Does Local Texas News Play Favorites & Refuse to Report Story?

     In regard to a NowPublic story about alleged physical abuse, forced wage-cuts, non-payment of overtime wages, discrimination, retaliation, and more, supposedly done against a Texas man while formerly employed by a large YMCA, rumor would have it that there also appears to be a cover-up by at least one local newspaper in that area.  The Tomball Magnolia Tribune seems to have squashed the story over the months that it has known about it, even though a Federal Civil Suit against that YMCA has evidently been filed by the man.  In the local area, it has been rumored that the Tribune editor, Brian Walzel, reportedly (upon being informed of the story) spoke with the man involved and then refused to take any further action, asking the man to let him know if he had any evidence that an actual complaint had been filed with the state labor board.  The man, a Mr. Noack, reportedly later verified to Mr. Walzel the existence of such a claim and then was allegedly asked for yet further proof of an investigation, which was also provided.  According to an unnamed source, this sort of conduct happened multiple times with no reporting of the story by the Tomball Tribune.

       That story seems very relevant to area citizens as it involves both a large local employer, one of the largest YMCAs in the nation and a large, local, historically-black university -- or at least students of that university, Prairie View A&M, located at Prairie View, TX.   Mr. Noack, while a Cypress Creek YMCA employee in the nearby outskirts of the Houston metropolitan area, had supervised several state-licensed, YMCA afterschool childcare programs located in area elementary schools, including sites in Waller, Hockley, Cypress, Tomball itself, and unincorporated areas of Waller and Harris Counties.  He had reportedly been hiring quite a number of black college students majoring in areas related to his work, but allegedly was ordered to put a limit on doing so for some reason.  Mr. Noack also had reportedly worked for awhile at a YMCA near Magnolia, TX, another nearby community as well.  Perhaps area residents would like to know what the local news actually is and not have to find out via the rumor mill!  Mr. Noack, it turns out, has been no mystery to the Houston Chronicle, either, as they have included photos of him in stories about YMCA work multiple times over the years.  I wonder if they, too are failing to inform the public or if they somehow don't know about all of this.  Of course, they must surely have people who scour the Federal District Court filings scouting for hot stories.  Perhaps what seems important to the average person is of no importance to them.  Can they really be that out-of-touch?  Or, could the YMCA there simply be too powerful?  Maybe a fear of riots looms in their minds, should the black community find out about these things. With such clear relevance to that entire region, apparently, it is with much surprise that any local paper there would not report on such news; but,...maybe not.

       Perhaps it is as the saying goes, "Follow the money."  As one local area resident pointed out, the Tomball Tribune has continued running advertisements for the same YMCA in their newspaper and has also published one or more wonderful stories depicting Cypress Creek YMCA in a very favorable light.  Maybe the Tribune is simply one of those papers that like to only report nice, upbeat news.  If only that were true.  Well, maybe they like trivial news, like reporting on a mouse in someone's house.  At any rate, knowing that large organizations often have quite influential people on the board of directors and that powerful, influential people can hardly resist the urge to "throw their weight around" to get what they want, I am inclined to imagine that that extraordinary "weight" has been tossed right down on top of the story to utterly squash it, if at all possible.  Still, there is a wisp of smoke here and there, and people are apt to also say, "Where there's smoke, there's fire!"   In that case, I wouldn't want to sit on it too long, you know, because when the story comes out, people are going to wonder...why nobody said a word. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update, 8/29/09 -- Another surprising revelation regarding the above article.  It has been found that the editor of another paper in the area where these events have transpired is actually on the board of directors of one of the YMCA branches where the man formerly worked, very near to the YMCA in which the incidents in dispute reportedly took place.  Apparently, that paper, the Potpourri, seems to also have so far declined to report about these matters, although they do seem to be aware of them.  I now wonder who the various YMCA boards of directors' members include in the Houston metro area and whether they have been chosen precisely for the reason of politics and power in the community.   C'mon people, a newspaper editor on a YMCA's board of directors?  Are there more?   This seems too shrewd and foresighted to be coincidental, especially when such a paper declines to print such a related, newsworthy, interesting story to its readership.