Regardless of your political affiliation, it has often seemed in recent years that the Knoxville News Sentinel's reporting on State Representative Stacey Campfield has smelled of bias, indeed that the desire of the paper to see the political defeat has seemed almost personal, culminating in an  endorsement of his Democratic opponent for the 7th District State Senate seat, Randy Walker. For at least one News Sentinel freelancer and former staff member, the perception of bias has apparently led to a change in assignment.

Representative Campfield reported that he had received a call from Vines requesting an interview, one that he initially rejected. "I told her 'all you have done is trash me and distort what I say. I have given you a full interview before and that was the end result.'" Vines, according to Campfield, begged for another chance and Campfield agreed to meet her at 11:00 am Wednesday morning. Vines then called Campfield, according to the four-term State Representative, and informed him that she was canceling their scheduled meeting. Vines reportedly told Campfield that "something has come up" and "I won't be covering your race anymore." Befuddled, Representative Campfield wondered if something was the matter with Vines, he says.

A short time later, Campfield claims to have received a call from News Sentinel legislative reporter Tom Humphrey informing Campfield that Humphrey would now cover the Campfield-Walker campaign. "I was somewhat relieved because of Tom's reputation for fairness and integrity among legislators," Campfield told The Examiner, "I believe that he will do justice to the race." The bombshell is that Campfield claims that Humphrey revealed to him that Vines was quickly removed from the 7th District Senate campaign beat because new campaign financial disclosures, made public Wednesday, revealed that Vines' significant other had contributed to the campaign of Campfield's Democratic opponent.

Georgiana Vines declined comment for this article, but instead directed the quiery to the newspaper's editor.

Jack McElroy, the News-Sentinel's editor-in-chief, was straightforward with The Examiner about the situation. "It is my understanding that Georgiana is currently dating someone who has made a contribution to Mr. Walker's campaign, stated McElroy, "we have long had a policy that staff members are required to refrain from partisan political involvement." McElroy went on to explain that there is really no way to prevent the spouses or significant others of the newspaper's staff from being more involved in politics because they aren't employees. "As a matter of course, we try to keep people out of assignments where they could have a conflict of interest, because there have been staff who have had family members who were active politically so we want to keep those staff clear of assignments where there is a conflict. Even though Ms. Vines is a former member of our staff, she is currently a freelance writer for the News Sentinel. Because we hold members of our staff to that standard, we let Georgiana know that we didn't want anymore coverage from her of that [7th District] campaign."

McElroy must be commended for taking action to protect something of the paper's journalistic integrity, whatever one may think of the News Sentinel's editorial endorsements.

Note: Most regular readers of my work and of this column know that in the recent past there has been no shortage of fireworks in the local blogosphere between myself and News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy. Because of this, I was more than a little concerned about what kind of reaction I would get when I called his office to get his side of this story. I feared that he might not be so willing to talk. I must admit that my concern may have been misplaced. Whatever McElroy privately thinks of me or this column, I found his conduct during our conversation to be professional, courteous, and respectful.