Blue Collar Muse

I don’t read The Nashville Scene that often anymore.  So my opinion of them as a respectable alternative weekly paper, going after bad boys in government and culture, boldly writing and printing stories no one else had the guts to - that assessment of the Scene might be forgiven. It’s how I remember The Scene back in the day. It seems things have changed.

As evidence see the fairy tale The Scene passes off as reporting this week. In ‘The Great Gadfly: How a baby-faced kid became the governor’s No. 1 nemesis’, which appears in the “News” section, writer Jeff Woods recounts an interesting version of the genesis and development of Drew Johnson and his Tennessee Center for Policy Research, (TCPR). Drew is a friend and colleague. I greatly admire and respect what he has accomplished in a few short years. Not everyone shares my high opinion of Drew. Those who don’t are free to tell Nashville that they don’t. Is it too much to ask that they do so in an adult and rational manner?

Woods’ piece takes a juvenile tone in the very first sentence, “The Tennessee Center for Policy Research bills itself as a nonpartisan, free-market think tank, implying serious public-policy study.” Woods clearly believes TCPR is anything but. Woods ridicules Johnson’s appearance (he dresses nicely and wore braces as an adult), his motivations and intentions (it’s nothing more than “fishing expeditions”) and his work (TCPR is a “cookie cutter outfit” which “harasses” state employees and people like Johnson are simply “masquerading as independent experts on radio talk shows and elsewhere in the media.”) Woods proof for all of this? Why, the Bredesen administration says so!

“He’s a partisan nitwit who basically spends all his time dreaming up ways to terrorize rank-and-file state employees,” says Bredesen senior adviser Will Pinkston. “Sad way to feed an outsized ego.”

But Woods doesn’t provide actual evidence for his charges. In fact, when he talks about Johnson’s work, all he offers are compliments. In just the last year or so,

“… Johnson has delivered some good licks: … [Johnson and TCPR provided] the video of Revenue Department employees mocking taxpayers in a skit they performed for co-workers at a retreat … [uncovered] evidence that the Bredesen administration was playing a shell game with funding sources for “Bredesen’s Bunker,” … [filed an] ethics complaint that led to a record $120,000 fine against Jerry Cooper for making personal use of campaign cash … [uncovered] Al Gore’s electric bills, revealing that the global warming warrior wastes a lot of kilowatts at his Belle Meade mansion.

Woods seems incapable of writing without heaping sarcastic scorn on Johnson and his accomplishments. TCPR’s funding is painted as sinister because it comes from anonymous donors. Unsaid is that organizations like TCPR, from both sides of the political spectrum and regardless of what label lazy writers slap on them, are all funded in the same way. Johnson gathering together like minded people to discuss how legislation and events will impact their community is worthless. It’s little more than busy work or a “coffee klatch” to Woods who one would presume, from the tone of his piece, would have a slightly higher opinion of community organizers.

Taken as a whole, Woods’ opinion of Johnson as an immature, loose cannon is not borne out by his factual account of Johnson’s actual accomplishments. There’s nothing wrong with opinion pieces. It’s customary, however, to print them on the Op-Ed page and not in the “News” section.

Woods’ attempt to take Johnson down a peg or two by painting an unflattering portrait fails. The facts don’t match the fiction. Drew Johnson’s work and accomplishments are more deserving of classification as “News” than Woods’ efforts. Perhaps Jeff could use his analysis of Johnson to learn how reporting and investigative journalism is done. The Nashville Scene used to be the place to go for material like that. Tearing down those carrying the Scene’s water as Woods does is more deflecting attention from his own lack of effort and accomplishment than an insightful glimpse into the workings of an organization as accomplished as TCPR.

Memo to Jeff: when you turn up something newsworthy, perhaps by filing a FOIA or two of your own, let me know. Until then, I’ll be looking for your stuff in the gossip column filed under “Snark” or in the tabloids at the checkout lines. Assuming it manages to rise to the high journalistic standards those sorts of publications are known for …

Blue Collar Muse

SEE ALSO:

An Old Media/New Media Dustup in Nashville by Michael Silence at No Silence Here.

Must Be Doing Something “Right” by Lynn Sebourn at Lynn Sebourn.

My Favorite “Partisan Nitwit” by Stacey Campfield at Camp 4 U.

Conservatives Hit Back on GQ Drew Scene Piece by ACK at Post Politics.

The Great Gadfly (how metrosexual does that sound?) Attack on Drew Johnson by Toni at Bear Creek Ledger.

My Kind of Gadfly by Kate at An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings.

Partisan Nitwit Writes Hit Piece on Drew Johnson by Dan Cleary at Dan Cleary.

Scene of the Crime by Bill Hobbs at Bill Hobbs.

Drew Johnson, Partisan Nitwit by Joshua Arrowood at Joshua Arrowood.

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