Tag: The Tennessean

Ogles Challenger Accused Nashville Families of ‘White Flight’ During COVID-19

Peter D'Abrosca
Maryam Abolfazli

The Democratic Party challenger to Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) in the November election wrote a column accusing white families of “white flight” when Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“White flight, a phenomenon where white people leave significantly high-minority areas, is happening in our public schools,” wrote Maryam Abolfazli in a guest column in The Tennessean. “Reacting in frustration to the decision of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools to halt in-person teaching, white parents who can afford to are transferring their children to private schools.”

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Ben Cunningham: Half-Cent Sales Tax Hike ‘Just a Small Down Payment’ for Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s Transit Vision

Matthew Giffin
People Riding Bus

Nashville Tea Party founder Ben Cunningham warned that the half-cent sales tax increase being considered to fund Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit reform plan will be “just a small down payment” from Nashvillians.

Cunningham posted to X, formerly Twitter, in response to a piece by Tennessean reporter Cassandra Stephenson.

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Tennessee Democrats Silent on Nashville Mayor’s Biden White House Trip During Snowstorm, but Upset Glenn Jacobs Campaigned with Trump

Tom Pappert

Democrats in Knox County issued a series of statements on social media last Tuesday which claimed Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs was “absent” during the recent winter weather because he traveled to Iowa to campaign for former President Donald Trump ahead of the state’s caucuses.

The Knox County Democrats posted to social media on Tuesday, “Why is Glenn spending more time this week with Trump, MTG, Matt Gaetz, Kari Lake, and Jim Jordan than with county employees clearing roads or at local churches hosting warming centers?”

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EXCLUSIVE: Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Stands by Metro Law Director’s Claim That Covenant Killer Manifesto is ‘Locked’ Under Court Seal

M.D. Kittle

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is standing by his man, Metro Law Director Wally Dietz, and his suspect claim that a court order prohibits the release of the Covenant Killer’s manifesto.

“To be clear: I’m not intent on withholding anything, but I’m not going to violate the best understanding I have of what the law is,” the mayor told The Tennessee Star in responding to questions about Dietz’s controversial assertions.

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Conservative Commentator Steven Crowder Pushes Back Against Legacy Media Criticism About Bombshell Release of Covenant Killer Documents

M.D. Kittle

While much of the legacy media attacks the messenger, conservative commentator Steven Crowder wants to know why major news outlets haven’t been more diligent in going after Covenant School Killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto.

The host of the Louder with Crowder podcast this week published photos of three pages from Hale’s prolific writings, which the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have blocked from public release.

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Attorney for Parents in Covenant School Killer Records Lawsuit Claims Release of Manifesto Will Lead to Suicides

M.D. Kittle

A three-judge appeals court panel on Monday heard oral arguments in a First Amendment lawsuit seeking the release of the manifesto and related writings of the Covenant School killer.

The judges will determine whether a lower court erred in allowing Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian Church, its elementary school and parents of students there to intervene in the lawsuit, brought by the parent company of The Tennessee Star, the Tennessee Firearms Association, The Tennessean, and others.

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Court Orders Expedited Appeal in Covenant Killer Manifesto Lawsuit, Delays Show Cause Hearing

M.D. Kittle

The Tennessee Court of Appeals in Nashville has agreed to expedite an appeal that will determine who is allowed to intervene in a lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto — a move that will push a July 12 show cause hearing into August. 

“Until the appeal regarding the intervention is resolved, there is no way to know who the parties in the underlying action will be to participate in the show cause hearing,” the court wrote. “Without a stay of the trial court proceedings, this appeal would be rendered moot or the parties may be forced to conduct a new show cause hearing depending on the results of the appeal.” 

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Parents of Children Murdered in Covenant School Mass Shooting Weigh in on Records Lawsuit, Blast Tennessee Star and Others for Seeking Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

Parents of two of the children murdered in the Covenant School massacre are joining others in asking Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles to keep the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents locked from public view. 

