Author: Smart City Memphis

Knox County Chancellor Daryl Fansler’s landmark ruling on the Sunshine Law provides a thoughtful defense of the open meetings law and the rationale behind its importance to open government. It’s must reading for...

Giving more evidence of a general lack of sensitivity by some elected officials about the need to restore the public’s confidence in their governments, a committee of the Tennessee Legislature seems intent on gutting the...

Finally. That was our immediate thought when we read that a Knoxville judge and jury threw out a dozen elected officials who were chosen in violation of the Tennessee Open Meetings Law. Of course, if violations of the Sunshine...

With apologies to the Shelby County Historical Commission, we note that it too has gone on record in favor of Beale Street Landing. We inadvertently omitted them from the list of supporting organizations. Thanks for the...

I was thinking this morning about a magnificent cathedral in Northern France, the incredible Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and a myopic bureaucrat at Tennessee Historical Commission in Nashville.The thoughts were...

Society of Professional Journalists’ leaders are backing journalists at The Commercial Appeal including as Trevor Aaronson and Louis Graham who opposed “monetizing the content” plans. In a post to its website,...

Americans are demanding new choices about where and how they live. For the past 50 years drivable suburbanism has been the norm, coupled with decaying central cities. But that familiar pattern is reversing, in part, thanks to...

For an update on this issue of sponsored news, visit website of Editor and Publisher: “Memphis Editor Admits FedEx Sponsorship A Mistake.” We appreciate his candor and for the explanation of his rationale to increase...

There’s an old saying in the newspaper business that no one is worse at communicating than the ones in the business.That seems to be the case with the internal controversy at The Commercial Appeal about selling news...

As The Commercial Appeal gets ready for its star turn as location for the movie, “Nothing But the Truth,” the film’s name has special irony in light of the recent internal controversy at our daily newspaper about the sponsorship...