Last week we received a call from an advance team for Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam indicating that he would be paying us a visit Tuesday between the hours of 2 and 2:30 p.m.
Soon after that call, Tennessee State Troopers arrived at our offices and conducted a thorough security sweep in the area where we were to meet. They also coordinated how and where the governor would enter and exit our building. They even went so far as to check out the restroom the governor would use.
The purpose of the visit, as we understand it, was to review the governor’s first 100 days in office. The meeting was to be with our editorial board.
In preparation for this meeting we set up a web camera so we could bring the meeting to you live on Tricities.com. We even went so far as to solicit questions from our readers on page one of Tuesday’s paper.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday we received a call from the governor’s press secretary informing us that the governor would not be visiting us in Bristol. When pressed as to why, the press secretary said the governor’s schedule was tight with other meetings in other parts of the state.
Other parts of the state indeed.
Later, a call confirmed that Haslam had made time to meet with the editorial boards in Johnson City and Kingsport, but apparently didn’t have time swing up our way.
Were the 100,000 plus readers of the Bristol Herald Courier not important enough to share this message with?
Obviously, there was a breakdown in communication somewhere. The governor’s press secretary said his office had not confirmed visiting with Bristol. However, the actions and statements of his security team clearly served as confirmation of his impending visit.
We still are interested in what the governor has to say. We also feel our readers are owed an apology and at the very least a return visit here to our community.
This time around, though, it appears that Gov. Haslam was just too busy for Bristol.
Jim Maxwell is the regional publisher for the Bristol Herald Courier and Southwest Virginia newspapers. He can be reached at jmaxwell@bristolnews.com or (276) 645-2552.
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