The mother of William Kinney and the parents of Evelyn Dieckhaus, two of three 9-year-olds fatally shot in the March 27 mass shootings, issued declaration letters to the court detailing the pain they’ve suffered and lambasting the news outlets and other organizations suing to have the records released.

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Davidson County District Attorney General Seeks to File Amicus Brief in Records Lawsuit Bolstering Argument to Block Covenant Killer’s Manifesto Release

M.D. Kittle

Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk filed an amicus — friend of the court — brief on Monday in the nationally watched public records lawsuit over the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents. Funk, as attorneys for the parents of students at the Covenant Presbyterian School do, argues that the parents are victims and entitled to certain rights. 

Attorneys for family members of the students and staff argue those rights allow them to keep the documents locked from the public, a controversial legal theory that plaintiffs in the lawsuit say could have a chilling effect on Tennessee’s public records laws. 

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Court Filing Explains Why Covenant School Parents Don’t Want Killer’s Manifesto Released

M.D. Kittle

Asking the court to “shield” Covenant Presbyterian School students from a “lifetime of abuse and harassment by the shooter from beyond the grave,” a new court filing lays out why parents of the children don’t want the Covenant killer’s manifesto and other writings made public. 

Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles last week ruled that the Covenant Presbyterian Church, its private elementary school and the parents of the schoolchildren may intervene in a lawsuit seeking the manifesto and related writings of mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale. 

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Legal Battle Rages Between Victims’ Rights and The Public’s Right to Know in Covenant Killer Manifesto Lawsuit

M.D. Kittle

In the days following the horrifying shootings at Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School, police said the killer, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, acted “totally alone.”

Hale, a 28-year-old woman who identified as a transgender man named “Aiden,” was killed by police 14 minutes after her deadly rampage began. Before she was neutralized, Hale had taken the lives of three 9-year-olds and three staff members at the private Christian school she once attended as a child.

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Metro Nashville Lead Attorney Admits Trying to Slow Down Court Proceedings to Let School, Parents Intervene in Covenant Killer Records Lawsuit

M.D. Kittle

We learned this week that Metro Nashville’s lawyers deliberately attempted to slow down court proceedings on the lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant Killer’s manifesto and related documents.

Such delay tactics raise an important question: Is the city government colluding with the Covenant Presbyterian School and families of the private Christian elementary school to keep the records from the public?  

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Judge to Decide Wednesday Whether School, Parents, Are Allowed to Intervene in Lawsuit Seeking Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles heard plenty of opinions Monday — many of them dripping with emotion — on a consolidated lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant School Killer’s manifesto and related writings. 

Myles is expected to issue an order on Wednesday deciding whether Covenant Presbyterian School parents, the private Christian school and the Covenant Presbyterian Church can intervene in the lawsuit. 

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Metro Nashville Police Claim ‘Active’ Investigation into Covenant School Massacre is Ongoing, Could Take a Year to Complete

M.D. Kittle

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Assistant Chief Mike Hagar claims there is an “active” investigation into the Covenant Presbyterian School shootings and that releasing the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related writings would be harmful. A lieutenant with the police department says it could take up to a year to complete said invetigation. 

In a sworn declaration, Hagar said he is not opposed to the release of a redacted version of the documents.

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The Tennessean Follows Lead of The Tennessee Star, Sues to Obtain the Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

The Tennessean on Wednesday followed The Tennessee Star and other organizations in filing a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents. 

The Nashville-based newspaper’s lawsuit comes nearly two months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale shot her way into the Covenant Presbyterian Scho

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Tennessean Admits Big Mistake After Running Ad That Generates Withering Criticism

The Associated Press

A Tennessee newspaper said Sunday it is investigating what its editor called a “horrific” full-page advertisement from a religious group that predicts a terrorist attack in Nashville next month.

