More sarcasm in the KNS coverage
Today's News Sentinel includes a set of highlights (or lowlights) of last week's developments in Editor Jack McElroy's lawsuit against Knox County Commission. Although a periodic narrative recap of recent events would certainly help flesh out the coverage, the article in today's paper begins on an unnecessarily sarcastic tone. Like this earlier example, the lede is written in a sarcastic, snarky voice that is entirely inappropriate for a newspaper claiming objectivity in its coverage.
Today's lede is this:
In the world according to Knox County Commission Chairman Scott Moore, voters did not put their ballots where their mouths are, state Supreme Court justices aren't all that, and what’s good for the legal goose should be good for the official gander.
The entire first half of the article consists of selected quotes from Moore's testimony last week, seemingly cherry-picked to highlight the most negative and condescending of his many statements on the witness stand.
So Scott Moore comes across as arrogant, hostile, and acting like he's above the law; we get that. We don't need snarky commentary from the reporter to make that point. The first half of the article comes across as merely piling on, almost like a hit piece; in my opinion, articles like this hurt the paper's claim to objectivity.
Another minor, though irritating point: later in the article, plaintiff Jim Gray is described as "a leader in the Knox County Democrat party."
Oh, for heaven's sake. "Democrat" as an adjective is a well-documented slur, coined and used by GOP operatives who figured out that it results in lower opinion polls than the correct term "Democratic party."
"Democrat" is a noun. "Democratic" is an adjective. A self-respecting newspaper should be above the use of partisan sniping, at least in its news reporting.