Dr. Willie W. Herenton, the mayor of Memphis, is often referred to as “King Willie,” and not just because of the strong likelihood that after holding the office for an astonishing 16 years, he will be reelected in 2007 and will add another four years to his reign.

Memphians don’t use the term just because of Herenton’s nonchalance in the face of rampant crime and poverty rates, our status as the infant death capital of the world, some of the highest sales and property tax rates in the state and nation, failing schools, public works mismanagement on a massive scale, a growing number of elected officials under indictment for bribery and other criminal behavior, and a city that among similar metro areas consistently ranks last in terms of healthiness.

Herenton didn’t earn that moniker just because of his apparent penchant for cronyism, because of the way he seems to exploit the city’s racial divisions for personal gain, because he spends more time promoting boxing matches than he does actually managing the city, or because he claims to have been appointed mayor by God himself.

Our mayor isn’t “King Willie” just because of his special ability to jolt the city with audacious ideas such as consolidation (which could place the controls of both Memphis and Shelby County in the hands of one person — hmm, d’ya wonder who?), or the more recent one: “hey, guys, let’s build a new $100 million football stadium to replace the perfectly fine, and perfectly empty, one to which we just committed $15 million for upgrades!”

And “King Willie” did not receive this honor just because the city has prepared an elaborate, and well-deserved burial place for him, finding no better use for the Memphis Pyramid.

No, Willie is “King” because of the way he lords over the city like a mafia boss and keeps the public, and the media, at several arms’ length (keeping in mind, of course, that Herenton has the wingspan of an amateur boxing champion).

So it was with incredible irony (and my own personal delight), that Mayor Herenton would be invited to give the opening speech of the Media Reform Conference last weekend.

No single person I can imagine (with the possible exception of Vice President Cheney, perhaps) could be less suited to the task. Herenton has turned secrecy and media combativeness into its own sport.

It’s with my sincere pleasure that I bring you the remarks (see video starting around 4:39) of one John Nichols of the Nation magazine, who introduced Herenton thusly:

You know, in this country, it is not easy to be a mayor of a big city. The media does not cover big cities well. The media is not generous to mayors; if it was, if it was, the mayor of Memphis would be a serious contender, not merely for reelection, but for the presidency of the United States. Because big city mayors know how to handle big problems, and sometimes, despite the challenges they face from big media, they know how to succeed. Please welcome, the mayor of Memphis, Dr. Willie Herenton.

There was an audible gasp in the audience after that beautiful comment, and I certainly wasn’t the only one there from Memphis who, right then, considered making a break for the nearest exit.

Consider, for example, Richard Thompson of Mediaverse, a Democrat and journalist who has described the moment well:

“Clearly, the out-of-towners were clueless. They don’t know [Herenton] like we do. If they did, they would understand that he often demands a respect that he doesn’t always bestow. Nevertheless, they clapped blindly and that kind of thing disturbs me. No one questioned him.”

Thompson later added some context, describing the whole thing far better than I could. Excuse the long quote, but this is just priceless:

I’ve been on edge since Friday, the precise moment occurring when Free Press co-founder John Nichols said Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton could have had strong consideration to be President of the United States if not for the media attacking him all these years. No, he wasn’t laughing at all.

Granted, Nichols backtracked a little later, but the damage was done. His kotowing [sic] to a mayor with self-inflicted media scars is no different than the much levied accusations from reformers that Big Media tends to overlook the faults of POTUS and others in the power structure in order to advance their own agendas. And despite the Pepto of successful independent media models, acknowledgement of the erosion of diversity from newsrooms, the caution of media consolidation and more, I still felt uneasy by the star-gazing and double talk. The NCMR says its [sic] non-partisan but it isn’t.

This conference has been a pseudo-Democratic convention, complete with a party presidential hopeful dropping in for a “surprise” appearance. (Do you think I’m that gullible?) I’m a lifelong Democrat, but as a journalist I can step outside of that allegiance because at times it’s necessary for the sake of credibility.

Saturday’s spoof of Bush, while funny, really showed that “media reform” is really just a code word for Democrats to control their own message — one disguised as being for the people, but it’s really not and it can’t be as long as the media is supposed to exist separate of the political paradigm. Media reform, in my mind, is supposed to ensure that separation.

This conference was about elections, not newspapers and TV stations.

Read the whole thing.

As for Nichols, with that sycophantic, ignorant introduction, he inadvertently summed up the entire Media Reform conference before it even began. Instead of calling for serious reform, he opened with a plea for the local media to turn a blind eye to the Mayor’s failures, and to be “more generous” and less challenging — exactly the opposite of the intended plea for a media that is an untiring watchdog and public advocate. For his part, Herenton followed with a few of his standard jabs at his media critics, and little else.

Read part 3.