It takes Guts!

Those who have read my columns here or at Thomsontalks, know that I have a disdain for editorial cowardice on the part of small town newspapers - or any other kind of newspapers for that matter. This blog exists to get people talking about subjects that local papers shy away from. I can't say,however,that Bo Bolton, publisher of the Monroe Journal shys away from reporting news. He did something this past Thursday that few small town papers in this day and time would do. Bo went wading into a fight going on in a church.

According to this past Thursday's article:

Jo Ann Snowden is standing firm in refusing to release Morning Star Baptist Church financial records as long as she remains the "official church secretary." In October, the Monroeville church filed suit against Snowden, who was hired as church secretary 30 years ago, for failing to return church property including its financial records. The church said that it had made repeated requests for the return of its property from its former secretary.

There is more to this story:

In her response filed Friday in the circuit clerk's office at the Monroe County Courthouse, Snowden said she was elected to office by a vote of the church's congregation and that she cannot be removed from office or relieved of her responsibilities before her term expires except by a vote of the congregation.
"There has been no vote of the congregation taken at a duly-called and properly-conducted congregational meeting to remove defendant (Snowden) from the office of church secretary," her response says. Snowden also says that about a year ago the church leadership attempted to "bribe" her for the records. She said that on Jan. 30, 2007 the church's pastor John Tucker and Albert Mobley, chairman of the Board of Deacons, without church approval requested that she return church records in return for what she "believed to have been an offer of bribery in the amount of $2,142.74."Snowden said she returned the "alleged bribery check" about a week later and said she could not accept pay for work that she had not been allowed to perform."

My comments about Bolton are thus: Bo Bolton did what he was supposed to do. There was an issue in his town of public interest. He reported on it - no matter whose toes he stepped on. Keep watching the news, this could very well turn out to be a national story. I guess in a way it already is...

Until Next Time...