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Ozarks Cover-Up? | Missouri Political News Service

Ozarks Cover-Up?

July 21st, 2009 by MarkTwain · No Comments

Why aren’t the reporters in the drive-by media holding Governor Nixon accountable for the Department of Natural Resources’ effort to cover up an E. coli threat in the Lake of the Ozarks during the biggest part of the vacation season? Instead, they are allowing his office to use their columns to pass the buck. They accept without question his spokesman’s assertion that Governor Nixon didn’t know anything about it, that it was the decision of a former DNR employee (who, by the way, is a long-time Nixon aide who was just promoted), and that the Governor isn’t accountable for it

The simple truth is this: Nixon should be held accountable for the poor performance of the bureaucracy. He is the Governor and is most certainly responsible if the people he picks to work for him are incompetent. If one of his lackeys decides to ignore a health threat out of concern that his friends at the lake might not make as much money if people know about it, Nixon should take the initiative, admit his mistake, and try to correct it.

If Tony “Baghdad” Messenger wasn’t so bias, he would look up Nixon’s contributors from the Lake of the Ozarks and ask if any of them contacted either the Governor’s Office or DNR…but again, it’s the liberal press and being fair would be way too much work.

What happened was unacceptable. Under Nixon’s authority, the Department of Natural Resources flagrantly violated both the Sunshine Law and the public’s trust when it sat on a report that indicated unsafe levels of E. coli in the Lake of the Ozarks out of a fear that it might adversely impact tourism. Tourism should never be put ahead of safety – never – and Nixon must be held responsible. This is something he should have known about (and probably did know about) and he should have put a stop to it immediately. However, the media is once again refusing to hold him accountable for the sorry state of his government, using the logic that since there was “no harm” there was “no foul” and allowing his spokesperson to bury the story. This is just plain wrong.

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Tags: Jay Nixon · Media Bias

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