Bridge of Lions Not Closed This Morning

A St. Augustine Police Department dispatcher confirms that this morning that there is NO temporary closing at the temporary Bridge of Lions scheduled this morning.

She tells me the bridge tender confirms that the temporary closing of the temporary bridge begins at 7 PM.

A headline and story by "staff" in this morning's St. Augustine Record falsely claims "Bridge closed till Wednesday," stating the bridge closes at 7 AM "for 11 hours" until 6 AM tomorrow.

Not even the math makes sense.

Think of all the people who might read the Record this morning and take the long way into town, consuming mass quantities of gasoline because the Record doesn't check facts. That should teach them to be more skeptical of the local newspaper, which did not run a front page headline when Barack Obama was elected President, but ran a front page article this morning about Jacksonville getting a nuclear carrier (five years from now).

This is the same very Republican-leaning newspaper that ran no article when Faye Armitage won the August 26, 2008 Democratic Primary to succeed controversial Congressman JOHN LUIGI MICA (with 72% of the vote); gave excessive coverage and inflated crowd estimates to homophobic anti-abortion terrorist Randall Terry; writes shallow endorsements of candidates without understanding the issues; refused to cover local political scandals until there are actual arrests; favors City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS with undeserved positive publicity even after he deposited 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir; and too often runs press releases without attribution.

The Record famously had a front page headline in 1995 lauding its "100 years of pubic service" with a front page headline. NBC Tonight Show host comedian Jay Leno made the Record famous for its "100 years of pubic service" headline.

The Oak Ridger newspaper (also owned by Morris Communications) had in its newsroom an acrylic painting with the words "Accuracy Accuracy Accuracy." .

Perhaps the Record might wish to start with a clock and a calendar in its newsroom, and some instructions on fact-checking to Mr. or Ms. "Staff."

Any paper that reports erroneous bridge closings and fails to front-page the election of the first African-American President is in need of reform. The reporters' morale is in the dumpster and the standards are out the window.

However, there is one saving grace. As my friend Jim Dykes, the East Tennessee columnist once said of a Knoxville Chain Gang Journalism outlet where he worked, "no matter what you say about it, it's still a newspaper."