April 29, 2005

Dictator Update: More Press Coverage

The Nashville City Paper and Knoxville News Sentinel both have stories today on House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and his abuse of power regarding HB 887. The Tennessean has ignored the story entirely. The City Paper's story reveals something unflattering about state Rep. Chris Newton, R-Benton, while the News-Sentinel story only reveals that Tom Humphrey is a very biased writer.

From the City Paper:

The bill passed the House Constitutional Protections subcommittee Wednesday on a voice vote. The committee is the very place the bill is killed each year – one of a similar nature was killed there last week. Because two Democrats were absent at the time of the vote, the legislation passed the committee, which typically has a Democratic majority.

However, Naifeh (D-Covington) asked subcommittee chairman Rep. Chris Newton (R-Benton) to re-refer the bill to the committee because the panel had started early and legal staff were still absent from the room. Newton made a motion to re-refer the bill to the committee Wednesday, after which a number of Republicans objected. Naifeh gaveled the bill back to the committee without entertaining the GOP objections.

The Knoxville News Sentinel story today by Tom Humphrey presents a very pro-Naifeh version of events and virtually ignores his deliberate failure to follow House rules Wednesday, and his rude treatment of Republican legislators who were merely asking for House rules to be adhered to. Those who believe Humphrey is a biased reporter who favors Democrats won't change their minds after reading his story. He reports that Republicans "accused ... Naifeh of unfairly killing legislation" but does not give readers any details of how Naifeh did it. There's no mention of his passing the motion on a "voice vote" in which no one voted aye, no mention of his refusal to recognize legislators who were raising their hands to call for a roll-call vote, and no mention of his rude treatment of Republicans, ordering them to "put your hands down."

Blake Wylie at Nashville Files has the video clip, courtesy of Ben Cunningham. Every single TV station and newspaper website in Tennessee can now download it and make it available to their readers and viewers online or on air. I'm betting most of them won't.

Naifeh's version of events is an unverifiable claim that the subcommittee meeting at which the bill was passed started before it was supposed to, so two Democrats who would have voted against the bill weren't there. Newton, chairman of the subcommittee, says the meeting started on time.

The big question is this: Why did Newton, a co-sponsor of the legislation, cooperate with Naifeh to have it sent back to the committee, where it will most certainly be killed next week?

Rep. Newton, what good is it for you,a Republican, to be a subcommittee chairman if you are going to collaborate with the Democratic majority to kill legislation the Democratic Speaker wants killed?

(Editor's note: I emailed Rep. Newton asking him for an explanation of these events. He has not responded.)

UPDATE: Espo has some further thoughts on the Knoxville News Sentinel's slanted, incomplete and inaccurate coverage, and on whether state Rep. Harry Tindell, D-Knoxville, his legislator, really supports common-sense self-defense legislation or not.