Why does the Nashville news media largely give MDHA a pass instead of investigating stories of their waste?

It seems like the only local news media interested in investigating Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency is NewsChannel5. As I recall they were the ones who broke the story on MDHA's mishandling of the budget to pay a local PR firm to sell the Mayor's plan for a new convention center. The Tennessean certainly was slow to touch that story, and I can understand why given that they donated thousands of dollars to the Mayor's cause.

It has been a month since the Washington Post broke a story on money wasted at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sent millions to MDHA for a North Nashville development yet to be developed. After I found the story and blogged on it, my post got some hits from NewsChannel5 traffic, so I figured a broader local audience would finally see the story. This is Ben Hall's May 31 report:







But still, the Nashville media does not seem to be bothered that they were scooped on a big story about waste and developer neglect of a North Nashville neighborhood by an outside paper. The investigative team at 5 was not exactly ahead of the curve on the latest news and they attribute the story to WaPo as if the latter was a partner rather an atypical competitor that beat them badly on a story they should have written first. I cannot find evidence that any other media source honed in on this story. Given their past pattern of cutting MDHA slack I did not expect the Tennessean to report it. But no other TV station was interested? And the City Paper/Nashville Scene gave it a pass? Where was local public radio?

HT: Mark Naccarato