Lou Waters, one of the original anchors on CNN, is involved in a recall election for vice mayor of Oro Valley, a well-heeled suburb outside of Tucson. His term is set to expire in 2018.
As reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, three council members are the subject of the recall. If one doesn’t quit within five business days, the order for the recall election will come down within 15 days.
The reason for the recall?
It’s complicated.
But generally, the Town (as the pub calls it) bought the fancy Hilton El Conquistador Resort from a company that donated $15,000 to the mayor. The report says Waters and two other members of the city council upped the Town’s sales tax to make the purchase.
But there’s talk that the hotel isn’t ADA compliant — hence the recall effort.
Waters went to work for CNN in 1980. He left in 2001.
He’s still involved in journalism in some capacity. The Oro Valley government website has an impressive sounding but really poorly written bio on him. It says, “he serves and as an adviser to young journalists about the importance and seriousness of their work. He is a national and local public speaker on matters of media, consequences and rewards as our nation ages and about the impact of 24/7 television news.”
But it seems poor Lou isn’t so enthralled with the state of the journalism industry. According to his campaign website, he says it isn’t what it was.
“I’m a traditional journalist,” he writes in a first person introduction. “I pursued the career as a public service; get the facts, report them and let the chips fall. That tradition appears to be lost or gone. News now is a commodity. But I’m still a journalist. I listen, ask questions and poke through political smoke. I apply those skills and serve Oro Valley to preserve our present, and creatively plan our future with essential, effective and efficient policies.”
As much as Waters claims to be a big proponent of getting the facts, revealing basics on himself is another story. In a bio for the Arizona Daily Star, he refused to reveal his age. “Would not disclose,” reads the age line. A 2014 profile, however, in Tucson Local Media lists his age as 75.
In case you want to see what Waters looked like back in the day on CNN, see his mug below.
