For years, the Lexington Times has raised alarms about Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Demetrus Liggins — and for years, our reporting was dismissed, mocked, or ignored.
In 2022, we obtained a report detailing troubling behavior tied to Liggins and his husband during their time in Texas, a matter serious enough to prompt an FBI investigation. The Herald-Leader wouldn’t touch it, according to our source. When the document was walked over to our newsroom, we published.
In October 2024, we reported on excessive spending on travel by the superintendent and board. Rather than engage with the facts, Liggins’ supporters took to social media to ridicule the source — us — and justify the expense.
“Who knows if it’s true,” they said, “it’s just the Lexington Times.”
Within months, however — once an important election had passed — the Herald-Leader ran the same story as though it were a fresh scoop.
This has become a pattern. Independent watchdogs break a story; the establishment yawns or scoffs; and only once the city’s elite decide they’ve had enough does the mainstream press suddenly “discover” the problem.
That’s exactly what happened this summer. When a tax increase was floated, the usual defenders dutifully fell in line. But when Commerce Lexington, UK, and Keeneland — the institutions that truly set the tone in this city — balked at the superintendent’s budget handling, the tide shifted. The Herald-Leader, which until then had been far more lapdog than watchdog, finally sharpened its pen, even publishing an editorial urging Liggins and the board to get their house in order or step aside.
We ask a simple question: would we even be here if Lexington’s major outlets had treated legitimate concerns with seriousness before the power brokers signaled it was safe?
The irony is bitter. Our outlet has been ridiculed by public officials, discounted by peers, and brushed aside as though facts lose weight when printed by an independent paper. Yet time and again, the facts hold up — and time and again, others launder them into the “respectable” conversation months later.
Lexington deserves a press corps that doesn’t wait for permission slips from business elites before questioning authority. We will keep doing our job regardless of who sneers. Because someone has to.
