Yesterday’s front page story in the Chron about the H-Town Mayor and the police chief selection process was to me another case where an elected official tries to get around the transparency thing. It happens all the time. No big deal. City government will survive. Apparently the Mayor saw things differently. Check this from the Chron’s Mike Morris:
Mayor Sylvester Turner reacted sharply to news coverage questioning the transparency of his search for a new permanent police chief Wednesday morning.
Referencing a front-page story in this morning’s Houston Chronicle that discusses the mayor’s decision not to release records related to the search, which is being conducted pro bono by a private search firm, Turner cautioned council members, “Let’s be careful about what we read.”
“Everybody’s agendas need to be made very clear, and elected officials are not the only ones with agendas,” he said. “Everybody needs to put all of their cards on the table. That goes for the people around this table and it goes to the people who are covering those of us who are around this table. Everyone and every organization sometimes has agendas, and I think the public deserves to know what the agenda is for the people who are covering us.”
Turner said positive news from last week — the council’s unanimous passage of a budget for the coming fiscal year — did not receive the prominent placement as today’s story about the chief search. The budget story ran at the top of page A3, and the police chief search story ran at the top of the front page.
“These are issues when it comes to flooding, when it comes to the zika virus, when it comes to getting our house in order financially, these are the issues that have consumed most of my time,” Turner said. “I know there are some people who are fixated on personnel. I am not fixated on personnel, I am fixated on results. People are wanting me to operate on their time schedule. I’m not going to do it.”
Here is the entire Morris piece: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Mayor-Turner-questions-media-coverage-of-police-7956792.php?t=79c159bf48438d9cbb&cmpid=twitter-premium.
Hey, I don’t have a problem with H-Town having a strong mayor form of city government. The Mayor gets to set the City Hall agenda. That doesn’t mean he gets to set the headlines or lead stories for the Chron or other news outlets. Commentary is comfortable letting the editors place their stories where they want.
I went back and checked the Chron’s front page from last Thursday – the day after the budget vote – and here is what they had: Memorial area residents sue the city on flooding; the Texas AG sues the President on transgender policy; the H-Town Fire Marshal might be playing favs; Exxon and climate change; and Hillary’s emails.
You can decide if the budget should have been on the front page.
Here is what our Pulitzer Prize winner had to say on the matter:
Lisa Falkenberg @ChronFalkenberg 12h12 hours ago
This just makes me mad. The ‘agenda’ of reporters covering govt is getting information and sharing it. Nothing else.
And here is from the restaurant critic:
Alison Cook @alisoncook 20h20 hours ago
Alison Cook Retweeted Vernon Loeb
Disappointing.
Then these tweets also came out yesterday:
Miya Shay @miyashay 3m3 minutes ago
Apparently #houcouncil is uniformly irked that its passing of budget in a bipartisan, timely fashion didn’t get more media attention.
Mike Morris @mmorris011 2m2 minutes ago
@miyashay You mean one of the things they’re required by the city charter to do every year? And they did it?
Miya Shay @miyashay 1m1 minute ago
@mmorris011 like I said
Really? Commentary prefers that the elected officials stick to governing and setting policy and let the press and media cover, report, and decide on their own headlines. After all, isn’t that the American way?
I am still trying to figure out what is the agenda the Mayor is talking about.
Last night was our eighth extra inning game of the season. What is our record this season in extra inning games?
Let’s see, the President will be campaigning for Sec. Hillary Clinton and a bunch of GOP leaders will be staying away from their national convention in Cleveland.
More on Donald Trump not liking Latinos:
JORGE RAMOS @jorgeramosnews 16h16 hours ago
So @realDonaldTrump has attacked 4 Latinos in a few days: Gov. Martinez, Judge Gonzalo Curiel and reporters @TomLlamasABC and Jim @Acosta
From the NY Times:
The head of Hispanic media relations at the Republican National Committee is resigning this month in what appears to be another indication of the lingering discomfort some party officials have about working to elect Donald J. Trump president.
Ruth Guerra, who is of Mexican descent and was in charge of carrying the party’s message to Hispanic voters, is joining the American Action Network, a Republican-aligned “super PAC,” she confirmed in a brief interview on Wednesday.
The American Action Network is expected to spend millions on congressional races, and the new job is in essence a promotion, one co-worker said.
But Ms. Guerra told colleagues this year that she was uncomfortable working for Mr. Trump, according two R.N.C. aides who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the difficulties surrounding the party’s presumptive standard-bearer.
Commentary has said before that I try to stay away from college sports because the athletes don’t get paid. I do have to say something about this from a Chron story this morning. Here:
When asked specifically about UH’s candidacy (to the Big 12 Conference) – which would give the conference a fifth school in Texas – (UT AD Mike) Perrin essentially said the Cougars bring nothing to the table the Big 12 doesn’t have.
“I would have to look at a complete package that is put before us,” Perrin said. “Certainly we’re in the Houston market. The Longhorn Network is there … I’m not sure where that would take us.”
Huh?
Why didn’t we think of that? I am talking about the cool selfie statue in Sugar Land. Talk about an attraction!
The ‘Stros are 5-3 in extra inning games of course this season.
There was a lot of excitement out at The Yard last night. The crowd was in the game early on. So it is now 5 in a row and 8 out of our last nine and 6 ½ out. Nice!
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