The paid advertisement that appeared in Sunday’s editions of The Tennessean from the group Future For America claims Donald Trump “is the final president of the USA” and features a photo of Trump and Pope Francis. It begins by claiming that a nuclear device would be detonated in Nashville and that the attack would be carried out by unspecific interests of “Islam.”

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House Speaker Casada’s Former Chief of Staff Accused of Bugging Legislative Committee Rooms, The Tennessean Says

Jason M. Reynolds

  A newspaper claims that House Speaker Glen Casada’s former chief of staff once bragged to a reporter that he had bugged legislative committee meeting rooms and now a Democratic leader is calling for an investigation. Joel Ebert of The Tennessean reported last week that the ex-chief of staff, Cade Cothren, told a reporter earlier this year that he could view and listen to people in the rooms whenever he wanted. The story is available here. Last week, Cothren denied the comments as well as his ability to eavesdrop. Also, The Tennessean said that white noise machines, which hamper the ability to eavesdrop, were located in the ceilings of the hallways inside and outside of Casada’s office. The newspaper says several lawmakers had expressed concern someone might be recording their conversations in private meetings, but the publication did not name names other than Casada. Ebert, the statehouse reporter for The Tennessean, now says State Rep. Mike Stewart (D-TN-52), chairman of the Democratic House Caucus, has called for a federal investigation. On Wednesday, Ebert tweeted, “Here is a copy of the letter that @RepMikeStewart sent to the US Attorney’s office today, asking for a probe into the information I wrote about…

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More Evidence The Tennessean Is Just a Mouthpiece for the Democratic Party

Julie Carr

  On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Steve Gill reviewed the convoluted story created by The Tennessean claiming that the Twitter feed, #ResignCasada was representative of all Tennesseans when in fact all tweets were from liberal Democrats and former failed former Democratic party candidates in the state. You can read the full transcript of Steve Gill’s comments here: Just another example of how The Tennessean is literally a mouthpiece, literally a propaganda screed for the Tennessee Democratic party. There’s a new story up by a character named Dustin Barnes in The Tennessean that highlights #ResignCasada is trending on Twitter. Now it’s interesting if you kind of go through this story. It’s on the Tennesseean.com calls for House Speaker Glen Casada resign started trending on social media shortly after his chief of staff had solicited and text messages and used illegal drugs in the legislative office building. He resigned Monday after the Tennessean published a story that he asked one intern for oral sex and nude photos. Other 2014 and 2016 texts showed he was hitting on…

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Social Justice Warrior Reporters at The Tennessean Use Twitter to Lecture Williamson County Residents About ‘Racist Incidents’

Chris Butler

People in Williamson County this week accused two reporters at The Tennessean of having a bias that favors the “white privilege” training county school system administrators impose on teachers. Using their personal Twitter pages as their platforms, and not The Tennessean itself, these two reporters, Elaina Sauber and Emily West, seemed to favor the “Cultural Competency” videos school system officials force teachers to watch. These videos also preach about America’s supposed dysfunctional history. WCS teachers must watch them through an In-service training program. What Sauber and West say about these “Cultural Competency” videos on social media matters — that’s because they both write about Williamson County for The Tennessean. Sauber, for instance, co-wrote a story this week titled “Williamson GOP claims schools are ‘indoctrinating’ students with video series on inclusion.” Sauber seemed to use her Twitter page to try to make the case racial tensions may still exist in Williamson County and local GOP members are wrong to criticize the “white privilege” training. But Sauber cited racially-charged cases out of the county that are six to 20-years old. West, using her Twitter, seemed to lecture a Williamson County parent about social justice. West also seemed to say she knows more about…

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Ruth, a Local Teacher, Calls in to The Tennessee Star Report and Explains the Difference Between a Lesson Plan and a Calendar

