Scorecard/Kudos to local media

I want to take the time to thank local media for their coverage of the candidates in this important election. It takes time from their staff, ink, bandwidth, and effort to put these things together. I also wanted to give the local media some positive and otherwise feedback for their coverage.

A+ grades go out to the following:
WNOX- Excellent online voters guide, and dedicating a considerable amount of airtime every Tuesday to a broadcast forum of candidates that digs into issues quite well. Pick of the litter right here! Thanks to Catherine Howell, Dave, Hallerin & the rest of the WNOX crew for doing this.

Knoxville Focus- an easy to read voters guide, with enough details and contact information for the candidates. Visually pleasing.

Political Knoxville - a website/blog that had one of the most in-depth questionnaires and a suggested "pledge" related to reform. A little hard to navigate, the font is too small, but the depth of coverage is unsurpassed.

'B' grades for the following:
Knoxville News Sentinel - short candidate profiles and a very nice voter's guide last Sunday, well laid out, voting locations, etc. I'm a little surprised they limited their video, editorial interview, and endorsements to 'contested' races. I kind of understand that, but if you can write 100+ articles on the Sunshine lawsuit, can't you put the slight additional effort required to inform people about ALL the candidates? I've had emails from people who still can't understand why my video isn't on the KNS site. It's confusing a number of voters. Also, it would be nice to find the Sunday voter's guide on the web site (say, a simple PDF file).

WBIR- gotta give them major points for having an extensive questionnaire, like Political Knoxville. I would have put them at the very top, but I have to ding them for only giving us one day to come in for 30-second videos for their program Tuesday night. Sorry, I was sick and lost my voice. No make-up date? Well, the questionnaires are better than 30-second videos anyway, so definitely read those.

WATE- Another good survey (I like the last question, and I'm surprised Logan was the only other 4-B person to fill out the survey) and a 2-minute video for their web site, but it took me a week to find them on the web site. There should be a link from their "Focus on Knox County" page. They're really a B+ actually, I shouldn't ding them that much for shortcomings in the web layout.

"C" Grades:
MetroPulse - I have a silly questionnaire of three questions, two of which are what kind of car I drive and what is my favorite city, other than Knoxville. Maybe I should just answer that I would be an oak tree?

Shopper News- no voters guides, but good coverage of the issues so far, so I wanted to mention them. It would be great if they did a little guide for the general election.