NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Republican Party today calls on the Memphis Flyer, a liberal “alternative weekly,” to apologize for perpetuating racial politics in Memphis. On Jan. 31 the Flyer published an altered and defamatory photograph of Republican state Rep. Stacey Campfield to run with a story on his legislation that would prevent the teaching of a curriculum advocating homosexual families and lifestyles to middle school children.

The picture shows the Republican lawmaker holding a bumper sticker, but the version published by the Flyer had been altered to change the words on that sticker. The original photo, from the Knoxville News Sentinel, shows Rep. Campfield standing behind Gov. Phil Bredesen at a long-ago campaign event holding a bumper sticker that read “Tax and Spend Bredesen.”

In the Flyer’s altered version of the photograph, created by a liberal blogger, the governor has been cropped out, and the words on the sticker changed to read “Confederate Values.” The newspaper did not indicate in its printed edition that the picture had been altered, and although on Monday the paper acknowledged online that it knew the photo had been altered, the Flyer has refused to apologize to Rep. Campfield.

The Flyer’s story was a legitimate though liberal-slanted discussion about legislation proposed by Rep. Campfield which would ban the teaching about homosexuality in elementary or middle schools in Tennessee. That legislation is aligned with the values of most Tennesseans, as evidenced by the landslide vote in 2004 to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Rather than run Rep. Campfield’s official legislative portrait, available on the Tennessee.gov website for all state senators and representatives, the Flyer, described in Wikipedia as an “alternative newspaper…liberal in its politics,” published a doctored photo designed to slander Rep. Campfield’s reputation.

Since it was published, the altered photograph has drawn severe criticism from Tennessee’s political bloggers from the left, center and right of the political spectrum.

“The propaganda published and condoned by the Memphis Flyer is not just liberal, it’s wrong, “said Robin Smith, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party and a member of Tennessee’s Human Rights Commission. “To distract from the legitimate issue is a hallmark characteristic of the liberal left, now called ‘progressives.’ But injecting race to distort true dialogue is absolutely indecent and beyond that which should be tolerated Tennessee politics.

“There’s nothing progressive about race-baiting,” Smith said.

The Tennessee Republican Party has held its fire since Thursday, January 31, hoping that the Memphis Flyer would step forward to apologize, but they have not done so. The Tennessee Republican Party calls on the Flyer to publish an apology to Rep. Campfield, and invites the Tennessee Democrat Party and the Democrat leadership in the legislature to join us in condemning this unacceptable incident of political race-baiting.

The Tennessee Republican Party extends an open hand to all in Shelby County, West Tennessee and our great state who want to address the problems of our state with sincere and honest debate and with partisanship with a purpose in contrast to the tired, renamed politics of old that see voters in a demographic, race column, an income bracket or gender.

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Bill Hobbs
Communications Director
Tennessee Republican Party
2424 21st Avenue, Suite 200
Nashville, Tennessee 37212
Phone: (615) 269-4260
Email: billhobbs@tngop.org