News of the recent unpleasantness involving the Knoxville Police Department is going global. A crew from the CBS Evening News was in town for Andre Stenson's funeral and put together a story for Saturday's show. Producer Jamie Croft and correspondent Byron Pitts rounded up a bunch of the usual suspects, including the Rev. Harold Middlebrook and Chief Phil Keith. But Knoxvillians who trepidatiously tuned in to Channel 8, the local CBS affiliate, instead caught the Kentucky-Arkansas men's basketball game followed by the local news in the network news 6:30 time slot. Not to fear, Channel 8 staffers told viewers who called in, the CBS piece would run at 11.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world saw the Knoxville story in the regular time slot. And, it turns out, they saw more than we did.

True to its word, Channel 8 did run the CBS piece at 11, although it seemed curiously short, because Channel 8, adhering to its "family-friendly" policy of not showing dead bodies, deleted startling photographs of Stenson's battered upper back and the backs of his legs, which showed pronounced, and previously unreported, bruises.

The CBS crew says they're interested in the unfolding story, particularly since they've been researching citizens' review boards around the country, which might mean more great national exposure for Knoxville. Just imagine the nasty, racially charged advertising campaigns that will surely result if City Council bows to crack-brained demands for a referendum on a review board (remember the ad wars from the unification referendum?).

Now, imagine them on network TV.

Waiting for an Invitation

The commission appointed to review the Police Department and explore forming a citizens' review board may have broken the law in its first meeting.

Headed by attorney Bernie Bernstein, the commission held its first meeting Monday morning without allowing anyone from the public or media to attend. Bernstein has said the commission will decide on a meeting-by-meeting basis whether to allow the public to attend.

According to Tennessee Code Annotated, "All meetings of any governing body are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times." A "governing body" is defined as "The members of any public body which consists of two (2) or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration..."

The commission's purpose is to make recommendations. The mayor also offered it city money, which spokesman Craig Griffith says "would come from the general fund of some department." The commission has yet to ask for any money, he says. Griffith says the city's law director considers the commission a "private body" rather than a "public" one, but he wouldn't explain the difference between the two.

Al Knight, a media attorney who represents Nashville's Tennessean, says the case is not clear-cut because Mayor Victor Ashe appointed the commission. Tennessee courts have ruled that groups appointed by a public body are themselves public bodies. However, those appointed by an individual like the mayor are not necessarily, Knight says.

State Sen. Bud Gilbert, an open-government crusader, agrees the law is murky and may not pertain to the commission. However, he says, "I would certainly encourage the commission to conduct all of its meetings as if it were a public body."

Quoting from the law, Gilbert says, "(The Sunshine Law) should be construed broadly to promote openness and accountability in government, and to protect the public against closed-door meetings at every stage of a government body's deliberations."