Free Press Lets Go Of Its Wang

By Kleinheider Posted on March 24, 2009 at 11:56 pm

Bad news in the Tennessee media world today as Post Politics has learned that workhorse Washington, DC correspondent Herman Wang has been let go today from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

A graduate of both Northwestern’s undergraduate environmental science program as well as the Medill School of Journalism, Wang covered county government in Jacksonville, North Carolina for the Daily News and city government for the Times Free Press before taking the assignment covering Tennessee and Georgia’s representatives in the nation’s capital.

Apart from his journalism, Wang is probably best known as the reporter who surreptitiously emailed Sen. Alexander’s then press secretary Lee Pitts while restrained in the middle of an apparent home invasion robbery prompting the Alexander aide to have police dispatched to his DC residence.

UPDATE: Joe Lance reports that four Free Pressers in total were given the sack. The paper’s tweeter says that an explanation is forthcoming.

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Tags: Chattanooga Free Press, Herman Wang, layoffs, Lee Pitts, media layoffs  

It’s Not The Decision Which Was So Much In Question As The Timing Of The Announcement

By Kleinheider Posted on March 8, 2009 at 5:58 pm

Rep. Lincoln Davis tells Herman Wang that his eschewing a race for governor had nothing to do with who the chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party was and everything to do with which committees he sits on in Congress:

“If I had stayed on Financial Services or Agriculture,” Rep. Davis said, referring to his previous committee assignments, “you would not have had an announcement that I am not running. You probably would have heard from me on March 31 that I am running for governor.”

Rep. Davis, who would have been the presumptive Democratic frontrunner in the 2010 gubernatorial race, said his decision not to run had nothing to do with his opposition to the election of Chip Forrester as Tennessee Democratic Party chairman, as some political observers have speculated.

Rep. Davis was among several prominent Tennessee Democrats, including Gov. Phil Bredesen, who declined to support Mr. Forrester’s bid to head the state party, preferring Charles Robert Bone, whom backers said had a stronger fundraising background.

Rep. Davis made his announcement that he would not be running for governor just days after Mr. Forrester’s selection in January.

But in an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Rep. Davis said the opportunity to serve on one of the most prominent congressional committees was too good to pass up.

PREVIOUSLY: The Chip Factor

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Tags: 2010 Governor's race, Chattanooga Free Press, Chip Forrester, Herman Wang, Lincoln Davis, TNDP  

How To Get Great Press Coverage For Your Boss For The Foreseeable Future By Lee Pitts

By Kleinheider Posted on April 18, 2008 at 6:21 am

Michael Silence points to a remarkable story out of Washington involving a Chattanooga Times-Free Press reporter and a Senate spokesperson:

The attacker tied Wang’s hands with an electric cord from a hairdryer and bound his legs with the cord from a curling iron. He gagged Wang by stuffing a sock in his mouth, tying another cord around his head and covering his head with a sweater.

Wang heard the man rummage through the house, downstairs and upstairs. Then he heard him call someone else on the phone. “I’m at the address. I’ve got the guy tied up,” Wang overheard.

The man came back upstairs and asked Wang which key would let him out the front door. “I tried to tell him as best I could with a sock in my mouth [that] it’s not on that key chain. He went out through the basement,” Wang said.

Before leaving, the man told Wang, “If you move, there’s going to be trouble. The guy will be here any minute.”

“I figured if they’re going to come back to settle some gambling debt, I better try to escape,” he said. Wang worked the cords off. Although the intruder had taken Wang’s phones and his laptop, he’d left behind Wang’s wife’s computer, which was buried under a bunch of papers.

Wang crawled to the master bedroom, hid behind the bed and tried to think of who might have a BlackBerry on hand. The obvious answer: a Hill staffer like Pitts.

“I was just robbed at home by two burglars,” reads the e-mail Wang got off. “Laptop, phones and wallet all taken. They missed my wife’s laptop. I dont’ [sic] know if they’re still around the house. Please call 911 and ask them to send police.”

“Calling now,” wrote Pitts at 4:16 p.m., a minute after Wang’s e-mail came in.

“Thanks, I am in upstairs bedroom,” Wang wrote at 4:18.

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Tags: Blackberry, Herman Wang, home invasion, Lamar Alexander, Lee Pitts