News Journal’s Touchy “Feeley” Fails To Spin Their Own Spin And Loses Credibility With Their Double Down

I know I’ve been picking on the News Journal a lot lately, but they deserve it.  After their constant defamatory attacks on Kathleen Davies with fabricated reports, I have to ask a legitimate question: How much are they getting paid to go after Davies?  It is beyond the point of absurdity.  What did they do now?

Today, after State Reps. John Kowalko and Kim Williams issued a letter to Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn to investigate the Auditor of Accounts office for leaking the Tom Wagner edited Grant Thornton report, the News Journal wrote an article about it.  I thought, “Good, they are actually reporting on something real!”  I read the article.  They didn’t even publish the letter.  It sounds like they didn’t even read it either.  Instead, their Executive Editor, Mike Feeley, tries to flip it around as if the Denn letter were written for an investigation into the News Journal:

Mike Feeley, executive editor of The News Journal, said the news organization will not be deterred by threats of legal action.

Nor should they be because there were NO THREATS AGAINST THE NEWS JOURNAL IN THE LETTER!  But Feeley doesn’t stop there:

“We find it concerning that state lawmakers who say they value transparent government are calling for an investigation into how this important document came into public view,” Feeley said.

Talk about touchy “Feeley”!  Feeley needs to get a grip on his own newspaper!  First off, he refers to the Grant Thornton report as “important”.  The same “important” report that Wagner had editing power over due to a default clause in the contract.  So the News Journal is making hay over a bogus report they never got the contract for.  Second, no two legislators value and promote transparency more in Delaware than Kowalko and Williams.

This whole debacle in their blatant attempts to smear Davies is blowing up in their face.  Instead of accepting this, they dig their claws in their own house of glass and wind up producing a sound that can only be described as eerie whining.  They come across as a petulant child who doesn’t get their way.  God forbid anyone tell the almighty News Journal that they are wrong.

As if Feeley’s self-serving comments weren’t bad enough, the News Journal doubles down and pushes the same hit piece against Davies that has been blown away today based on Davies statement and the release of the Grant Thornton contract.  If the News Journal wants the people of Delaware to see themselves as credible, they need to release all the information.  Not just the smear.  By doing this they are no better than grocery store tabloids.  I would expect this kind of journalism in something like The Communist Gazette from 1983.

These folks need to get a grip, regroup, and start to seriously think about how they portray themselves.  They bow to political shenanigans which is why so many people in the state do not take them seriously.  Don’t get me wrong, I want a real newspaper in this state.  Which is why I read Delaware State News more than the News Journal.  As the biggest media in The First State, the News Journal has an obligation to their readers.  When they fulfill that obligation, I’ll take them seriously.  Even if they do get stuff right at times, it is overshadowed by how much they don’t.