Thu
Sep 6 2007
08:21 pm
WBIR Knox County Files
By: R. Neal

If you missed it, be sure to watch the replay Sunday morning (9AM on WBIR).

Frankly, I wasn't expecting much, but this turned out to be one of the best local TV specials on local or any other politics you are likely to see. I'm not sure anything like this has ever been aired before.

Props to Jack McElroy of the KNS for his stand and his remarks. His agenda was clear, and he appears to be a better lawyer than the county's lawyer even though he's not even a lawyer.

The county's lawyer was ill advised to reveal so many details about the County Commission's legal strategy for the upcoming trial (injunctive relief that applies only to individuals v. the commission as a whole, tainted jury pools, media coverage, goofy Moncier plaintiffs joined, etc).

As a result, I'm guessing the KNS/McElroy lawyers are already at work on their counter-strategy, which gets back to the point of "public business conducted in public", as I believe McElroy put it.

Topics:
bill young's picture

very good program

Submitted by bill young on Thu, 2007/09/06 - 9:19pm.

Great job WBIR

Two things were clear to me

1.Mr.Owings,if he saw merit after the audits,would pursue an ouster suit against Mr.Ragsdale.

2.If the N-S wins the suit the court would give guidance on what would happen next.

Plus,the court could rule none,one,some or all of the appointments are nullified & none,one,some or all of the commissioners/former commissioners are in violation.

Pickens's picture

I find it hard to fathom

Submitted by Pickens on Thu, 2007/09/06 - 10:24pm.

I find it hard to fathom that it has gotten so bad that it takes an hour long special to discuss it.

The program was interesting and the poll results were too.

R. Neal's picture

One of the poll results they

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2007/09/06 - 11:32pm.

One of the poll results they forgot to mention while discussing the racial aspects of the case (from the KNS article):

"Almost 16 percent of blacks ranked Finch's performance as excellent,
compared with only 1.3 percent of whites, while 21.1 percent of blacks
ranked her as poor, compared to 64.8 percent of whites."

CBT's picture

"Almost 16 percent of blacks

Submitted by CBT on Fri, 2007/09/07 - 7:23am.

"Almost 16 percent of blacks ranked Finch's performance as excellent,
compared with only 1.3 percent of whites, while 21.1 percent of blacks
ranked her as poor, compared to 64.8 percent of whites."

Of course, 34% of those surveyed had never even heard of Finch. And, less than one-fourth (23%) knew her job with the county. Shedding some light on these unknown people and jobs that control millions of taxpayer dollars is a good thing.

Do we know the racial breakdown of those who responded? In the methadology in the KNS it only says 697 were called at random. The pollster obviously asked racially based questions, so that number should be available.

Bill Lyons's picture

Survey Interpretation

Submitted by Bill Lyons on Fri, 2007/09/07 - 1:10pm.

Almost 16 percent of blacks...

This is just a comment on over-analyzing the results here and elsewhere. Survey results have an error range based on probabilities. Just by chance the sample might not be a good reflection of the general population of interest. The range of plus or minus 4% was reported for the entire sample of 672 (608 registered). That (assuming the usual level of certainty) means that we are 95% sure that the figure for the whole population is within 4% of the survey result for an estimate of 50%... Example.. 50% of the sample approve of issue X. With the sample size in this survey the range is between 46% and 54%. There is a one in twenty chance that the real figure is either lower or higher. The range for such estimates narrows as the estimated proportion approaches 0% or 100%.

The survey report indicated that 8 percent of the respondents were African American. That equals 55 respondents (probably 50 registered voters). The error range for a sample of this size is much larger than that reported for entire sample. For instance a reported percentage of 16% is of interest in this discussion. The range which we are pretty certain contains the figure for all African Americans in Knox County is between 6% and 26%. That’s a pretty big range.

Thus one thing to keep in mind when making sense of all poll results in the upcoming electoral season is that the margin of error is only good for the entire sample. Sometimes people make a big deal over what turns out to be results from a handful of people actually surveyed in that category. I read one the other day referring to the electoral preferences of females, under forty, in a specific income class taken from a sample of 1000. If you followed it through the real range for might have been between 32% and 68% for a candidate. Not many folks would want to craft an electoral strategy based on such insights into their base.

So I would take analysis of all subsets of most any sample with a bag of salt. This is not a criticism of the NS or the SSRI.(which I used to run at UT). Almost all accounts of survey results in all media fail to bother with a caveat when the groups are broken out. I can hardly blame them. I guess most people would start to glaze over with all the qualifiers, just as many readers here doubtless have.

Scott Emge's picture

Randy, Do you know if the

Submitted by Scott Emge on Fri, 2007/09/07 - 7:27am.

Randy,

Do you know if the entire program is available on YouTube or anywhere else? WBIR's website only has video of the first few minutes.

Ennui's picture

Kay Watson is all over the

Submitted by Ennui on Fri, 2007/09/07 - 8:49am.

Kay Watson is all over the place. She's making quite a name for herself.

I always feel more comfortable about these types of programs when I see Dennis Francis up there. Don Bosch being incredulous when Scott Moore trotted out the well worn out(by Arms) mantra that the media was to blame echoed my own buffoonment at home. Funny how commission and the mayor's office can be at odds over nearly everything, but by heaven they both can rely on the same excuse when push comes to shove.

Joe328's picture

Mike Arms stated that polls

Submitted by Joe328 on Fri, 2007/09/07 - 9:00am.

would show a higher approval if ask about Knox County Parks. I drove through Concord Park the day of the show, and noticed all the play equipment was gone. The picnic tables have been removed or fenced off from the public, and the picnic shelters are torn down. Cars are parking in the grass area where the picnic and play equipment were once located. How can anyone call this a public park?

bill young's picture

2

Submitted by bill young on Fri, 2007/09/07 - 9:10am.

It couldnt be one commissioner/former commissioner to violate..It would have to be 2.
I agree Dennis Francis does a great job

Hoseman19's picture

No surprises here, either

Submitted by Hoseman19 on Sat, 2007/09/08 - 6:16am.

This poll is just another way of showing public apathy. Most of the people don't care about government until someone turns on a light, and the roaches start scattering. Such low percentages knowing who is the chair of the commission, or major department heads is merely a reflection of election day. And the worst of it is that some of these politicians will get re-elected! If the voters acted like they cared, so would the politicians.

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