Bill Due

It's time for an update to an old story, by Eric Celeste, published in the Dallas Observer on April 18, 2002. The article's subtitle: "Why did the DMN kill a story about political favoritism? Guess right and win!" The political favoritism in question involved Bill Hill's Dallas County District Attorney's office. The beneficiary of that alleged favoritism was Dallas philanthropist Bill Barrett. The suppressed story included a 3:30 AM call to 911 to report a case of domestic abuse between Mr Barrett and his socialite wife Angela. Embarrassingly, the husband was the caller and alleged victim. So, why would the DMN kill such a juicy story? Eric Celeste explains:

Bill Barrett has for the past four years made a $50,000 kickoff contribution to the annual Dallas Morning News Charities drive. He is scheduled to give another $50K for next year's drive as well. What's that? You think that, ethically speaking, financial contributions to the charitable arm of the newspaper shouldn't matter when considering whether the editors would run a story that could displease Mr. Barrett?
[Giggle]
You lose.

Why is it time for an update? Because Bill Barrett passed away recently. The Dallas Morning News wrote a very flattering obituary, which not only failed to mention the domestic abuse episode, but failed to mention that Mr Barrett had even been married to Angela Barrett.

That didn't escape the notice of Cindy Heinemann, Frisco, who wrote this letter to the DMN:

I am shocked this entire article was written without mentioning Mr. Barrett's loving and caring wife, Angela, who shared his philanthropy for more than 20 years. What shallow and small relatives would not mention the woman he chose to spend his senior years with after his first wife's passing? Angela may not have been liked, but Mr. Barrett loved her, and she should have at least been included in his obituary.

Which, in turn elicited this letter to the DMN from Mary Barrett-Spies, Longview, daughter of Bill Barrett:

My family was correct in the published obituary for my father, Bill Barrett, mentioning family first.
Special recognitions with friends are then listed. Since my father was not married and had not been for more than a year, the information was correct. There was no marriage of 20 years to the mentioned party.

"Mentioned party?" Does she mean Angela Barrett? So just why did the DMN kill that story about political favoritism all those years ago? And why does it continue to? And which editor let Cindy Heinemann's letter slip through to publication? Was it subversion or cluelessness? And just how many years was Bill Barrett married to "the mentioned party"? And how many years would it take to get your name itself mentioned in a man's obituary by Dallas' only daily newspaper? Like I said, it's time for an update to that old story.