ET Newspapers Trade Insults

The first rule about Congressional Elections in the 1st District is - You don't talk about Congressional Elections in the 1st District.

Instead we have a fierce word battle between the managing editor at the Bristol Herald Courier, Todd Foster, and a Hank Hayes, reporter for the Kingsport Times News, over a BHC report about Congressman David Davis.

"Kingsport Slimes News Lives Up To It's Reputation"

"Kingsport Times-News reporter Hank Hayes has a bright future flacking for politicians. Lord knows, he’s better at it than at journalism.

Hayes used the news columns of his newspaper on Thursday to attack an investigative article we published a week ago about U.S. Rep. David Davis, R-Tenn., and his congressional earmarks. That same day, we published an editorial that noted the amount of special-interest money Davis was socking away."

-----

"MY ADVICE to Hayes is to cash in on his boosterism. If Davis does the right thing and fires his press secretary, Ryan Tronovitch, as we editorialized he should on Friday, then Hayes could at least join the Davis payroll officially.

Why did we call for Tronovitch’s firing?

Because the news release attacking our editorial was posted on the congressman’s Web site under a URL – or Web address – that ended in “bhcjerks.”

THE URL quickly was removed by Davis’ staff after Hayes’ article quoted me as saying the “bhcjerks” reference was immature and undignified.

Tronovitch has more problems than his immaturity (he can be forgiven for being 23 years old). The Broome (N.Y.) Community College Web site has a photo of Tronovitch as a member of the men’s soccer team and quotes him under “Favorite Things To Do” as saying, “I like to play soccer, sleep, eat, listen to music and that’s about it.”

Notice that learning the English language was not included on Tronovitch’s list. Many of the Davis news releases under Tronovitch’s byline include rampant misspellings. (Note to Ryan: There’s a new invention out; it’s called SpellCheck. You might want to use it.)"

Sadly, while the media is reporting on itself, no other news media are checking into the allegations about Rep. Davis taking money from a business he then worked to get a government contract for ... that's not news, I suppose.

And yes, there are other candidates for the office of 1st District Congressman. Yet, past history shows that voters will simply look for a Republican to vote for, and they'll likely vote for the incumbent first, regardless of any allegations.