Julie Carr

On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the team discussed how Williamson County Schools failed to follow Tennessee State law by submitting a calendar for the academic year instead of the legally required in-service plan to the Tennessee Department of Education for approval of the controversial “white privilege” in-service training delivered to the system’s teachers this year. A local teacher named Ruth called in and explained the difference between a lesson plan and a school calendar and also offered some detailed information on the topic: Gill: Let’s go to Ruth. Ruth wanted to talk a little bit about the distinction between a plan and what the state of Tennessee and Williamson county and others are doing in terms of their in-service training calendar. Ruth welcome to the Tennessee Star Report. Ruth: Good morning. Hi. I am a teacher and anybody in education knows that there is a massive difference between a school calendar and a plan. As teachers, we’re required to have lesson plans. And I can’t just write down I’m going to teach math today. I have to…

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Tennessean Reporter ‘Rage Tweets’ Because of Tennessee Star Article ‘Discrediting My Story About the Racist Wall Incident at Sunset Middle’

Steve Gill

Amelia Knisely, the Tennessean reporter whose March 8 story titled “Racist incidents are occurring in Williamson schools,”  was discredited by the subsequent Tennessee Star article on March 15, “Williamson County Parent of Sunset Middle School Student Says Alleged ‘Racist Incident’ at School Claimed by Tennessean Never Happened,” went on a self described “rage tweet” on Monday morning about the two stories. “A thread of Monday rage: I don’t normally feel inclined to respond to @tnstar “reporting,” but a story has come out discrediting my story about the racist ‘wall incident’ at Sunset Middle,” Knisely, who “Prior to moving to Tennessee, Amelia was a television reporter and producer in West Virginia. She holds a master’s degree from Marshall University,” according to her Tennessean bio, tweeted. Her bio also notes that, “She previously served as editor of The Contributor in Nashville, and she has written extensively on poverty and homelessness.” At the end of her “rage tweets,” Knisely apologized for directing her tweets to @tnstar, rather then the Twitter account of The Tennessee Star, which is @TheTNStar. “Ah, yes, sorry @tnstar as you are not the @TheTNStar. Never rage tweet before coffee, y’all,” Knisely tweeted. Between those two tweets, Knisely added a…

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The Tennessean Claims ‘Racist Incidents Are Occurring in Williamson Schools’

Chris Butler

The Tennessean published a story Friday which claimed “racist incidents are occurring in Williamson Schools.” The story made specific reference to only one such incident, however, and apparently relied on the word of just two parents to verify that it occurred. Those parents — Revida Rahman and Inetta Gaines— are both members of the district’s cultural competency council, which “was formed last year by WCS superintendent Mike Looney after parents expressed concerns about field trips to plantations,” according to The Tennessean, which also reported that the incident occured in January at Sunset Middle School in Brentwood when some students at the school allegedly “linked arms in between classes, forming a human chain, and then barred non-white students from passing.” “The students likened it to President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall,” the paper reported, adding: Rahman and Gaines, both African-American, verified that the wall incident happened at Sunset Middle, along with a number of regularly occurring inappropriate incidents: use of the N-word on school buses, history lessons that glorify slavery and insensitive field trips on the state’s history with slavery. Gaines, however, according to the Brentwood Homepage, has no children attending Sunset Middle. “I don’t have a student at Sunset Middle, but I have friends that have…

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Nashville Journalist Phil Williams Displeased with The Tennessean

Chris Butler

Things are so out-of-kilter at The Tennessean that even investigative reporter Phil Williams of News Channel 5 said he dropped his subscription. That’s because, going by Williams’ Twitter feed, the newspaper’s staff gypped him out of a lot of money. Williams, in his tweets, said nothing about the content of the paper — only the staff’s billing practices. “As much as I want to support my fellow journalists, today I became a FORMER @Tennessean subscriber b/c of the company’s billing practices. If you are a longtime EZ Pay subscriber, you should check your bank account,” Williams wrote, before posting several follow-up tweets. “My automatic drafts from my checking account had sneaked up on me, from $35/month in 2017 to an average $81/month now. For the record, my @Tennessean account lists me at $81/month, but I’ve been charged more in some months.” The problem, Williams went on to say is The Tennessean staff advertising $16 a month for seven-day home delivery that is 50 percent off. “That would make the regular price $32, right?” Williams wrote. “Apparently, NOT! The customer service representative told me that, because of where I live, the actually price is $81. BTW, I live in Davidson County.…

