DOES THE OLDHAM ERA GIVE FAIR AND BALANCED COVERAGE

In the May 5, 2010 issue of the Oldham Era a huge story was written about Magistrate Scott Davis. The story was centered on an allegation, made by a woman from Texas, that Davis had taken money from her for Kentucky Derby tickets and then failed to deliver the tickets to her. However, he did deliver tickets to her for the Kentucky Oaks.

It appeared to me that the Oldham Era completely took the word of the woman although no charges had been filed against Davis. The management at the newspaper stated that they did try to contact Magistrate Davis but was unable to reach him. Therefore, the Era ran the story without any input from Davis. After all, a deadline had to be met and that was more important than getting both sides of the story.

It is true that the Era did try to contact Davis – at least the Era left a message for me stating that they wanted to talk to him. I relayed their message to Magistrate Scott Davis and his attorney, Thomas Clay, later spoke with the Oldham Era.

I spoke with Clay on Wednesday evening regarding the allegations. At that time he advised me that Steve Masiello, an assistant basketball coach with the University of Louisville men’s basketball program, had failed to deliver derby tickets to Magistrate Scott Davis after he had paid Masiello $70,000 for tickets that he was to deliver to his clients, including the woman from Texas. Clay also advised me that he had given this information to the Oldham Era earlier in the day and that the Era had told him that since their paper had already gone to press their web site would have an updated article regarding the incident.

I checked the Era web site on Wednesday night and no story regarding the incident was there. However, during a call Thursday night with Clarissa Williams, Managing Editor of the Era and Jackie Stoess Hack, the Editor of the Era, I was told that the site was updated with another story at 11:30am on Thursday. However, Masiello’s name was not mentioned. I asked why his name was not in the issue and I was told that no charges had been filed against him and that they were concerned because of liability.

Let’s take a look at this. Scott Davis had not been charged with anything, and still hasn’t, but yet the Era was willing to take the word of a person from Texas that she had been the victim of a scam and print a story. On the other hand, they were not willing to take the word of a local well known attorney and write a story about Steve Masiello. I believe that you get the picture.

I asked the Era if they had tried to contact Steve Masiello and they told me that they had not. I told them that I had called him so they obviously knew that I had his phone number but they didn’t bother to ask me for it. Could it be that they did not want to hear anything else or were they afraid to call him? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

One more issue to be considered is that Magistrate Scott Davis has not been accused of any crime by the police. On the other hand, Paula Gish, candidate for Oldham County Judge/Executive is being investigated for possibly having violated federal laws. Further, Kevin Eldridge has been sued for failing to comply with Kentucky’s open record laws and Judge Duane Murner has been found guilty of having violated those same open records laws. I doubt if as much was written by the Oldham Era about all of those cases combined as they wrote about Magistrate Davis.

Does it sound like I am trying to defend Davis? Well, I am. There is just an inequity here that bothers me. If Davis is charged with something and found guilty I believe that he should pay the penalty. However, until that happens he should be given the same consideration as other officials in the county.

Let us not forget that if it were not for this site, it is doubtful that anyone would have reported that Oldham County had been alleged to have violated the civil rights of a Shelby County police officer. There was a federal lawsuit filed and neither the Oldham Era nor the Courier-Journal reported about it until I reported it on this web site. Surely, if a tiny web site with nobody but me to report can find out these things you would think that a county-wide newspaper would know what is happening

Thus, does the Oldham Era give fair and balanced coverage? That is your call.

COMING SOON: BREAKING NEWS ABOUT MAGISTRATE SCOTT DAVIS

Please visit this site later today for more news about Magistrate Scott Davis and the alleged ticket scam regarding Kentucky Derby tickets.

It is expected that a lawsuit will be filed regarding this matter this afternoon. If it is, I hope to have the lawsuit posted on this site.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

OLDHAM RESERVE CONTRACT APPROVED

Oldham County Judge Executive Duane Murner announced in fiscal court on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 that a deal had been reached between the Oldham Lagrange Development Authority (OLDA) and the Hocker Group regarding the Oldham Reserve. No specifics of the contract were revealed. The Oldham Reserve consists of over 900 acres that the county purchased several years ago for the purpose of having commercial businesses and residential housing in the same area. The county has not been successful with the venture and it has become a financial drain on the county coffers. The county has been trying for a long time to obtain a partner to assume some of the financial and managerial responsibility for the land. As of now Oldham Reserve has one tenant, the Rawlings Group.

I had predicted several weeks before this announcement that the announcement would be made close to election time in order to enhance the position of the incumbents. Now the question is, will the contract be available for review by the public and all candidates for public office in sufficient time prior to the election for the issue to be discussed?

I listened as many of the magistrates praised OLDA for its work in achieving this contract. I would dare say that none of the magistrates have seen the contract. This is a very typical response of many of the magistrates on this court. They have frequently voted for things about which they knew nothing and then complained later that they were misled by the County Judge or some other person. Frankly, I see most of the magistrates believing that the responsibility for the Oldham Reserve has been lifted from their shoulders. However, the fact is that those magistrates on the court who originally voted to purchase the Oldham Reserve will always be responsible for that action. It will be very interesting to see just what concessions the county had to make in order to get someone to sign a contract.

There will be more to follow on this issue.

WESTPORT DEBATES

Monday night I had a choice, go to the Lagrange City Council meeting or attend the debate/forum in Westport. Knowing that there would be more City Council meetings throughout the year and that this would be the last debate between most of the officials running for elective office, I decided to attend the debates in Westport. Keep in mind that this was the third set of debates that I had attended. I don't know what happened at the City Council meeting but I do know that I did not learn anything new at Westport.

Most things do not change. Paula Gish still needed her note cards to say the same thing that she said on several previous occasions and the candidates' opening and closing remarks were the same as they had given at prior debates/forums. The questions were very general and for the most part did not relate to the candidate or the office that the candidate was seeking. This made for a very boring event. I would like to see a debate between candidates seeking just one or two offices and I would like to see each candidate given an opportunity to ask his or her opponent three to five questions with each person having a rebuttal period. I believe that might lead to different topics being discussed at each debate. The way these debates have been handled essentially allows each candidate an opportunity to tell a story and leave out the unpleasant parts.

Much of the time was spent by candidates telling what they thought about Westport and what they thought should be done for Westport. It was refreshing to see Bob Leslie, who now represents the Westport area, to be simply honest with people. He stated that the people do not want more taxes and therefore they're just simply is not enough money to do everything that everyone wants. Leslie listed several of the accomplishments that he had achieved for the Westport area. Among those accomplishments were the resurfacing of several roads and the rehabilitation of the park in Westport.

All that said, I would be remiss if I did not give the folks of Westport recognition for their hospitality. Without question the atmosphere was extremely pleasant. Attendees were given the choice of several different cookies and tea or lemonade. The Westport people showed some old-fashioned hospitality and I, for one, certainly appreciated that hospitality.