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Originally posted by: bean
"The front front of the HA: 4/9/04 http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/news/stories/20040409/localnews/202796.html The crappy reporter award today has been passed from JBraswell to Kevin Walters!! I would just ask Walters to do one thing.  Please honestly inform the connections of the people you.  I guess the only Shelby supporters he could find were businessmen from the community. (ex: WTF does Gulfport City Council have to do with USM? Walter's coud have mentioned Hewes as one of Thames cronies.) Also, Tell the truth about Danny Mithchell.  The firm he works for is Godwin Group. As in Angeline Godwin Dvorak. I think the community would be interested in how all of these people are connected with Shelby Thames. When will we get a reporter who knows how to dig?"

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I have to defend this reporter.  I do take issue with the perpetuation of the "positive enrollment picture" misinformation, but if you look at the history of Mr. Walters' reporting, you will see that he is no FOS (friend of Shelby's).  He is the one who wrote the stories during the time of Thames' inauguration (in 2001) about Thames' original problems on the coast in 1981.  The problem remains that no one inside the university (for example, the admissions folks who run the numbers) will speak out against Thames.  They're too scared now.  So, yes, unfortunately, the only people who he can get quotes from are idiots like Billy Hewes.  I don't like it, but it's the truth.

If you know someone inside the administration who will set the record straight on these numbers, please let me know! (email above).