Day Five: The Dallas Morning News still refuses to cover the Eddie Bernice Johnson-Corps of Engineers story on the Trinity River toll road. Bloated, purple-faced and emitting unseemly grunting noises, Dallas' Only Daily continues to retain the most important news story in months about the Trinity River project.
The News has always insisted we can’t have an election to decide whether we want a toll road through the proposed park and lakes along the river downtown because any hesitation at all on our part will kill federal funding for the whole deal.
But, as you no doubt recall, on Thursday, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson -- chairwoman of the Water Resources Subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, not to mention the rep for the 30th Congressional District, in which almost the entire project will reside -- said, in short, "Nuh-unh." She told KERA-FM (90.1) that an election on the toll road would be fine by her and would not endanger federal funding for the road. At all.
In the meantime, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed to KERA what they told us weeks ago -- that the design, funding and implementation of the overall project are not tied in any way to the toll road. At all.
All of that makes The News DEAD WRONG in what it has been blatting at readers from both the editorial and news pages of the paper for months. But they won't admit it. They just will not cover the story.
It’s in their system. They know it’s true. It’s churning around in their bowels, but they are bound and determine and not to let it pass.
Our advice? Stay off Young Street for the next few days, or wear your slicker. --Jim Schutze
You have to wonder at what point the DMN's embarrassment at getting it wrong would be eclipsed by the value -- even drama -- of the underlying news story. Aren't they in a circulation crunch?
So far they've chosen the company line over reporting. The top brass must really not want this new information exposed.
Posted at: May 22, 2007 9:53 AM