Two weeks ago today, Carlton Fletcher wrote an article in the Albany Herald with a quote from State Senator Freddie Sims that was critical of blogs/bloggers, and I responded.
Today, Fletcher responded to my response via his latest column, in which he states
Sound bites can certainly get your attention, but an edited three-second remark is not going to add a lot of depth to a news story. Neither is a dashed-off ‘blog’ based on what someone sitting at a computer terminal all day thinks or has heard. This is not professional jealousy; it’s statement of fact.
There are people who are going to rely on the sound bites, who are going to want to log on and share their opinions with fellow bloggers. But I’ll put my trust in a reporter who goes out and digs around in the muck a bit, who talks to more than the usual suspects to try and find the nuts and bolts of a story … and there are still a few such individuals left in this business.
I have nothing against computer folks and TV news people – Jeff Sexton does a good job with his SWGA Politics blog and Len Kiese and Ashley Knight are actually quite good TV reporters – but if part of your job description is ‘getting your makeup right,’ I’m not going to bank on the depth of your ‘reporting’.
Since he never responded to me privately, I’m not going to respond to him privately, and my response to these statements is below the fold.
First off, Mr. Fletcher, I’ve never worn makeup except for the one time I was in a play in high school.
Secondly, apparently my sources are evidently higher level than yours, since your paper failed to mention the level of detail that I did in my recent article on Winfred Dukes. I’m not going to out my sources other than to say that I have been approached by various people throughout the state that I doubt are even aware of your existence – and THEY approached ME. Can you say the same?
The one source that I will out, since I plan to write an article shortly about these conversations, is David Shafer. You may recognize him as the Chair of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee or even as a recent (though he has since dropped out) candidate for Lt Governor. I recognize him as a politician that I was harshly critical of who reached out to me to attempt to set the record straight.
Thirdly, Mr. Fletcher, is that I find it sad indeed that this blog is even necessary. If you reporters were doing your jobs and actually reporting on politics, rather than just mumbo-jumbo spit out by the campaigns and you taking them as fact, this blog wouldn’t exist. Have you detailed what nearly every single Senate bill seen this session was about? I have. Have you detailed the voting record of our local delegation on these bills? While it isn’t yet complete, I HAVE already done some reporting on it.
Furthermore, you seem to only report on your favored candidates in any given race. I report on them all. Your paper, to my knowledge, has yet to mention that John Monds – a SWGA man whose wife teaches at Albany State – is running for Governor. Heck, I haven’t even seen any coverage of SEVERAL recent Governor announcements, such as Nathan Deal or Eric Johnson. I’ve at least got the links to any websites they have here, and I will continue my ‘Candidate and Liberty’ series which will detail their views and how those views connect with Liberty as more information is available on each of those sites. You haven’t mentioned any down-ticket races other than Ken Hodges running for Attorney General, I’ve again at least got several of the websites linked here.
Sir, I think these wars between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media are pointless, I really do. Y’all are never going to be as fast and agile as I am, and I am never going to be able to sit around and interview people as easily as y’all can. I would LIKE for us to be able to help each other out, and indeed I have been known to help out both local TV news stations when I had something I thought they might be able to use. I’ve also worked with Kevin Hogencamp over at the Journal, and I’ve reached out several times to both yourself and JD Sumner at the Herald, with no response from either of you.
We have the same stated goals: get the best news coverage out to our fellow citizens as possible. The biggest difference is that I flat out admit to everyone that while I will try to be fair at all times, my articles are written in blog style format with a Libertarian slant. Y’all refuse to acknowledge the slant that is blatantly obvious to everyone but yourselves. You don’t use the first person to editorialize in your articles, but instead use the words and quotes you either include or exclude to do your editorializing within your articles for you.
The other difference is that, quite frankly, I have FAR MORE coverage than y’all.
Do our fellow citizens want as much information as possible to use to make their own decisions, or do they want to be herded like sheep to a conclusion of your own making?
I’ll leave that for them to decide.
H/T: Project Logic
What Mr. Fletcher fails to understand is that we don’t have deadlines. We type and publish immediately. That grants us an agility that print media will never have.
In addition, we are not limited in size like they are. There is only so many inches available in a print newspaper, and they compete with various stories. We aren’t limited.
Mr. Fletcher makes a comment about getting in the “muck”. Does that make him a muckraker? I certainly hope not, but I have no doubt the depth of our reporting is far better than his on many of the articles.
Basically, I think he doth protest to much.
[...] to Carlton Fletcher Written by Tom on May 11, 2009 – 2:43 pm Earlier today, Jeff made his response to Carlton Fletcher’s article where we sort of get “called out”. I made [...]