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Job Slashing Hedge Fund Bids to Buy Gannett and The Tennessean: Management ‘Has Not Demonstrated That It’s Capable of Effectively Running This Enterprise’

Tennessee Star Staff

Hedge fund backed Digital First Media, which owns more than 200 newspapers and is known for its draconian cost cutting and job slashing, submitted a bid to buy Gannett for $1.3 billion on Monday. “Critics have described Alden as a “destroyer of newspapers” that is prone to “savage” layoffs and as “one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism,” the New York Times reported after news of the bid broke. Gannett, a publicly traded company, owns USA Today and 100 other newspapers, including The Tennessean in Nashville, the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, and the Knoxville News Sentinel. In its bid, Digital First Media delivered a withering assessment of the competence of Gannett’s current management team in this letter accompanying the bid: Gannett has lost 41% of its value since its debut as a public company two and a half years ago, significantly underperforming its peer group and indices.  During this period, Gannett suffered from a series of value-destroying decisions made by an unfocused leadership team – overpaying for a string of non-core aspirational digital deals and pursuing an ill-fated hostile for Tribune Publishing, all while Gannett’s core revenue, EBITDA, margins and Free Cash Flow continue…

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Report: Job Slashing Hedge Fund Looking to Buy The Tennessean as Part of Gannett Purchase

Tennessee Star Staff

The Wall Street Journal and Market Watch are reporting that Digital First Media, a hedge fund backed media company renowned for purchasing newspapers and gutting the operations through firings and drastic cost cutting, is preparing a bid to purchase Gannett, which owns The Tennessean, along with about 100 other newspapers around the country. Market Watch reported on Sunday: A hedge-fund-backed media group known for buying up struggling local papers and cutting costs is planning to make an offer for USA Today publisher Gannett Co., according to people familiar with the matter. MNG Enterprises Inc., one of the largest newspaper chains in the country, has quietly built a 7.5% position in Gannett’s stock and plans to publicly urge the McLean, Va., publisher to put itself up for sale, the people said. MNG, better known as Digital First Media, will also offer to buy Gannett GCI, +0.52% for $12 a share, they said, which would represent a 23% premium over Friday’s closing price of $9.75. The shares, which fell steeply last year, have been rising lately. Closely held Digital First is known for its contentious history with the newspaper industry in part because of its penchant for slashing costs. It has over…

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Gannett Offers Buyouts to Staff, Including Tennessean, Other Tennessee Papers

Jason M. Reynolds

Gannett is examining the possibility of making cuts across its company — and that includes possible layoffs at The Tennessean and several other papers around Tennessee. The Nashville Scene reported on the pending cuts. Maribel Wadsworth, president of USA TODAY Network and publisher of USA TODAY, told employees during a company-wide conference call Tuesday that digital revenue is not replacing decreasing print revenues, and some budget tightening will be coming in the new year. “Going forward, we will be a smaller company,” she said, noting that monetization has not been strong on mobile devices and that Gannett properties need to “deepen engagement” with mobile readers. The Memphis Flyer said it is hard to determine whether The Commercial Appeal in Memphis can stand more reductions in force. In November, a company-wide buyout offer targeted employees over 55 with more than 15-years experience. The deadline to take Gannett’s offer of 30-35-weeks pay, and a possible bonus of up to $5,520 is Dec. 10, the Flyer said. Wadsworth told employees that the company cannot continue many of the products it produces, putting focus on non-daily print publications, according to the Scene. In Middle Tennessee, Gannett publishes weekly or twice-weekly content in Dickson, Robertson,…

