Matthew Fogle
Saturday, April 15, 2017

There have been a number of times in my 19-year broadcasting career that deadlines have stared me in the face with a nasty smirk, as if to say “You won’t make it, Matthew.” Thursday was one of those days, as our community was on edge for news it had anticipated for a while. After two days of a hearing at the courthouse to possibly remove the mayor from office, the City Council went into deliberation … too close to my deadline. Too close to everyone’s deadlines. Five TV stations, the newspaper, and an online gazette were all sitting in close proximity.

As my deadline stared me in the face, the information compacted into my brain had overloaded. Two years of city government conflict (as I heard it from both the mayor and his critics), three months of an investigation, 44 pages of an investigative report, a boatload of investigative exhibits, a two-day hearing with nine witnesses — and the council went into deliberation. I knew right offhand that I had to have three versions of a news report ready to record within the hour. One with the council still out, one with the mayor ousted, and one with the mayor not ousted.

The brain fog set in as I was in the middle of a sea of laptop keyboards typing all around me and various chatter in the courtroom. “What are they writing? What are their angles?” I wondered as I listened to the keyboards.

But then I remembered one thing — that God is good.

I paused, prayed, and thanked God for the opportunity and responsibility to deliver perhaps the biggest news story of the year to the TV doorstep of the local community. I prayed that God would make all of the media outlets in the room successful in our endeavors to provide the truth. And I prayed for the mayor and the city, regardless of the impending vote.

Then, God’s grace was delivered, as I began to type, type, type, think, cut, paste. What? What? Type, cut, paste, all while downloading multiple videos onto my laptop, bugging the daylights out of Forrest Berkshire, asking for my 359th favor from Randy Patrick, asking for mercy from PLG-TV Production Manager John White, and talking possible outcomes with a Louisville news reporter. My stories were complete, but the city council was still out.

I drove back to the studio (half erratically) and in short, I made my deadline at the last minute with one version, and updated it with another soon after.

I know, that part of my story was anti-climactic. But that’s not my climax, so stay tuned (pun intended).

We all know the news and what happened with the vote.

Despite all the harsh criticisms, hallelujahs and funny jokes made toward the mayor in the past few days, get this one thing straight: This is not good news morally. Even if it is justice served, a man lost his job — deservedly or not. A city is paying the bill. The character of the most beautiful small town in America gets another puncture wound. And we still are not one with each other.

But you know what?

God is still good — way beyond a reporter’s story.

God is good in so many ways the reconciliation of a city can be made with gentleness, and forgiveness abounds despite outcomes and allegations and appeals and what have you.

There is always another reality among us, and that is the reality of the spirit of Christ working through our failures to display the grace of God as we come together as one and unite for our future.

We have faith in this, Bardstown.

There is nothing you have to write down. There is no set of guidelines and no moral action of this story, other than this one thing: To love your neighbor as yourself.

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