Publisher's Positions

By Steve Hunley

Kincannon... the Tax and Spend Mayor

At the corner of Gay Street and Summit Hill Drive downtown is the Cradle of Country Music Park, which is a peaceful half-acre plot of land with five trees that have been here for goodness only knows how many years.  Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon has sentenced those poor old trees to be cut down in the name of art.  That has riled the Harvey Broome Chapter of the Sierra Club who have rushed to the defense of the trees.

The tree removal is due to occur because the City of Knoxville commissioned in 2018 a New York "artist" to whip up a sculpture for $500,000.  Evidently, it is not a historical sculpture of any kind, no remembrance of past mayors, or a notable Knoxvillian, just a hulking twisted pile that Knoxville city taxpayers have been told is "art."  That is what the five elderly trees are being sacrificed for.

Now think about it, Kincannon and a majority of her subservient city council raised Knoxville's property taxes more than any other administration since those trees were mere seedlings.  The City, we're told, doesn't have enough police officers to do accident reports for taxpayers any longer, but of course, there's plenty of money to spend to remove five old trees and pay $500,000 for a pile of metal that would probably look better in a junkyard than a little plot ambitiously named "Cradle of Country Music Park."

To be fair, the art was commissioned by former Mayor Madeline Rogero who said at the time, the City of Knoxville was increasing its art collection.  Wow.  Our city can afford high-priced "art" but not enough police officers to keep providing a needed public service for the people who bought and paid for the "art."

On top of that, there is an abortion resolution on the city council's agenda.  Of course, the council has less than nothing to do with abortion and any resolution approved by the council has no force of law and doesn't mean a thing, except perhaps to do some needed virtue signaling before next year's city elections when Kincannon will be running for reelection.

The resolution solves no problems, and accomplishes nothing save to waste time, but it does have the effect of making a little fuss about it.

Brian Stelter is Gone and Good Riddance

Brian Stelter, formerly of CNN, is a prime example of a number of things; the rank bias in the mainstream media and the delusional Left in this country.  Stelter headlined the most poorly named show in the history of television: "Reliable Sources."  The one thing Brian Stelter was not was reliable unless it was reliably wrong.  With the changes imposed by new leadership at CNN in an attempt to change the image of the dying network from a megaphone for the Left to a news channel, Stelter was fired and his program canceled.

Stelter went off the air with a bang.  It was not difficult to imagine the round little Stelter riding in atop his unicorn, wearing a bedpan on his head as his armor of truth and bellowing his last words on CNN: "It's not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue.  It's not partisan to stand up to demagogues.  It's required, it's patriotic.  We must make sure we don't give platforms to those lying to our faces."  Well, the last statement in that harangue is certainly true and Brian Stelter's platform to lie to the faces of the American people was taken away from him.  Stelter's entire time on the airwaves was as partisan as anything put out (or more) than the Democratic National Committee.  As best as I could tell, Brian Stelter's idea of democracy resembled that of a rigid authoritarian.  Authoritarians aren't known for their tolerance, much less love, of dialogue.  The bottom line is Brian Stelter had as much to do with news broadcasting as Hunter Biden.

As podcaster Joe Rogan put it so simply, "They should be fired, because they suck at their job."

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