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Steve Gill, Ben Cunningham, and Mae Beavers Blast ‘Fibber Phil’ Bredesen and The Tennessean for Rewriting History on 2000 Horn Honkers Uprising That Stopped State Income Tax

Julie Carr

On Friday morning’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Steve Gill talked with veteran grassroots activist Ben Cunningham and former State Sen. Mae Beavers regarding The Tennessean’s revisionist history and continuous cover up for ‘Fibber Phil’ Bredesen’s lies – in particular their dishonest misrepresentation in a story published Thursday on how the state income tax proposed by then-Gov. Don Sundquist was stopped. Tennesseans who were living in Nashville at the time know the proposed income tax was stopped by a populist uprising led by state legislators Marsha Blackburn, Mae Beavers, and Diane Black, and talk radio hosts Steve Gill and Phil Valentine. Bredesen is the Democrat nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). He faces Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), the Republican nominee, in the November 6 general election. Gill, Cunningham, and Beavers also reflected upon the historic fight to keep a state income tax out of Tennessee. Gill: Am I overstating it, Ben, to say that Phil [Valentine] and Marsha and Diane and Mae and your efforts and the efforts and…

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Tennessean Coverage of CoreCivic Protest Implies Heavy Bias

Chris Butler
CoreCivic protect

If one didn’t know any better one might assume the same left-wing activists who protested CoreCivic last week are chummy with the writers and editors of The Tennessean, given how the paper covered the event. So much so they collude with one another. So much so the writers at The Tennessean might allow their personal biases to overrule the truth. “They are protesting CoreCivic, and The Tennessean is giving them all the propaganda they can because CoreCivic does some of the detention facilities for illegal aliens,” said Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill. Reporters at The Tennessean, Gill went on to say, are not telling the real story of what CoreCivic does. Tennessean reporter Natalie Allison did not return repeated requests for comment Monday, and neither did her supervisor Duane Gang. On the day of the protest, Allison signaled likely coordination with the protestors. Her first tweet covering the event occurred at 6:32 a.m. that day. She used the protest group’s hashtag, #ResistICENashville, in later tweets. The story she eventually produced did not question the protestors, their motivations, or even their funding. She even ignored Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson, who said the following about the protest: We understand the…

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Ireland’s Government Confirms: Randy Boyd’s Irish Tax Records Cited in Tennessean Article Not Available to Media or Public

Chris Alto
Randy Boyd

The government of Ireland has confirmed to The Tennessee Star that the Irish tax records cited in a recent Tennessean article about the Irish subsidiary of GOP gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd’s company are private, and not available to the public or the media through legal means. Ms. Leann O’Kelly, Press & Media Manager for Ireland’s Revenue Commissioners, the body in the Irish government that addresses tax matters has confirmed that tax records of “any individual, company or entity,” are not available to the public or the media and that “Revenue is legally precluded from providing public comment on the tax affairs of individuals or entities.” The Tennessean newspaper reported earlier in the month that the Irish subsidiary (PetSafe Ireland) of Radio Systems Corporation, the company founded and majority controlled by Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd, is a tax haven that enables Boyd’s Knoxville-based company to significantly diminish its U.S. tax obligations. However, The Tennessean failed to publish, produce, or explain the legal provenance of the alleged unverified tax documents upon which its story relies, despite a direct request from The Star. The claim made by The Tennessean, therefore, in the headline of the article,  “How Randy Boyd’s company avoided millions in taxes,” is unproven and…

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Defiant Mayor Megan Barry Refuses to Resign: ‘The Tennesseean Is Welcome to Their Opinion’

