Candidate for County Commission Lincoln Hough sets the record straight

after being accused of exaggeration today

I read the News-Leader's Our Voice column this morning. They've actually got a couple of them today, but I'm referring to the one endorsing Roseann Bentley over Lincoln Hough for the District 2 County Commissioner position.

To quote ;) a current Commissioner, "I was startled to find," the News-Leader suggesting Hough had "exaggerated" when he stated (according to their summary) "that the county adds about 17 employees every year. He said they aren't road workers or deputies but instead are administrators or policy people."

I thought it was fine that they challenged Hough's statement, but what "startled" me was that they offered no substantiation of their claim that Hough's statement had been exaggerated. It seems to me that if they are going to claim someone has exaggerated something, then they ought to offer some sort of argument as to why they felt a claim was exaggerated. Then, after not offering any proof that Hough had "exaggerated," oh, sweet irony, they took Hough to task for basing an earlier criticism of Bentley on, "a single quote in a newspaper article." Sweet!

A quote's a quote. Bentley said what she said. Apparently, readers of the News-Leader are supposed to, on the one hand, put great stock in their unsubstantiated claim that Hough "exaggerated," while discounting Hough on the other hand because he used the substantiation of a direct quote, straight out of the mouth of Bentley, herself, to base criticism of Bentley upon. Okay? Is there some sort of reasoning in that I'm just not getting??? Hmmm.

Hough, recently endorsed by the Missouri Republican Assembly, worked for the budget chairman in Jefferson City and one could assume by that, he might have some experience at crunching numbers.

Here's what Hough had to say regarding the News-Leader's unsubstantiated claim that he exaggerated his statement concerning the average of new hires by the County. It was transcribed from the Vincent David Jericho Program's podcast from this morning's show (listen at that link <). Jericho had asked whether it was a claim or a fact, that the county adds about 17 employees every year and that they aren't road workers or deputies but instead are administrators or policy people. :

"It's a fact. Over the last four fiscal years Greene County has added an average of 17 employees to the County payroll. This last year, the '08 fiscal year, the majority, more than 50 percent of those jobs, were not out in the service areas, I mean, that's a fact.

You can go to the budget and you can look at it. The budget's online...."

When Jericho asked Hough why he thought the News-Leader used the word "claim" in their "Our Voice," column, Hough replied:

"I think that they're trying, they, the News-Leader, I think they're trying to portray me as a young person who doesn't really have his facts straight...and they couldn't have missed it more."

Personally, I think if the News-Leader is going to endorse candidates for what they cite as "exaggerated" claims made by the candidate they do not endorse, they ought to back up their own claims. I realize it's an editorial, however, they owe it to readers to give some sort of substantiated proof of their claim that Hough's statement was "exaggerated."

I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, your call.

Mayor Carlson: No medium to get a message out to the public

Hey, we're here! ...And just like the government, we like to think we're here to help the community

We're making phone calls, we're sending email requests for information, we're searching the internet and the libraries for background information so that we can understand an issue and not look like idiots when we report on it, or at least some of us are, and many of us are doing it every day.

Juxtapose this:

"How do you get a message out to the public, to the people that you're elected to represent if you no longer have a medium to do it with?" - Mayor Tom Carlson from his State of the City Report June 5, 2008

With this:

"I’m no longer interested in relaying any corrections beyond something simple and obvious like a Council name misspelling. However, I will also point out...." Public Information Director Louise Whall, as quoted from an email sent to a contributor of this blog. View it in the comment section under: More on 1/8-cent Transportation Tax)

I struggle daily with wondering if I am wrong to point these things out, but, you know, if city officials wouldn't say things like the above, I wouldn't have anything like that TO report.

I'll tell you something, readers, when I reported on what Greene County Commissioner Roseann Bentley said in an interview I did while writing an article for Community Free Press, February 27 issue:

"To be honest with you, when I became county commissioner, I was startled to find that it is, very often three out of the five days a week, a 7:30 or 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. job." - Greene County Commissioner Roseann Bentley, February 27 issue, CFP.

I didn't include it in the first, second, third...numerous first drafts, and I languished over the decision to publish it because I knew the detrimental effect it could have on an upcoming election. I literally lost sleep over whether to include it or not, asking my husband, over and over, "why did she say THAT!?" In the end, how could I not report it? Don't voters have the right to know? Don't I have the responsibility to inform them? Yet, I struggle and I stress every day and continue to weigh information and try to give readers the best work I can give them.

Mayor Carlson said yesterday:

"It's not like it used to be, there's not the depth, there's not the scope, there's not the understanding on the part of the media, on the topics that they're covering."

Sure, the media can take a part of the blame for that, but most of the time, I'd wager, the media is doing all they can to get information on any given topic so they can cover something fairly and it's like pulling teeth to get the information sought, then, add the timing issue. Reporters are on a dead line.

I think reporters should take some of the blame, but just as in the case of the police/fire pension plan's underfunding, there's enough blame to go around.

I was hoping I wouldn't have anything to post at JackeHammer today...looks like it just didn't work out. - Jackie Melton