Nashville Scene
Every Nashville Unseen post is a counterpoint to a piece in the Nashville Scene. This is the full index.
Judge the Tunnel on the Geology, Not on Who Owns It.
The Southern Environmental Law Center's sinkhole report asks fair questions. Answering them takes data and oversight, and the same standard should apply to the Loop, to AI, and to anything built by someone you dislike.
Responding to: "Report Notes Boring Company Construction Could Cause Sinkholes," Julianne Akers · City Limits
Politics · MidtermsThe Scene's Midterm Guide Deserves a Second Opinion
The Scene's series has solid reporting and loaded wording. Here is where the framing leans, and the conservative case on the issues on your ballot.
Responding to: "Who's Who in the Midterms," Nashville Scene · Cover Story series
Politics · ImmigrationICE Is Hiring Lawyers in Nashville. There Is a Strong Case for Supporting Them.
Removal cases require a process, and the government's side of that process requires lawyers. The Scene raises real controversies about enforcement. It does not show that recruiting attorneys is one of them.
Responding to: "ICE Trying to Build Its Attorney Team in Nashville," Eli Motycka · Pith in the Wind
Politics · Free SpeechKid Rock Doesn’t Need Permission to Speak His Mind. Neither Do You.
We are allowed to have convictions, criticize ideas, and say things that make other people uncomfortable. That freedom belongs to all of us.
Responding to: "Kid Rock Stokes Islamophobic Fears at Trump Rally in Clarksville," Matt Masters · Pith in the Wind
Politics · EconomyNashville Doesn't Have an ICE Problem. It Has a Cheap-Labor Problem.
The Scene's cover story is well reported and its numbers are real. But it asks the wrong question about what the housing economy was built on.
Responding to: "The Workers Nashville Needs Are Afraid to Show Up," Nashville Scene · Cover Story
Politics · Frame CritiqueThe Party That Got Fined $270,000 for Its Own Books Would Like to Protect Your Vote
Tennessee Democrats launched an integrity program and warned Republicans will "lie, cheat, and steal." Same party that misreported $3.6 million of its own money.
Responding to: "Tennessee Dems Tap Clay Capp to Lead Statewide Voter Protection Program," Matt Masters · Pith in the Wind
Politics · EducationWe Teach the Victims of Fascism Without Scare Quotes. Why Not the Victims of Communism?
The Scene calls teaching communism's victims "a solution looking for a problem." Around 100 million dead would disagree. The double standard is the story.
Responding to: "Changes Are Coming to the Way Communism Is Taught in Tennessee Schools," Julianne Akers · City Limits
Culture · Frame CritiqueDolly Parton Spent 50 Years Refusing to Be a Political Weapon. The Scene Made Her One in a Week.
Phillips found a rare moment of unity over Dolly, then turned it into proof conservatives are frauds. Dolly refused the Medal of Freedom three times to avoid exactly that.
Responding to: "Dolly Parton Was Political," Betsy Phillips · Pith in the Wind
Politics · Frame CritiqueThe Scene Found Three Versions of the Ten Commandments. It Missed the One Argument That Matters.
Phillips is right about the law. She used a technicality to dodge the real debate, and a principle the Scene abandons everywhere else.
Responding to: "Which Version of the Ten Commandments Do School Districts Intend to Display?" Betsy Phillips · Pith in the Wind
Essay · Frame CritiqueWhy Does Everyone Pretend AI Is a Left-Right Fight? Nashville Proves It Isn't.
Both parties' voters distrust AI and hate data centers. The war is manufactured at the top. And Metro just started deleting the prompt records.
Responding to: "Humans in the Loop," Alejandro Ramirez · Nashville Scene Cover Story
Essay · Frame CritiqueYou Don't Have to Defend Your Great-Great-Grandfather. The Scene's Own Historian Said So.
The Scene printed the case against inherited guilt in a cover story. It didn't notice the sentence cuts both ways.
