Sat
Jul 12 2014
10:30 am
I notice the comments have been taken down from the story about Burchett getting engaged
By: Bbeanster

Since Tim is a friend of mine, and I'm biased, I'm curious to hear other opinions. Does anyone think it's proper to throw a story about the county mayor getting engaged open to unmoderated comments, given the nature of the NS comments section?

Burchett (or anybody else) getting married isn't a matter for public comment, it seems to me. We don't get to vote on it, we don't pay for it, and most of us aren't even invited. The comments have been taken down now, about 2 days too late, but they were mostly negative, nosy, nasty comments and questions (and alleged answers) about his fiancee's personal life.

Kelly hasn't done one single thing to call attention to herself, and I cannot for the life of me understand why anybody thinks they have a right to poke into her private life because of who she's marrying.

Topics:
Pickens's picture

If you think it is bad now,

Submitted by Pickens on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 10:33am.

If you think it is bad now, imagine what it would've been like before the pay wall at the paper went up.

knoxrebel's picture

If it's cheap and petty and

Submitted by knoxrebel on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 12:11pm.
(in reply to Pickens)

If it's cheap and petty and trashy and moronic to comment about an officeholder's engagement - a very positive, happy event - it's certainly worse than that to comment or invite comments about a mere candidate's divorce - a very tragic and unhappy event in anyone's life. Yet, that's exactly what you did, Bean, back in March when you - months ahead of worthless Victor Ashe - posted a copy of a story about US Senate candidate Gordon Ball's 5-year old divorce, inviting anyone (anonymous or otherwise) to weigh in on that very personal matter. It was cheap and petty and mean-spirited THEN for you to do that to Ball (and it was for Victor as well) and it's cheap and petty and mean-spirited NOW for the NS to do what it did to Tim. It's also a bit hypocritical, of you, that is.

So, it's surprising to see your thoughtful post here taking the NS to task for inviting comments about Tim's engagement, and recalling your unkind invitation to the KV world to rip Ball for his horrible divorce.

Speaking for someone who divorced almost 30 years ago, it's a tremendously personal and traumatic event, especially when there are children involved, and it's deplorable and voyeuristic for anyone to invite public comment on it.

Bbeanster's picture

Gordon Ball is a candidate

Submitted by Bbeanster on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 2:01pm.
(in reply to knoxrebel)

Gordon Ball is a candidate for a very important office, and has painted a picture of himself as a champion of the little guy and a morally upright man. Lawsuits he has been involved in are public record and are not only fair game, but should be part of the discussion.

You certainly didn't hesitate to use public documents against Amy Broyles and her family when you were running against the Democratic nominee (and only woman) for county commission, for example, so it's almost as amusing that you'd fling this out there as it is when you criticize folks for not being good Democrats.

Tim Burchett's fiancee, on the other hand, has never been a public figure nor sought anybody's vote or approval.

knoxrebel's picture

Here we go again.

Submitted by knoxrebel on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 5:01pm.
(in reply to Bbeanster)

How is that I can get over a loss, but you can't get over a win? This is all rather bitter and distasteful.

County Mayor isn't an important office? Ball doesn't need to paint himself as a "champion of the little guy," it's a matter of public record that he represents ordinary consumers who can't hire a lawyer to redress a wrong, whether it's suing a paper company for polluting a river, suing a manufacturer for selling something defective, or suing State Farm for bilking its policyholders. "Morally upright," that's a broad brush to use to attack someone. One person's morality plug is another person's scorn.

As far as Amy goes, for God's sakes, Bean, she won. What do I have to do to keep you folks from bringing that race up every few months? It was 4 years ago. I've heard of a sore loser, but a sore winner? My God. Get over it. Amy Broyles plugged the fact she was a small businesswoman and a good steward of discretionary funds. I pointed out the fact that her business, Mr. Sandman, was the subject of a business bankruptcy. Relevant? To some it was. To some it wasn't. We obviously disagree. She won. I lost. Good for her. Get over it. I think Amy and I have moved on, but so should our respective supporters.

Moreover, I see no fair comparison at all between a candidate or officeholder getting married or divorced and a candidate filing for bankruptcy. If Ed Shouse, who's running for Trustee, had a past bankruptcy, it would be fair game for Jim Berrier to question whether he is qualified to be the county's banker. But a divorce? C'mon. That's distasteful.

fischbobber's picture

In general

Submitted by fischbobber on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 11:38am.

I think we've become prone to the anonymous cheap shot with nothing to back it up.

Which, in turn, lowers legitimate discourse to a level of personal slander.

