A trio of newspapers that cover Missouri’s capital city and surrounding communities will now be run by a familiar and polarizing figure in state politics whose career has been marked by scandal.
Scott Faughn announced on Monday that his company was taking over the Jefferson City News-Tribune, Fulton Sun and California Democrat from Arkansas-based WEHCO Media Inc., which has owned the papers since 2008.
Faughn, whose company currently publishes an online compendium of press releases and opinion pieces called the Missouri Times, said in a press release that all three newspapers will continue to operate under their current names and locations. Employees, he said, will remain in their current positions.
“We are honored to carry forward the legacy of the News Tribune, Fulton Sun and California Democrat,” Faughn said. “Our goal is to maintain the high level of service readers expect while investing in the long-term success of these publications.”
Walter Hussman Jr., publisher and chairman of WEHCO Media, said at a press conference Monday that the papers have not been profitable since his company purchased them. He called community journalism a “public trust,” adding that he is hopeful that under local ownership the papers will thrive.
Faughn has been involved in politics since a young age. He became mayor of Poplar Bluff at the age of 22 in 2002.
He then led the Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce and was a catalyst behind a successful effort to widen a local highway. But he was convicted in 2007 of three felony counts for forging checks from an account related to that effort.
He started the Missouri Times in 2012 along with former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton, who is no longer involved with the company.
His first brush with controversy in state politics came in 2015, when it was revealed he was hosting parties for lawmakers in Jefferson City that were paid for by lobbyists. The arrangement nearly got the Missouri Times booted from the Capitol Press Association, as it was widely seen as a strategy to help lawmakers avoiding disclosure of lobbyist gifts.
In early 2018, Faughn paid $120,000 in cash in several installments to a St. Louis attorney who was representing the ex-husband of the woman who accused then-Gov. Eric Greitens of sexual assault.
Shortly after the first payment, St. Louis television station KMOV broadcast a recording provided by the ex-husband of his former wife detailing how Greitens allegedly tied her up, stripped off her clothes, photographed her naked without her consent and threatened to release the image if she told anyone about their affair.
The recording was made without the woman’s knowledge and publicized without her consent.
Faughn kept the payments secret for months while continuing to cover Greitens both in his newspaper and on his TV show. When the payments were eventually revealed during a court proceeding, Faughn fled the state to avoid a subpoena from Greitens’ lawyers.
When he was eventually called to testify before a Missouri House investigative committee, Faughn said under oath that the money was for the purchase of recordings of Greitens’ alleged victim talking about physical abuse for a book he was working on — even though other journalists got the recordings for free.
Lawmakers publicly questioned his explanation, especially after the attorney whom he paid testified that Faughn told him the money came from an unnamed wealthy Republican who did not like Greitens.
One Republican called Faughn’s testimony “mind boggling.” Lawyers representing Greitens at the time alleged Faugh’s connection was through the low-income housing tax credit industry. Greitens tried to eliminate the tax credit, while Faughn’s television show was sponsored by a bank heavily involved in the industry.
The Missouri Times was expelled from the press association over the Greitens revelations. Since then, questions about the editorial independence of Faughn’s news operations have continued to swirl.
Ironically, the Jefferson City News Tribune was one of the organizations that most loudly denounced Faughn after his involvement in the Greitens scandals were revealed.
“When a ‘journalist’ is more interested in being involved in a big news event than simply reporting on it,” the paper argued, “he no longer should be considered a journalist.”
Faughn’s history did not come up at Monday’s press conference.
Hussman urged readers and the business community to rally around Faughn, who he said shares his “commitment to customers, employees and the community.”
