Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, addressed personal attacks from NewsChannel 5’s chief investigative reporter Phil Williams over the weekend, saying such attacks are “absolute silliness” and a common tactic used by Williams when pressed on his “journalistic failings.”

On Sunday, Pappert reported on an interview between Williams and Dan Mandis, host of Nashville’s Morning News with Dan Mandis on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, where Williams said that he once asked Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) to respond to claims made by his former close colleague Jeneisha Harris on June 18, 2020 that the state lawmaker had covered up the sexual assault of two protesters by a homeless man.