By Henry Walker

A new, warm, and fuzzy Vanderbilt University made its debut in time for homecoming Saturday on the front page of The Tennessean. Monique Fields, one of the paper’s many just-got-to-town-where’s-city-hall staffers, is The Tennessean’s latest higher education reporter. Two years ago, she wrote, Vanderbilt was “in a firestorm,” a “public relations nightmare,” caused, she said, by criticisms from faculty and alumni and a Sports Illustrated story in which Mayor Phil Bredesen compared the school to a “big gorilla.” She didn’t mention Ron Mercer.

But today, according to Saturday’s headline, the school has shed its “ ‘gorilla’ image” because Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt “took Bredesen’s criticism to heart” and worked to improve Vanderbilt’s public relations.

Of course, things were never really as bad as Fields makes it appear, nor did Wyatt’s year as head of the Chamber of Commerce turn him into a glad-handing media hound.

Vanderbilt has somewhat improved its public image. The reasons for the improved image aren’t complicated: a new athletic director, a new football coach, some soft-sell television commercials, and the appointment of a new public relations head, Vice Chancellor Mike Schoenfield.

Fields hardly mentions Schoenfield (his name appears once in a sidebar), although sources say the two worked closely on the story. Less than a year ago, Schoenfield replaced general counsel Jeff Carr as the school’s principal spokesman. Since then, the new vice chancellor has worked doggedly at feeding and cultivating the local media and has encouraged his staff to do the same. His efforts are starting to pay off.

Schoenfield’s most impressive accomplishment is that Fields’ story gives Wyatt all the credit for improving Vanderbilt’s image. Only insiders noticed the vice chancellor’s fingerprints.

But even Schoenfield couldn’t cover totally for Fields’ inexperience. After describing the high turnover recently among Vanderbilt administrators, Fields emphasized Wyatt’s own staying power. The Chancellor, she wrote, “now in his 15th year, hasn’t budged” and has “shown no inclination to retire” despite demands for his resignation from some faculty members.

In fact, Wyatt, 62, has been publicly speculating about retirement for more than a year and quietly telling friends he plans to leave Vanderbilt when he turns 65.

Woods walks

Jeff Woods, the Nashville Banner’s chief political writer and the city’s best Capitol Hill journalist, quit last week. He’s the third political reporter or editor to leave the paper in seven months, leaving a gaping hole in what once was the Banner’s strongest bureau.

Woods starts Monday as the editor of NewSource Healthcare, a daily newsletter for health care insiders. The first issue is scheduled for Nov. 10, according to Woods’ new boss, former Banner editor Shaun Carrigan.

Woods met Banner publisher Irby Simpkins for a farewell lunch last Thursday at Sunset Grill. According to other reporters, Woods told Simpkins in plain terms to stop using the paper to further the publisher’s personal political agenda.

Soon after Gov. Don Sundquist took office, Simpkins spiked a story by Woods accusing the governor of using a state plane for personal business. On other occasions, Simpkins had stories buried or rewritten to please the Sundquist administration, where Simpkins’ wife, Peaches, served as the governor’s deputy.

Last April, after frequent clashes over such incidents, Simpkins fired Ed Cromer, the paper’s highly respected political editor. Demoralized over Cromer’s firing, veteran Capitol Hill correspondent Andy Sher quit the paper a few months later. When Woods leaves next week, Alisa LaPolt, youngest of the original four-person team, will be the only one left.

Over lunch with Woods, Simpkins acknowledged that he sometimes made changes in political stories but wouldn’t call it “interference.” He didn’t seem to appreciate how his actions had undermined the newspaper’s credibility and the staff’s morale.

“I’m too closely identified with the newspaper for my supervision to be characterized as ‘interference,’ ” Simpkins told the Scene this week. “I’m responsible for this paper. It’s impossible to ‘interfere’ in what you’re responsible for.”

No one at the Banner is anxious to take Woods’ place under the publisher’s watch. There’s more job security on other beats. Sources expect the paper to hire someone from out of state.

One person is happy to see Woods go. After hearing the news, Sundquist and his press secretary, Beth Fortune, exchanged high-fives. There’s no higher compliment to a reporter.

10 o’clock blues

If Janet Reno needs help interpreting federal fund-raising statutes, WTVF-Channel 5 news anchor Amy Marsalis can help. “It’s illegal to solicit campaign donations in federal buildings,” Marsalis announced with confidence last Tuesday. She didn’t cite any source. So much for Gore’s “no controlling legal authority” defense.

But the station’s most embarrassing moment last week involved judgment, not politics. About midway in Wednesday’s 10 p.m. news, the station broadcast a gruesome, amateur videotape of a Michigan woman being shot by police after she refused to drop the pistol she was waving. Viewers watched as the victim was thrown backwards by the impact of several bullets hitting her at close range.

This story didn’t pretend to be news. The station never announced the woman’s name, the town where the shooting occurred, or even whether the victim lived or died.

This was nothing but shock video, a tabloid moment from a station that knows better but continues to disappoint.

Around town

It wasn’t a good week either for Tennessean Metro reporter Mark Ippolito.

Tuesday, he described the Trinity Lane/Interstate 65 area north of town as “conveniently located between downtown and Opryland.” Wednesday, he wrote that a Hermitage-area neighborhood was located across town in “western Davidson County.”

Every now and then, The Tennessean loads its newest staffers on a bus and gives them a tour of the city. Maps might be more useful.

Blurred vision

Under attack in some quarters for being too lenient on criminals, the Tennessee Supreme Court must have sighed in relief last week when their unanimous decision overturning a drunk-driving conviction was misreported as a victory for prosecutors.

According to the usually reliable Associated Press, the Court ruled that a “test that measures eye movements can be used to help convict people of drunken driving.” The story appeared in Tuesday’s Tennessean under the headline “Court approves eye test in DUI cases.”

In actuality, the Court did just the opposite, holding that the eye test is inadmissible unless conducted by a trained expert using precise measuring instruments. Based on the Court’s ruling, the test is no longer useful as a field sobriety check. Since the eye test in this case was the only evidence of the defendant’s intoxication, the Court overturned her DUI conviction. An AP spokesman said the wire service would run a follow-up story clarifying the original report.

To comment or complain about the media, leave a message for Henry at the Scene (615-244-7989, ext. 445), call him at his office, 615-252-2363, or send an e-mail to hwalker@bccb.com.

To comment or complain about the media, leave a message for Henry at the Scene (615-244-7989, ext. 445), call him at his office, 615-252-2363, or send an e-mail to hwalker@bccb.com.