In today’s local newspaper, Columnist Sam Venable has made the point that everyone needs to take a chill pill and relax until the FBI does something definitive with Pilot Flying J. That’s a valid point.
I find a couple of things ironic. One, the coverage of the Plain Dealer of Cleveland, OH has been more intense than that of the Knoxville paper. Additionally, the Editor of the Knoxville paper joined the panel on WBIR‘s Inside TN that aired on Sunday. The Editor had some pages of the FBI warrant. Does the local paper really need to excuse itself from the story due in part that on every Friday Pilot Flying J purchases about 50,000 papers and gives them away. Additionally, the local paper and Pilot Flying J have the same PR/Gov’t Relations person in Cynthia Moxley?
Additionally, I noticed during one of last weeks press conference that Talk Show Host Hallerin Hill was sitting close to Mr. Jimmy Haslam. Pilot Flying J is a contributing sponsor to Hill’s weekly television show, Anything is Possible. Maybe it is too much for them to excuse themselves, then how about a disclosure?
I think everybody in the community realizes that Pilot has bought off most of the objectivity at the KNS and through most of the local media outlets. If Pilot can put a bag over the head of “unsophisticated” trucking companies, they have no problem with the cornball media, their vast inexperience and lack of journalistic skill, since most of them have a hard time figuring out where Cocke County really is and think Pigeon Forge is a business mecca in the South.
Venable raises a good point in that nothing in these circumstances is good for Knoxville or Knox County. He’s right. But, in 1983 we said the same thing about the failure of UAB and the C & C Bank, but the local business community didn’t learn the necessary lessons about being above board and not taking advantage of business circumstances. It was not good for Knoxville to lose two homegrown banks like UAB and C & C, however, it would probably be even worse to see Pilot struggle of watch their executives go to the federal penetentiary, particularly if their business model has to be modified and scaled down.