In my column wrapping up the Trinity election, I cited a story by DMN transportation writer Michael Lindenberger, which helped address the many concerns about the toll road including its approval and funding. The article was published the day after the election, prompting me to write this.

I wonder why this wasn’t published before the election.

It turns out Jim Schutze over at The Dallas Observer was wondering the same thing. He even posted a public plea on Unfair Park asking Lindenberger to contact him about his upcoming column.

“Unless dissuaded by the evidence, I intend to impugn your ethics as a journalist and possibly raise questions about your parentage for knowing about this before the election but not getting it into the paper until the day after the vote,” Schutze wrote.

Schutze’s major concern was this part of Lindenberger’s story, which contradicted the claim by Mayor Leppert and the Vote No! campaign that the city was only going to pay $84 million for the road.

“NTTA Chairman Paul Wageman said last month that the agency would build the road only if it is viable – meaning it produces enough in tolls to pay for construction. He said if the costs continue to rise above the current estimate of $1.29 billion, the agency may ask its partners – including the city and the Regional Transportation Council, which sets priorities for the entire North Texas area, to increase their investments in the road.”

The key for Schutze was the words “said last month,” meaning the paper decided not to print the story until after the election. Nobody at the paper returned his calls, prompting this from his latest column.

“Somebody at the News sat on this. Someone with a lot more power than Michael Lindenberger. Then, even when the News did publish the story, the story itself was upside down and convoluted so that the real news – Wageman's startling revelation – was dropped in halfway down the story as a kind of unimportant aside,” Schutze wrote. “Someone at the News must think slipping this into the paper the day after the election covers them. I just want to remind them that in the real world, in newspaper terms, it doesn't cover shit."

The Dallas Morning News not only sat on this story, but it ignored key evidence throughout the campaign. I busted the myth that funding was in place from the NTTA on Oct. 15. The DMN never followed up for a story of its own.

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