Here is the take from longtime, respected Knoxville journalist Walker Johnson on the much hyped Patterson slam down on Mayor Ragsdale. I read the blogs on Friday and viewed the Internet version and said what?

Patterson tried to be a BIG boy and attempted to get the County Mayor. Instead Patterson 1) didn’t do his homework, he should have read the d_____ report before the show and have the report handy if he were going to slam the County Mayor. 2) When the Mayor pushed Gene’o back, Gene’o immediately backed off by saying. “Uh. Uh. I didn’t say that.” So, the fact is Gene ain’t ready for prime time.

As for the Mayor he did what he needed to do, he defended himself. His defense was better than the host performance. The Mayor demonstrated that he was dealing with someone so ill prepared for the taping.

WATE management should re-evaluate the current host ability to handle this type of show. WATE management should be embarrassed to have had Gene promo this thing on the blogs and when everyone tunes in he (Gene’o) appears to be a babbling buffoon.

Compared to Gene Jack McElroy, Don Bosch, SRW and Robin Whilhoit had a National round table show compared to Gene’s basement teenager type show.