Yesterday Neal Boling, News Director for WJHL-TV News Channel 11, sent a response to my inquiry about the three minute “Free Time” segments for Democratic Candidates in the the 1st congressional district.
According to Boling, letters were sent out inviting local Democrats (Russell and Donihe) to the station on Tuesday to record their segments.
Boling said:
“The arrangements with Mahmood Sabri were postponed until late last week, and I didn’t want to ping-pong between Republicans and Democrats. That’s why we are profiling the Democrats this week, instead of last. It’s not because we don’t think they are viable candidates.”
[...]
I will only say that I disagree with the position our colleagues at the Kingsport Times News are taking. It is not for us to decide who is a candidate or not in this election.
[...]
As far as I know, we are the only station in this region providing this depth of coverage and opportunity for the candidates. We take politics very seriously. We take our role as fair journalists even more seriously.
Splendid – and Boling was much nicer about the difference of opinion than J. Todd Foster, who in his opinion column dubbed the neighboring daily the Kingsport Slimes News. (Foster is the editor of Bristol Herald Courier, a publication which offers profiles on many of the candidates from the 1st here AND broke the news yesterday that there’s a Democrat in Blountville. Who knew?)
And on that note, I’ll end with this – for Missus D, who constantly complains that I never “do” lolcats.
Okay, so it’s not a cat – but this is East Tennessee. We prefer dogs – therefore a stinky hound is the best I could do on short notice.
