as City
Manager was the ring leader of the cabal at City Hall
who, at the bidding of the local Planned Parenthood
abortion clinic, sought to ban the American flag from
our city streets. But I suspect that was fine by Hugh
since he is recognized as the head cheer leader for
the local "Shame on American" movement. Moore has
bigger problems than shifting a little city money
around to serve her own agenda.
I had to laugh at the notion that Donnis thought Hugh
Stearns was capable of making his case in less than
three hundred words....it is obvious that Donnis
doesn't know our Hugh Stearns!
Looking forward to seeing you all at the 100 person
anti-war protest.....gotta love it!
Brad
p.s. Aren’t you glad they finally dumped that fat
broad on The View.
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