At 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. on November 1, 2005 it was reported that WATE TV 6 the ABC affliate in recapping the races for City Council to be held on the same day announced that City Council incumbent Steve Hall had dropped out of the race.
Councilman Hall was in a fairly close race with a former director of Mayor Victor Ashe. Councilman Hall won the election with 88 votes. The CBS affliate reported on the 11:00 p.m. newscast this error and WATE admitted they messed up.
WATE never called Councilman Hall to verify their report, before airing it. WATE has refused to reveal the source of their report.
One can only conclude that WATE was attempting to influence the outcome. Why would they do that? You ask.
Gene Patterson, the anchor of WATE is the former Communications Director of Victor Ashe, while Councilman Hall’s opponent Ellen Adcock was a former director of Ashe.
Until WATE comes clean. You make the decision.
UPDATE: Gene Patterson appeared on WKVL Am 1180 at 8:00 a.m. and took phone calls for one hour. Here is Gene’s (WATE) explanation: A “green” producer/reporter was putting together the news for 5:30 a.m. and ran across a press release that Steve Hall Register of Deeds put out a few weeks ago that said that he is NOT Steve Hall City Councilman. The “green” producer/reporter did not verify because the staffer felt that was City Councilman Steve Hall’s withdrawal from the race. I called in and asked Gene. Why did the station wait 27 hours to explain this? Why didn’t you explain it on the 7:25, 8:25 a.m. updates the noon, 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. newscast. Why didn’t you explain this on the WVLT’s newscast? Gene said that was a fair criticism. Gene’s explanation must be accepted at face value. There still exist some real questions. I am assuming this issue is NOT dead.