Tim's a good guy who has always been open to reasonable discourse. I don't always agree with his decisions, but he's not always wrong either. This is due to the fact that, at his core, he is a man of good character. Joe Johnson would also fall into this category.

But, there will always be nitwits throwing mud because being uninformed and publicly idiotic takes less effort than researching and becoming informed.

It's the nature of this beast.

Rachel's picture

The Mayor is a public figure,

Submitted by Rachel on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 12:44pm.

The Mayor is a public figure, so a story about his engagement is news. Comments, open or closed? I don't have a strong feeling about that. Yeah, people shouldn't be tacky. OTOH, see sentence one.

And yes, I found all the stuff on Ball's divorce extremely distasteful.

KC's picture

It's all part of KnoxNews's

Submitted by KC on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 3:13pm.

It's all part of KnoxNews's MO.

Do you really think we would see any of that kind of stuff with their public office favorites? No way.

They probably knew when they put it up, they would take the comments down, and then they could claim they did the right thing.

Is it news? If it is, it belongs in the section with all the other engagements. That's it.

Murry K's picture

She's public now

Submitted by Murry K (not verified) on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 4:45pm.

One of the things that goes along with marrying a public figure is becoming a public figure yourself.

I think KNS is correct to allow comments on any story and then to at the editors discretion take action if but not before the comments digress into chaos and poor taste.

NotNews is the problem's picture

Birmingham is the worst

Submitted by NotNews is the problem (not verified) on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 5:05pm.

Typical Sentinel BS. Tim won't bow to them so they punish him when ever they can. It's a different story for those who do the Chamber's bidding. Take Brad Anders for example. Has anyone ever been treated better by that rag? Not only does he still have a job, he got a promotion and want to bet the Sentinel will recommend he get a second term as Commission chair? Remember Ragsdale, who could do no wrong. Even when he got caught red handed. Ever see a story about how messed the Chamber is?

Bbeanster's picture

Conflating engagement and

Submitted by Bbeanster on Sat, 2014/07/12 - 5:33pm.

Conflating engagement and divorce (even one that doesn't get fought all the way to the state supreme court and contain shocking accounts of adultery and lavish lifestyles) is a false equivalency, Don. It doesn't work. I get that you're mad at me for posting your employer's divorce suit document, but this argument just doesn't work for you.

And as for your campaign, it was so dishonest in so many respects that it has been impossible to forget, especially since you ran as a virtual Republican obviously hoping to ride the wave of a GOP sweep.

knoxrebel's picture

I'm not mad at all, Betty. I

Submitted by knoxrebel on Sun, 2014/07/13 - 9:44am.
(in reply to Bbeanster)

I'm not mad at all, Betty. I don't know you well enough to be mad at you. And I'm not personally invested in this campaign to care that much about it. It was just a low-class shot to take. Distasteful, as someone else called it. The same would be true if you posted something similar about anyone else's divorce. If the Balls have gotten past it, it's none of our business. Do people want to read about it? Well, it's sexy, so yeah, I guess so, but that doesn't make it right to delve into it publicly. And he's not my "employer," as I work with dozens of other law firms across the country as well.

As for my campaign, we all have an opinion and we've known yours for a long time, well before my campaign even got started. Here's to agreeing to disagree.

Hildegard's picture

It's obviously news but I

Submitted by Hildegard on Sun, 2014/07/13 - 9:13am.

It's obviously news but I don't think personal news about public figures that isn't relevant to their public role should include comment sections. If the article were announcing his engagement to a lobbyist for an interest that might raise a conflict with his administration, I could see opening that up to online comments. But a mere wedding announcement doesn't invite opinion or comment beyond, Congrats, so leave them out. But this is a newspaper that published the mug shot of a teacher arrested for PI in another county and included information and adolescent tones about the type of underwear he was wearing, so I'm not holding my breath for any sort of sage discretion of the serious newspaperman with this editorial board.

reform4's picture

There's a simple way to solve it.

Submitted by reform4 on Sun, 2014/07/13 - 4:24pm.
(in reply to Hildegard)

Don't open up comments to stories in the following categories:
1. Accidental deaths
2. Stories about any family

That leaves basically:
- Community events (not related to an individual)
- Crime
- Politics
- Education
- Weather
- Corporate news / events
- Traffic
- National stories

All of the second section are fair game.

It's not that hard, KNS.

Bbeanster's picture

They done done it. Got

Submitted by Bbeanster on Sat, 2014/07/26 - 3:58pm.

They done done it.

Got hitched this morning. I believe this one's going to take.

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