Kathy Nevill, relishing her role as attack dog for Pedro Garcia, managed with the help of the school's PR Army to plant a story in The Tennessean regarding Erick Huth's absences from school. Hidden deep within Claudette Riley's story was the oblique reference to the fact that the school system (read: Pedro Garcia) has encouraged the proliferation of school-hour meetings for which Huth is obligated to attend. Obligated, that is, if he wants to do his job correctly. The most obvious example is the number of days Huth has had to be absent from school for negotiations: a process started by the board in November rather than February and with the insistence that no meetings take place after school as had been past practice.
The whole situation brings to mind Lorenda Hale's case of 2002. After being elected to the school board, Hale was given a cell phone and told it was part of the plan to enable all school board members to stay in touch with school officials and community members. Then when Garcia decided he did not like Lorenda Hale, he planted a story with Diane Long, an unquestioning Tennessean reporter, and she did a hatchet job saying Hale had used her cell phone too much. No accusation was made that Hale made long distance calls. No question was raised as to why Garcia didn't buy her a plan with unlimited local calling. It was simply an effort to let her and anyone else know that if you are going to be a public servant, attacks can be created out of thin air.
Acting as a local megaphone, the way Fox News operates on the national level, The Tennessean editors deliberately avoid letters to the editor or balanced reporting which would give credibility to the subjects of their attacks.