Sex, Scandal and Money - It's everything the evil media wants in a story and this post is about Missouri's top officials journey to seduce the press this week.
To keep up to date on long-form political rants and reports read Southwest Missouri News where we post the top political stories in the region and state daily.
Political Hit of the week goes to Gannet's Springfield Newsleader report by Tony Messenger.
The saga beginning with Messenger's sunshine request for e-mails from the Governor's office opened up Pandora's box. Here's an excerpt.
Around the time Blunt, Martin, and spokesman Rich Chrismer were publicly telling the press that e-mails are not public records, Eckersley says he was privately pointing Martin and anybody who would listen to the governor's e-mail retention policy. That policy says e-mails are public records and indicates a schedule for how long they are to be maintained — at least a year in most cases. It's clear from the public statements made by Martin, Chrismer and Blunt that the policy wasn't being followed.
Eckersley read the policy. He read the contradictory public statements. He didn't understand why nobody would listen to him.
Now he does. They didn't want to listen. Within weeks of pointing out the governor's own policy to those he worked with, Eckersley was shown the door by the governor's chief of staff.
"I kept pushing it," Eckersley says now. "There's no question in my mind that I was retaliated against as a result of that."
Through a spokeswoman, Martin refused to comment for this column, but the state has plenty to say about Eckersley and his firing in documents provided to the News-Leader.
Messenger did a great service to the journalism community as Attorney Jay Nixon ran with the story clarifying the law on e-mail and the availability of digital documents under the Sunshine Law.
The Republican's didn't sit idly gripping the master dialogue by broadcasting a paid stocker video clips of Jay Nixon using a state vehicle for campaign trips. Missouri republicans rehashed pounded this with all their might. To summarize, Nixon promised to reimburse the state for using state resources to campaign, which he did with a $47,000 check. Missouri's Auditor Susan Montee stated unequivocally that state resources are not for rent.
Everything I ever needed to learn about public relations I learned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). After a storm of bad publicity, the agency started releasing "top 10 stories of the week". The FBI is one of three agencies with direct posting privileges to Branson Agent. These stories are published as soon as they're released on the website.
Blunt's office issued a bundle of press releases over the wire yesterday. Here's a partial list:
Blunt Honors Vietnam Veterans
Blunt Provides Tools to Help Young Missourians Reach Full Potential
Gov. Blunt Celebrates Expanding Access to Health Care
Gov. Blunt Announces Ten Illegal Immigrants Detained
Gov. Blunt Directs Campus Security Task Force Co-Chairs to Review NWMSU Shooting
That was yesterday. This morning Blunt appeals to a social conservative base stating his displeasure with an Iowa ruling regarding gay marriage.
The lawsuit guarantees Blunt's office policies will remain in the public eye....
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Little note for new readers out there. For months I've been challenging Taney County Officials to release information as the Sunshine Law demands - in the form they were created. Sparing details, it's abundantly clear documents can be requested in the form they were created - but hey - I'm a forgiving man, as long as they say they're sorry and correct their mistakes - we'll play nice.
