Nashville Tennessean gives $15K to group backing tax-funded convention center; editors blindsided

[Artist's rendering of proposed Music City Center]

Newspapers frequently champion taxpayer-backed convention centers, sports arenas and other big civic ventures -- often in the face of sketchy economic impact studies paid by private interests who benefit the most when projects are built. But I've never heard of a Gannett paper donating money to a booster group for one of these causes.

Until today, that is. The Tennessean in Nashville acknowledged this week that the newspaper had donated $15,000 to a group backing the proposed Music City Center convention facility. The paper endorsed the $585 million project on its Sunday editorial page. Elected officials approved the project on Tuesday.

Yet, it wasn't until Wednesday, the paper itself revealed it was a contributor; that disclosure came in a news story in which editors said they'd been blindsided. "The Music City Center Coalition, which evolved from the task force, collected $533,092 from donors -- including The Tennessean, which gave $15,000 over three years, unbeknownst to the newsroom or the editorial board,'' the story says.

"I was as surprised as you were,'' Executive Editor Mark Silverman told Nashville Scene, the local alternative weekly that's been a thorn in the Tennessean's side -- and Silverman's -- for years.

The weekly is among several independent media this week that dug deep into the simmering controversy over the paper's role as a booster.

Silverman defended the newsroom in a Nashville Post article: "Fact is, the business side of media operations -- almost all media operations -- support business or community campaigns from time to time without any newsroom knowledge or involvement. In no way has the contribution had an impact on our editorial position or our coverage of the convention center."

A 'naked conflict of interest'
Some Nashville Scene readers didn't buy Silverman's argument. In a comment posted there, one reader wrote: "The problem is that the appearance of such a naked conflict of interest compromises any claim to newsroom neutrality or impartiality. You manage a conflict of interest by eliminating the conflict, not by asserting afterwards that it had no effect on the purity of your motives or actions."

Under the plan, the city -- which means taxpayers, of course -- would use visitor taxes and fees to pay off about $40 million a year in construction debt through year 2043, but it would pledge certain general fund revenue as a backup if tourist dollars fell short, Sunday's editorial says.

The new center has plenty of opponents. In an op-ed opinion piece, also published in Sunday's Tennessean, local attorney Kevin Sharp said the project would barely move the needle on increased tourism business.

The $15,000 donation -- in three, $5,000 installments -- came during a time of cost-cutting at the Tennessean and other Gannett papers. Nashville eliminated about 150 jobs total last July and December 2008.

Related: Echoes of Los Angeles Times-Staples Center controversy

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[Image, inset: today's front page, Newseum]