Video: Tecumseh Herald Reporter Displays Unprofessionalism And Bias At School Board Meeting

“Greek Sailors on a Venetian Canal” by Friedrich Nerly

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

News reporters are supposed to be flies on the wall – observe and report, and if you’ve done your job right, no one remembers you were there. But The Tecumseh Herald reporter Kerry Hamilton Smith was anything but a fly at Tecumseh Public Schools’ organizational meeting Monday evening. Instead, she was a proverbial bull in the china shop of journalistic integrity.

Near the end of the meeting during the public comment portion, a terse back and forth between TPS board president Tim Simpson and vocal board opponent Bill Swift culminated with Simpson saying, “This whole town is tired of your BS,” to which Smith, the Herald‘s reporter, seconded, vocally saying to Swift, “It’s true. It’s true. It’s absolutely true.” You can watch the interaction in the timestamped (48:13) video below.

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Welcome To Tecumseh, Mr. Washington, Please Pardon Our Peculiar Propensity For Pageantry

“Laocoön” by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

A lot changed last week.

We’re searching for our third superintendent in two months. Good job, everyone.

We’re a laughing stock.

A media frenzy has descended upon the town — and why wouldn’t it? It’s a straightforward story. Drop in for a few hours, shoot some B-roll, get a few hard-hitting quotes, and you’re back at the station with a burger and fries by noon. Easy as apple pie. If you wanted to go the extra mile, close the 45-second segment with a few sound bites from a fiery school board meeting and you have your whipped cream and cherry, too.

But our situation is far from easy and far less tasty.

Investigations. Backstabbing. Money down the drain. We’re about as distracted and directionless as a toddler in a Toys-R-Us. More accusations are flying in town than fingers at a Five-Finger Discount Symposium hosted by the Kleptomaniac Association of America. And, just as it would be hard to finger who stole what from the electronics section of a struggling Sears, we, too, have many unanswered questions.

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Turmoil Ravages Tecumseh Public Schools As Principals, Teachers Fear Retaliation

“The Fall of Phaeton” by Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

There are few places for children as political as the gym. Friends, enemies, cliques, and out-groups congeal here. Rumors slip past heated negotiations of lunchtime trades before dodgeballs replace lunch tables. It’s a microcosm of Darwinism, survival of the fittest. For those deficient in school’s societal expectations, the gym is purgatory. It’s political for parents, too.

Last night’s Tecumseh Public Schools board meeting took place in a gym—awkwardly lit with a sound system as unqualified for its job as Supt. Ryan Rhoades. Maybe the problem wasn’t the sound system, but the hushed discussions among board members, conversing with one another in private during an open meeting, tip-toeing toward an Open Meetings Act violation.

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My Top 10 Horror Movies Of 2018

It’s a chilly January evening as I finish my year-end list of exceptional horror movies. Picking 10 standout films seemed more difficult this year than last. Does that mean extraordinary horror was hard to find or was horror in general operating at such a high level that it was difficult to choose just 10 for this list? Honestly, I don’t know, and I don’t care. Horror and genre filmmaking is on a rampage with audiences and critics alike finding box-office gems within the traditional confines the of horror label.

This list is in no particular order because it’s difficult to accurately compare the timely #MeToo themes of Revenge with the comedic joyfulness of Tragedy Girls. I do have my favorite, but you’ll have to ask.

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Everything Wrong With Michigan’s Law Enforcement Anti-Pot Talking Points

On Nov. 6, Michigan voters will head to the ballot box to decide the fate of Prop 1 – legalizing the use of recreational marijuana. We’re more than a month away from the election, and opponents to the proposal are coming out in full force.

This week, Michigan Law Enforcement agencies coordinated press conferences across the state to roll out trite talking points (below), that border on propaganda, about negatives of legalizing marijuana.

Except for the majority of the talking points are either taken out of the context of the study or come for studies that contain conclusions that contradict the talking point altogether.

Below are just a few of the inconsistencies with the presented talking points along with links to the cited studies and articles so you can judge for yourself.

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My Top 10 Horror Movies Of 2017

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Horror is on a massive roll. The last several years have produced some phenomenal indie horror gems mainstream audiences are either just now discovering or have shunned altogether because “indie” still has negative connotations. But boy, was 2017 different. It’s a year where both mainstream and independent horror got its acceptance as a genre that’s more than blood and guts—even if they are a genre mainstay.

For as great as mainstream or theatrical horror was in 2017, independent gems outshined a majority of those big-budget productions. Horror in 2017 proved the genre can be something more, and with GET OUT and THE SHAPE OF WATER getting Oscar recognition while still falling in the genre—well, that’s just icing on the cake.

Now that 2017 is over, here are my top 10 horror movies of last year. Go and watch these. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

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Anthony J. Alaniz

Award-winning reporter in southeast Michigan

Category: Opinion