MEDIA LAW (JOUR 3633)
NOTE: The following is a story published on a news page of the Northwest Arkansas Times the same day as the 1992 mayoral election in Fayetteville. Dan Coody brought a libel suit against the Times for this article and the editorial published four days earlier. In our study of this case, this story is referred to as "Probe" and the editorial (which you must also read) is referred to as "Facade."
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Northwest Arkansas Times
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1992
Times publisher defends probe
into past of mayoral candidate
By RUSTY GARRETT
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Times Staff Writer
Northwest Arkansas Times publisher David Stokes confirmed Monday the newspaper had "taken a leading role" recently in researching the life and activities of Fayetteville mayoral candidate Dan Coody prior to his arrival in Fayetteville in 1986.
Stokes said the role had included the employment of a local private investigator who reportedly had a Texas investigator check into Coody's background in Beaumont, Texas.
However, Stokes said Monday he had uncovered some major discrepancies between information contained in the report and that [which] he subsequently received from former Beaumont residents who say they knew Coody in high school. Stokes said he also had heard the Texas investigator had not conducted himself professionally and had misrepresented himself to persons contacted in the investigation.
Stokes defended the investigation, initiated last Thursday, as necessary to answer questions of Coody's past, which he said the candidate had continually refused to answer throughout the campaign. He said it is necessary for newspapers "from time to time" to undertake such activity.
Stokes said the decision was also based in part on attacks Coody made against the Times in a television debate on Access 4 Fayetteville last week. He said he suspected Coody's dislike of the Times stemmed from the paper's refusal to "become his voice."
"We're not the voice for any one person," Stokes continued. "We have the entire community to look after."
Stokes said the investigation was undertaken "to get the real truth" concerning the candidate. "We owe it to the community regardless of what we find."
Stokes took issue with a characterization by Coody early Monday of the probe as an attempt to "get the dirt" on the candidate.
At an afternoon news conference directly across the street from the Times building, Coody asked that the details of the report be made public. "Prompt and full release of this information will refute the various fantastic rumors that have been intentionally circulated in an attempt to cloud my personal history and attack my character," Coody said.
Coody also reported that as a result of the probe, "my elderly parents, my totally disabled brother, my wife and I have been unnecessarily harassed, maligned and sickened by these inexcusable tactics."
Stokes said similar investigations of the four other mayoral candidates were not undertaken by the newspaper, because they had not been the subject of rumors with the "severity" of those circulated about Coody.
He said he had received "a lot of support" for an editorial in Saturday's newspaper demanding Coody reveal the details of his past.
Stokes said the investigation revealed Coody's early life was "very admirable." It showed he had created and operated a successful plant nursery business, that he had helped run radio stations in Huntsville and Livingstone, Texas, that he was a member of a school choral group and that he started his own band. "I don't understand why he hasn't used this information in his campaign," Stokes said.
He also said the probe had failed to turn up any information on Coody's life between the mid-1970s and 1986, when he moved to Fayetteville. Stokes said the report had created more questions than it had answered.
Stokes said Coody "can make anything out of the investigation he wants to." He said Coody has had "plenty of opportunities" to bring up the details of his past, and has refused. Instead, Stokes said, he "went around it, or halfway answered it. He never outlined his past year by year."
Stokes acknowledged Coody had pledged to "work side by side" with
the newspaper and the community and said he hoped the Times
and Coody "could work together as a good team. We have a lot of
common interests," he said. But he said Coody "has yet to show me he
truly means what he says."