Pat Simon defends himself

We here at Ashvegas wanted to take time out to post this comment that Pat “Simple” Simon posted in response to our news round-up from Thursday. Pat, very politely, apparently took issue with some of our comments about his newscast. You can read Pat’s comments here, and see our initial comments on his annexation story if you scroll down just a bit.

So here’s Pat’s comments:

Earlier this month, I did a story about a potential plan for the City of Asheville to annex three areas including the area of Biltmore Lake. I spent a long period of time explaining the city’s position (including why the city pulled the plan from the agenda of one of its meetings), and that there would be many follow-up reports.

My latest story about an advertisement in your newspaper from the group STAT challenging Mayor Bellamy to a debate included an important, and possibly precedent setting court case from Union County which could directly impact future areas slated for annexation in Asheville (including Biltmore Lake). The Nolan case was upheld by the state Supreme Court January 27, 2006.

After numerous phone calls, the only city official that could speak from a legal standpoint on this matter called me back well after the story aired. He told me he finally got an email of my request and finally called back.

Also, Mr. Thompson (resident of Biltmore Lake) says once development is finished around his home, the city will try to annex his property as well.
But he says that issue is irrelevant since he is being pro-active by taking court action now.

If you would have watched our new My 40 newscast at 6:30, you would have also picked up on nunerous other details of this story.

I plan to do many follow-up reports on this important issue, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, please tell my friend John Boyle at the newspaper I said hello.

Pat Simon

Here’s our response:

Pat, we appreciate Mr. Thompson’s point about future annexation, but why not tell us up front that he’s not affected by the immediate issue which was the topic of your report?

Also, do you really expect us to turn the channel at 6:30 and watch you when we could be watching Charlie Gibson? Just give us the story – the full story – all in one piece. It’s the only fair thing to do.

Finally Pat, we’ll certainly stay tuned. We look forward to your informative follow-ups. We watch you every day. We appreciate the pressures you work under. We simply hope you strive to fully inform and educate your viewing audience.

By the way, John Boyle is a frequent reader of Ashvegas who has said on more than one occasion of us, “He’s an idot savant, without the savant part.” We’re sure he’ll see your mention.

Cheers!