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August 11, 2007
Blogs Influence Chattanooga Paper's Decision to Publish Crutchfield-Love "Littlefield" Transcript?
Earlier this week, a single-issue blog called Worst Mayor Ever obtained and published a transcribed telephone conversation between Ward Crutchfield and Charles Love, which was recorded during an FBI sting that led to both men pleading guilty to felony bribery charges. This particular conversation dealt mainly with the 2005 mayoral election runoff that was later won by Mayor Ron Littlefield, and how Crutchfield was instrumental in rounding up support in multiple arenas. Yes, "worst mayor ever" refers to Littlefield, as it is run by a pseudonym-using former supporter of Littlefield's opponent, former Regional Planning Agency director Ann Coulter.
On Friday, after several of us had pointed out the posting, another local blog posted a letter to the paper's editor and publisher, Tom Griscom. This letter requested that the paper do its readers a service, and publish the transcript.
This morning's paper, as alice and The Pulse Blog and Worst Mayor Ever itself have all pointed out, contains a front-page article about the taped conversation, plus the transcript. The article also gives us an insight into how nervous this all makes the mayor: he's not saying anything except that he doesn't remember.
If the paper had the transcript for a month or more, and only just now published it, then one cannot but wonder about the role of blogs in bringing about this change. See? It's a partnership, at least in this case.
About Blogs , News | By joe lance | 04:22 PM