Public Appeal to Michael A. Lindenberger, transportationologist, Dallas Morning News:
I called you yesterday seeking comment on a story you had in The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday saying that the North Texas Tollway Authority may have to ask Dallas taxpayers for more money for the Trinity River toll road. You said in the story that NTTA Chairman Paul Wageman revealed "last month" that the $84 million commitment from the 1998 bond issue might not be enough.
This is, of course, big news, since it makes a big fat pants-on-fire liar of the mayor, who swore he had looked the tollway authority people in the eyes and was "very comfortable" that they will pay everything above $84 million.
I am writing about this in my column for next week's newspaper. Unless dissuaded by the evidence, I intend to impugn your ethics as a journalist and possibly raise questions about your parentage for knowing about this before the election but not getting it into the paper until the day after the vote.
In the past I have been accused of failing to discover previously published Dallas Morning News stories because I did not search for them in sufficiently arcane depositories. Or is it suppositories? At any rate, please call the number I left you and tell me if I am in error in my impression that you retained this story and only expelled it after the election results were in.
And really, this is the time for us to pull together and just be friends, O.K.? --Jim Schutze
