Betty Culbreath
                             

09/23/06  Scandal Blogs

If you are not a blog groupie, you may not know about the hottest topic of the last couple of days.  Of course, you are at least somewhat of a blog groupie or you would not be reading DallasArena.com.  Remember the days when there were just a few of us?

These days, you could waste much of your daylight hours reading the various local blogs.  It's just about the only way you get the real news, rather than what Decherd allows his reporters to print in The Dallas Managed News.   More and more, all you get from Belo's DMN is "manufactured" news.

There are some really good blogs, and some really lame ones.  D Magazine's FrontBurner is more about gossip and club/restaurant reviews than anything important.  UnFair Park on www.DallasObserver.com is my favorite.  DallasBlog.com is a close second with many very good retired journalists contributing. 

Until Thursday, I had never read any of The Dallas Managed News blogs.  While scanning DallasBlog.com, I came across their discussion of the bomb Sherry Jacobson has dropped about a couple of friends of mine.

As I've said, my political/community activism has allowed me to meet and become friends with lots of interesting people.  I don't mean buddies, I mean friends.  Friends you trust and understand.  Friends who are involved and who talk about issues and events, rather than the latest hot spot.  Two of my friends are Sarah Dodd and David Kunkle.  Both were at my wedding.

Several months ago, Chief Kunkle and I had lunch.  Obviously, we talked about city stuff.  Knowing how much I love dogs and cats, we wound up talking about his German shepherd who had developed a terminal kidney disease.  He knew he would be losing his dog, and he was clearly hurting emotionally.   He told me the dog had always gone on his runs with him, and he was already grieving.   I only mention that conversation as an example of his not being some one dimensional bureaucrat.

Sarah Dodd and I have been cheerleaders for Chief Kunkle almost since the day he was hired.  We both grew up in Dallas and hate was has happened to our city.  Chief Kunkle has done so much to turn around the Dallas Police Department, which in turn is improving our city.  We both like Chief Kunkle as a human being, as well as our Police Chief.

Maintaining DallasArena.com is a side gig for me, an unpaid side gig that actually costs me money.  I have a very demanding day job.  Still, I think I work harder than most paid journalists in this town.  They seem to have too much time on their hands.  When the biggest topic of the day is whether TV ace reporter Sarah Dodd is dating the Chief of Police and for how long, you know things are out of whack.

This is more than a young blonde TV star dating an older public official.  This is two of the smartest people I know spending time together.

Sarah Dodd is no airhead.  She was president of the student body of Coppell High School.  She was president of a major political club at Baylor University.  This past Spring, she won the coveted Edward R. Murrow award for her series of stories regarding the mess at City Hall involving Councilman Don Hill and others.  One of the series included Hill's use of a car he didn't own and had not declared on his "office holder" accounting reports.  Remember his response?  "I EARNED the right to drive this car."

Sarah has been to Iraq, where she was imbedded with a US military troop for several weeks.  She was the only journalist to accompany Councilmen Bill Blaydes, Ed Oakley and Ron Natinsky to China for discussions on the inland port in South Dallas.  Sarah anchors the Saturday and Sunday morning news shows on her station, and frequently substitutes as anchor at other times when needed.  She's very good at what she does because she is so smart and more mature than most women her age.  As one mutual admirer of Sarah said today, "she's an old soul."  She's wise beyond her years.

It makes my blood boil to have the likes of DMN's Sherry Jacobson spreading half-truths and exaggerations and others at The Dallas Managed News calling for Sarah's reassignment from covering City Hall because of a potential for conflict of interest.  Belo would love that, since one of their reporters admits that Sarah is their number one competition.

Jacobson is the same jealous toad who tried to "profile" Mayor Laura Miller based on her observations from working with Laura 15 or 20 years earlier.  Jacobson is as loosely connected to the truth and accuracy as is her colleague Gromer/Goffer Jeffers.  It's appropriate that they both work for The Dallas Managed News.  In Jacobson's case, she owes her job more to being married to a member of the Editorial Board of The Dallas Managed News than to any journalistic talent she may have once had.  It's embarrassing to know that a so-called professional female journalist would be reduced in the waning days of her career to spreading gossip.

As her station's City Hall reporter, Sarah has no conflict of interest if she is only dating Chief Kunkle.  They are not co-habiting.  They are not married.  Except for a rare occasion, Sarah does not cover cop or crime stories.  She works out of City Hall.  The Police Headquarters is several blocks South of City Hall.  Cops and crime are not part of Sarah's assignment.

But here's the deal -- why is this anyone's business but the two very smart, very nice people who have just started seeing each other?

All who have been making snide remarks and manufacturing news about Sarah Dodd and Chief Kunkle need to back off and leave them alone. 

As a friend to both of them, I could not be happier that two very smart, very nice friends of mine are seeing each other.  If you knew them as individuals, you would understand why they would gravitate to each other.  Sarah Dodd is just beautiful, but David Kunkle is very attractive, too.  When you are grownups who enjoy good conversation, age is not an issue. 

This may seem like a stretch, but I think Sherry Jacobson's real intent in writing such a nasty commentary without talking to the parties involved was to discredit Sarah Dodd professionally.  Other than Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer, no one has done more than Sarah Dodd to expose the funding shortages of the String Thing Bridges.  Our Downtown Betters want those ugly bridges, and they will do everything possible to muzzle anyone who challenges their dream. 

If Sarah Dodd or David Kunkle had anything to hide, they would not have had lunch in a public place.  They are two adults who enjoy each other's friendship and company.  That's all there is to it.

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