An honest mistake or memogate?
Wednesday morning WATE news anchor Gene Patterson came on the Lloyd Daugherty radio program on AM 1180. He was there to explain what happened on the Election Day WATE morning news broadcast when a WATE reporter said on air that City Councilman and candidate Steve Hall had dropped out of the race. For almost an hour Patterson patiently took phone calls from the public and explained what had occurred.
Patterson said that around 6:00 AM an honest mistake was made by a 23-year-old producer who found an old press release from Steve Hall the Register of Deeds for Knox County stating that he was not in the race. This information was given to an “out of town”(not from here) reporter who read on air that City Councilman and candidate Steve Hall had dropped out of the race. It was not possible to call candidate Hall to verify this because it was early in the morning and they did not want to wake him.
Patterson said his wife woke him later after the mistake was made and his phone starting ringing with the news. According to Patterson WATE corrected the mistake at 7:25 AM and 8:25 AM on the same morning broadcast. Then WATE correctly stated Hall was running against Ellen Adcock at noon, 5:00 PM, and 6:00 PM so the television station felt it had done everything needed to correct the mistake. The only time that WATE admitted it made a mistake was at 7:25 AM and 8:25 AM.
Repeatedly Patterson said the station had made a mistake and it deserved to be questioned and chastised. He said the producer made the assumption Steve Hall was dropping out of the race and that the reporter was not familiar with Steve Hall the Register of Deeds for Knox County. Most callers to the radio program were dubious of Patterson’s version of events and pressed him for more information. Twice Patterson challenged callers for attacking his integrity. He reminded them he was not in management and was the primary news anchor and had come on the radio program to explain to the community what had occurred.
Patterson’s friend Lloyd Daughtery accepted the version of events and apologized to Ellen Adcock for suggesting it might have been a political trick. The radio panel agreed that nothing more would come from the mistake and it was a good thing that Steve Hall won the election as it prevented all kinds of unpleasantness.
So case closed? Not just yet. Steve Hall’s attorney on Tuesday asked WATE who the source for the story was and they were told it was a “reliable source”. Patterson said the source for the story was an old press release from the office of Steve Hall Register of Deeds.
One phone caller asked Patterson to produce the fax or email press release from Steve Hall Register of Deeds. Patterson said that could be done but he did not know where it was and he had not seen it. This is very important. This press release clearly states that Steve Hall is the Register of Deeds for Knox County. So the question must be ask how could both the producer and the reporter not see that the press release was about Steve Hall who is the Register of Deeds and not City Councilman and candidate Steve Hall? Is it possible that anyone at a major television news station could know so little about the town that they live in? What about the fact that the press release came from the Register of Deeds for Knox County?
In the interest of the community WATE television should produce this press release that was used by the producer who made the assumption that candidate Steve Hall had dropped out of the race. It should be made available to the public and Greg Mackay the Administrator of Knox County Elections. This is a serious issue and the public deserves to see the source document that caused this serious mistake to be made.
November 3rd, 2005 at 4:55 am
Damn, this kinda reminds me of when they called Florida for Gore right (as in 6:48pm) when the panhandle, different timezone, heavily Republican, worker bees were getting off work and waiting at the polls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_News_Service
I hate to automatically think the worst of people, but if the station had any chance at all of loosing it’s FCC license over voter fraud, it might be a bit more forthcoming. A credible threat like that, however, would be a very touchy thing. We are suppose to have a free press.
In this case, if you had only listened to the news during your morning drive between 6am and 7:25am, you might just decide not to stop at the polls on the way in, or not bother to vote on your way home.
Something stinks.
November 3rd, 2005 at 8:06 am
If it wasn’t an honest mistake, I don’t believe this was something that Patterson was involved in. I know people who know Gene and that isn’t something he would be likely to do. However, if I had to bet money on the “reliable source”, I would bet on former Ashe-aide George Korda.
November 3rd, 2005 at 8:41 am
Good post. Betty Bean has more, too. Something’s fishy. Their cover story sounds pretty lame. Oh, and in the Beanster’s column she reports that the WATE news director was responding to Hall’s lawyer and said it was just a mistake, and besides, Hall got a lot of free publicity for an unknown write-in candidate. Huh? Hahahaha. Man, the local news director at WATE certainly has his finger on the pulse of local politics. Nice work.
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:49 am
CL, Gene was also an Ashe appointee an PR mouthpiece for several years and served along Adcock. I tend to agree with you that he seems not the type to do this, nevertheless this work history demands a little scrutiny.
November 3rd, 2005 at 10:12 am
So, one mention on 1180, one mention on NewsTalk 100, a few mentions here, and a mention on WVLT. No word officially from WATE. This stinks.
November 3rd, 2005 at 10:27 am
Drake, I’m aware of Gene’s association with the Ashe administration. The point I was trying to make was that a lot of people are pointing their fingers at Patterson as being the “reliable source” and that there was another person to consider.
November 3rd, 2005 at 11:03 am
Michael Silence comments on the press release, “I’ve seen the press release. It came out a couple of weeks ago from Register of Deeds Steve Hall. It was short and simple and said RofD Hall was not running and was not to be confused with Councilman Hall. I’m home under the weather and don’t have a copy of it. But call the RofD office and they’ll fax or e-mail you a copy of it.”
The consensus of those that have seen this press release is that there is no way to confuse Steve Hall Register of Deeds and Steve Hall candidate for City Council.
So either WATE has at least two incredibly incompetent people working for them or something else happened. Either way WATE needs to produce the press release.
Hayes Hickman has more (registration required):
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4207870,00.html
November 3rd, 2005 at 12:53 pm
[…] Fellow blogger #9 has been covering the WATE/Steve Hall thing diligently (here and here). It’s important to point out that Michael Silence notes: I’ve seen the press release. It came out a couple of weeks ago from Register of Deeds Steve Hall. It was short and simple and said RofD Hall was not running and was not to be confused with Councilman Hall. I’m home under the weather and don’t have a copy of it. But call the RofD office and they’ll fax or e-mail you a copy of it. […]