Responding to: "Nashville's Historic Sites Reckon With Their History of Slavery," Nashville Scene · Cover Story
Politics · Frame CritiqueThe Scene Called Concern About Chinese Land "Racist." Then Quoted a Democrat Raising It.
The ad is cheap. But anti-CCP is not anti-Chinese, and the Scene's own column proves it knows the difference.
Responding to: "Marsha Blackburn Has Always Been This Racist," Alejandro Ramirez · Pith in the Wind
Metro · Property RightsThe Art of the Deal Comes to Grassmere Park
O'Connell reached for the one government power Trump has spent his career loving, in a blue rosette.
Source: "Mayor Files Legislation Seeking to Acquire Zoo-Area Property," Nashville Scene
Media · Frame CritiqueThe Scene Gave a Hackberry Tree More Charity Than It Gave Riley Gaines
Phillips extended curiosity to a weed and contempt to a person, in the same column.
Responding to: "Nothing Has Meaning to the Right-Wing Grifters," Betsy Phillips · Pith in the Wind
Metro · BudgetPhillips Wrote 1,000 Words on the TIRRC Fight Without Saying "TCA 7-68" Once
Sexton raised a statute. Phillips responded with where he sleeps. Neither answers what Metro Council has to.
Responding to: "Why Do Blackburn and Sexton Care So Much About Nashville's Business?", Betsy Phillips · Pith in the Wind
Metro · BudgetBefore Metro Votes $735K to TIRRC, It Owes Nashville an Answer on the Sanctuary-Cities Statute
The Scene framed Sexton and Blackburn as "blasting" the mayor's budget. They asked a real legal question Metro has not answered.
Responding to: "Blackburn and Sexton Blast Metro for TIRRC Funding," Nashville Scene · Pith in the Wind
Politics · RedistrictingThe Scene Built Four Cover Stories on a Legal Theory a Court Had Already Rejected
The "Seeing Red" package says the Memphis maps are racist, wrong, and "should not be enforced." A unanimous three-judge panel disagreed two days before it ran.
Responding to: "Seeing Red: Outnumbered State Democrats Fight Redistricting in Court," Nashville Scene Cover Package
Faith and PoliticsThe Cover Story Calls Traditional Christianity Fringe. In Tennessee, It's Still the Clear Majority.
The Nashville Scene's Cover Story profiles progressive clergy as Tennessee's moral voice on Christianity. Evangelicals are 45% of the state. Mainline Protestants are 12%. The framing pretends the majority is the deviation.
Responding to: "Progressive Clergy Find Purpose in Downtown Nashville," Nashville Scene Cover Story
Politics · Tennessee DemocratsThe Memphis Outrage Is Choreographed From Washington
The anger is real. The script around it is being written in DC. Motycka's piece accidentally tells you who's coordinating Tennessee Democrats' redistricting messaging.
Responding to: "Anatomy of a Gerrymander: Memphis Split in Three," Eli Motycka, Nashville Scene
Politics · RedistrictingTennessee Republicans Aren't Trump Loyalists. They're Just Winning.
Phillips' theory is that the special session proves the TN GOP is in Trump's pocket. The simpler theory: partisan opportunity, not religious devotion.
Responding to: "Opinion: The Tennessee GOP's Boundless Trump Loyalism," Betsy Phillips, Nashville Scene
Politics · Tennessee LegislatureWhat the Scene's Gavel Down Coverage Carefully Avoids
Six articles, one frame: Republicans bad. The actual 2026 session was more interesting than that, and the Scene's own reporting proves it.
Responding to: The Nashville Scene's six-part "Gavel Down" cover package on the 2026 General Assembly
PoliticsNashville Scene's Gerrymandering Panic Ignores One Inconvenient Truth
The left suddenly discovered partisan redistricting exists. But only after Tennessee Republicans started winning with it.
Responding to: "Opinion: GOP Gerrymandering at Any Cost," Betsy Phillips, Nashville Scene