December 7, 2006

Judge Not

The Refugee Baptist takes Tennessee Baptist Convention spokesjournalist Lonnie Wilkey to task for slamming a Lipscomb University professor over remarks that were badly mis-reported and taken out of context by The Tennessean last week.

Writes The Refugee Baptist:

Without checking his facts first, Lonnie (and others) re-gurgitated the misinformation, insulted Dr. Camp, and then broadcast it in print to Baptists in the state of Tennessee. ... Here is some Good Advice: If someone in Christendom is quoted in the newspaper as saying something that sounds completely outrageous. Go. Phone. Email. Ask the individual if, indeed, that is what they actually said.

By the way, it has been a week since I emailed the Tennessean reporter who wrote the erroneous story and also three of the paper's top editors seeking additional information about how the story was produced. They have not responded, nor published a correction/retraction of the story, nor publicly apologized to Dr. Camp. A daily newspaper ought to be accountable to the people it serves. Accountability requires honesty and transparency but, so far, on this story, we're not getting either of those from 1100 Broadway.

See Also: A discussion about the Lee Camp quote on the Grace-Centered Message forum, which includes comments from people who were at the forum at which Dr. Camp spoke.