Daron Hall Visits CCC in November & the Media Finds It Out Two Months Later

Metro Sheriff and self-proclaimed Democrat Daron Hall met with the Middle Tennessee chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens at a Nashville cafeteria just before Thanksgiving, he says because he thought they were a Republican group. Never mind what that says about the character of Republicans or the intelligence of Democrats. The fact that Sheriff Hall has charge over incarcerated immigrants and would egregiously fail to be circumspect about his appearances, to know his audiences (or have people around him who do), but then make excuses for his poor judgment is unacceptable.

If this guy is a Democrat, he is not the kind of Democrat progressives should support. Sheriff Hall reportedly surrounds himself with yes-men and lackeys. His support group, "Friends of Daron Hall" once made a rather curious donation of $500 to "Friends of Charlie Tygard," a mere 3 months after CM Tygard sponsored a motion to move $250,000 tabbed by former Mayor Bill Purcell for the Arts Commission into the Sheriff's budget, even though the Sheriff claimed afterwards that he had not asked the Council for any extra money. I could not identify any other prominent Democrats who donated to Tygard during the last election cycle. However, I would like to note that Daron Hall did join a list that included ultra-conservative English Only donor Lee Beaman and his wife Kelley, each of whom gave Tygard $1000 in 2007. In 2006, Sheriff Hall had some problems with his Christmas cards. And on his watch a pregnant woman was shackled while she was delivering.

But as bad as Sheriff Hall may be, media coverage of Hall's attendance at the CofCC event was worse. How did it take 2 months and the initial discovery by a watchdog group for the local media to catch this one? What were they doing back in November?  Oh yeah, I forgot.  They were fighting the battle over closure of after hours bars and giving Eric Crafton as much free, uncritical publicity as he wanted.  

Even as reporters write that all Hall had to do was Google CofCC, they fail to acknowledge that they were remiss themselves--with all of their paid professional time to research and probe--in unearthing information about Hall's visit sooner. The press should also be more circumspect before giving politicians directions on web searches. They also missed a story that Enclave broke last September about the Williamson County GOP blaming all Nashville's Kurdish citizens for local crime. You know how I found that one? Clicking on the Williamson County GOP website. That took quite a few well-placed sources. The pattern emerging here is that the media is late on reports where political leaders are involved with derogatory attitudes towards immigrants.

UPDATE:  Post Politics blog says Hall should have known.

UPDATE:  The anonymous "news team" at CofCC.org accuses the Tennessean of "attacking" CoCC with "leftist propaganda."

UPDATE:  ACK frames the scope of the problem that was missed by the media: "one of the chief law enforcement officers in the County spoke before the modern incarnation of the Citizens Councils of the 50s and 60s." The White Citizens Councils of that era were the iced tea and finger foods partners of the KKK and other lynching groups.  How could the media have missed this story for so long?