Tennessee Star Staff

Embattled Nashville Mayor Megan Barry responded defiantly late Wednesday to the call from the Editorial Board of The Tennessean earlier in the day for her to resign. That call comes in the aftermath of her admission to an extramarital affair with her former bodyguard, Metro Nashville Police Sgt. Rob Forrest. “I was elected to serve as mayor by the voters of Davidson County, and I will continue to do so. The Tennessean is welcome to their opinion,” she said in a statement released by Sean Braisted, director of communications for the Mayor’s Office. The Tennessean’s call for her resignation, written by the paper’s very liberal opinion page editor, David Plazas, pulled no punches: A leader must put the interests and the needs of the people she serves above her own. We thought Nashville Mayor Megan Barry was doing just that. However, it has become abundantly clear in recent weeks that this is not the case after the revelation of her affair with her subordinate and former head of security, retired Metro Nashville Police Department Sgt. Rob Forrest. This is a confounding and disappointing situation: – How he could rack up more than $170,000 in overtime pay over three years, which…

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The Tennessean Editorial Board: ‘It Is Time for Mayor Megan Barry to Resign’

Admin

In a crushing blow from one of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s best allies, The Tennessean’s Editorial Board called for her resignation Wednesday. The detailed commentary was written by Opinion and Engagement Editor David Plazas on behalf of the entire Board, with collaboration by fellow editorial board members Vice President and Editor Michael A. Anastasi and Executive Editor Maria De Varenne. “A leader must put the interests and the needs of the people she serves above her own,” Plazas’ editorial begins, which lays out in painful detail the many reasons Barry’s continued service in office is untenable: We thought Nashville Mayor Megan Barry was doing just that. However, it has become abundantly clear in recent weeks that this is not the case after the revelation of her affair with her subordinate and former head of security, retired Metro Nashville Police Department Sgt. Rob Forrest. This is a confounding and disappointing situation: – How he could rack up more than $170,000 in overtime pay over three years, which included extended domestic and overseas trips with her alone and overtime charges in Nashville for hours after the mayor’s calendar showed official events of the day had ended. – How her Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling let the…

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Gannett Announces More Layoffs With Closure of Nashville Design Studio At The Tennessean

Wendy Wilson

Gannett on Tuesday announced plans to shut down its Nashville Design Studio housed at The Tennessean, a closure that will affect up to 88 jobs. The design work will now be done in Des Moines, Iowa; Louisville, Kentucky; and Phoenix, Arizona. The transition is set to be complete Oct. 1. There will be some opportunities for Nashville employees to work remotely, but Gannett did not say how many employees would have that chance. The Tennessean has been planning to relocate its offices and recently selected a buyer for its property in downtown Nashville. Laura Hollingsworth, the publication’s president, told Nashville Business Journal  it is too early to say how the closure of the design studio will affect moving plans, which are still in the early stages. Last year, Hollingsworth said The Tennesseean would need room for 291 employees wherever it finds a new home. The Nashville Design Studio has handled design and page editing for various Gannett publications in Tennessee and around the country. Gannett owns a number of newspapers in Tennessee in addition to The Tennesseean. They include the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Jackson Sun, the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro and the Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville,…

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Gannett’s ‘Tennessean’ Shrinks As The Tennessee Star Grows

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  Gannett News, the far left mainstream media giant based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, announced drastic cuts in its staff in all its major Tennessee publications on Tuesday, including The Tennessean and The Daily News Journal here in Middle Tennessee. “Today we underwent and completed a reduction in personnel in our news division in several of our Tennessee markets, as part of a transformative strategy for the USA TODAY NETWORK–Tennessee,” Tennessean publisher Laura Hollingworth wrote in an email to employees of Gannett’s Tennessee operations, the Nashville Scene reported. “We recognize that this has been a tough day, and we respect and appreciate the work of all our colleagues, especially those who have been impacted by these actions — through no fault of their own,” Hollingsworth said in her email. “A year after acquiring the Commercial Appeal and Knoxville News-Sentinel, Gannett made sizable cuts today in both of those newsrooms, in addition to laying off three reporters locally,” the Scene reported: In Memphis, sources tell the Scene that 17 staff members were eliminated in the newsroom, including seven digital producers, two photographers, two reporters, one clerk and five editors. In Knoxville, 11 were eliminated from the newsroom, including four managers. The…

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