Ashley Taylor at the SN chickened out.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Remember this "reporter" from a few days ago? She bugged us for opinions about the Davis Sq Wheel. Well, obviously, we did not provide the kind of materials and objective evidence the Somerville News was looking for:  www.thesomervillenews.com/main.asp . Everybody loves the Wheel, apparently... Good job, Ashely Taylor, one day FOX News may hire you.

Comments

[ron_newman]

For reference: http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1870797.html

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Lame. And then they wonder why people are losing faith in journalism.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

They all seem like game show hosts to me.

[ifotismeni]

to be fair, for all we know, she included quotes from DS_LJ and other naysayers in her draft, but her editor said "bah, too heavy for a fluff piece" and cut them out.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

"to be fair"?? I think you're in the wrong community. ;)

James Norton again!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

:)

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

I guess she thought we'd be all in love with the thing. Gee, sorry to disappoint. Next time, why don't you tell us what we're supposed to respond with?

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

I think to be fair, the article is about the Object, and all of our comments were about the creepy guy. I think that's probably why DS's opinion got ignored, perhaps. and the article doesn't really seem to say anything about "a community"...

OTOH, he IS creepy.

Well well...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Many of us expressed opinion about the Wheel itself (OK, the thread veered toward talk about the guy; but the guy IS the Wheel, when you think about it). Since we are all Davis Sq people, I think our opinions are as representative as those of the folks who love the Wheel!

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

We did express opinions on the wheel, though. It seemed like most thought it was ugly and pretentious.

[smacaski.livejournal.com]

That's not entirely true. Looking over the responses, plenty of people complained about the aesthetics and one-answerer format of the piece, in addition to what a creep the creator is. ;)

Is it illegal to paint graffiti

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

On the Wheel? Just a thought for all the graffiti artists who risk being arrested for painting graffiti on public property around the city. Why not use the Wheel?

Re: Is it illegal to paint graffiti

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

more formally, it seems as though it might be fun to pose a "question" in the form of abstract visual imagery, and see what sort of answers you get.

Further, while he says "please don't answer the questions" that's awfully goddamned self-centered of him and I think anyone who feels as though they have good answers ought to be giving them. (if what qualifies him to give advice on a card is that he's the one who set up the wheel, I figure our ideas of what qualifies someone to give advice are pretty screwed up.)

[skexy.livejournal.com]

I noticed the ugly obtrusive thing yesterday for the first time; not having noted yesterday's post, on my way to the somerville theatre. Maybe they should just clear a spot for it in the MoBA...

Oh She totally was paying attention

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

She called it a Tedeschi instead of a 7-11, see, she WAS paying attention to us!

(yes, I'm entirely kidding around)

Re: Oh She totally was paying attention

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Holy smokes, you are right! This reporter does not check even the most basic facts, even when people correct her mistakes before she writes the piece. Who the hell is this Ashley Taylor? Not gonna make it into any good school of journalism, I bet...

Re: Oh She totally was paying attention

[thespian.livejournal.com]

on the other hand, she says that JonMon was founder of something called 'Triton'. Jon was actually the founder of Turbine (easily found when you search Google for 'Jon Monsarrat', it's the 7th hit, on Wikipedia), instead.

Her fact checking doesn't even rise to 'crappy'. And that SN published it when that is *easily* found (indeed, in a conversation at Diesel last night about him, every person there knew the Turbine connection) speaks...well. it pretty much says all that needs be said.

yes, I did chicken out

[crenshawseeds.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for answering my post asking what you thought of Wheel Questions.

After I posted to the DS LiveJournal, I told my assignment editor, Bobbie, what I had found out about John Monsarrat's dark side. She wanted to check back with Jamie Norton and see what he thought about using blogs for reporting and about including Monsarrat’s dark side in the story. Because Jamie didn't respond with an opinion before my deadline, I decided that the best thing to do was pretend I'd never posted to the blog and write the story as I did.

Bobbie had warned me that this technique might fail, since you are the people who read the Somerville News. She was wiser than me. That's why they call me an intern.


Worried about the response I might get if I included Monsarrat's dark side in the story, I tried to avoid doing so by centering the story around people's responses to the Wheel, not around Monsarrat. Unfortunately, I failed. I agree that your response to Monsarrat can't be separated from your response to the Wheel, so an article about how people view the Wheel should include how they view its creator.

For your information, journalists at the Globe (http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/07/24/wheel_questions_installation_offers_advice_and_inspiration/), the Somerville News before me , and the Phoenix also wrote stories about the wonderful Wheel without mentioning John Monsarrat's dark side. Their stories were about how Monsarrat turned his life around and started the Wheel, but they didn’t mention the Match-Up scheme of 2003 or Kink101. They chickened out, too, but less obviously than I did: they didn’t request the background information on-line, then ignore it.

Perhaps the Wheel helped Monsarrat to change since the Match-Up debacle several year's before the Wheel's founding. Or maybe not. But a better reporter would have posed the question to him.

Re: yes, I did chicken out

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Question to Monsarrat: "Did the Wheel change your life?"
Monsarrat's Answer: "Absolutely! Wanna have dinner with me to find out, -wink wink?"

Seriously, we are not mean bastards, mostly having fun while waiting for the Recovery. :-)

Re: yes, I did chicken out

[divasue.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Ashley, for the thoughtful response. You could have chosen to ignore this posting as well, but instead chose to respond, which in my mind boosts your integrity. (I was also disappointed when I read the story in the Globe, and noticed that they didn't mention the more troubling issues in his background.)

Re: yes, I did chicken out

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

I can't exactly give you credit for, well, ignoring the information you had in order to write the story you wanted. That's not journalism, it's fiction writing.

Re: yes, I did chicken out

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

So, you don't get the info you want, write the story you'd prefer to write, and your defense for writing fluff instead of the story you got was that 1) you didn't know the policy on using blogs before you started checking blogs and 2) that other papers have ALSO pussyfooted around Monsarrat's past, so it's okay for you to do it too? Weak.

Re: yes, I did chicken out

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I appreciate your dilemma, but you also ignored everything people said about not liking it for its own sake. Heck, I know what I thought of it when I first saw it at 123 Elm and that was well before I knew who'd created it.

Aside, I'm also curious when he threw in the H to make his name "John".

Perhaps the Wheel helped Monsarrat to change

[thelongtypeface.livejournal.com]

doubt it

FROM CRAIGSLIST (http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/mis/1292345262.html)

Your card: "Will anyone ever miss a connection with me?" - m4w (Somerville, MA)
Date: 2009-07-27, 7:58PM EDT
Reply To This Post

You left me an anonymous note on a card! It said you are a big fan of "missed connections" on Craigslist but had never gotten one.

Voila. You are my missed connection!! I hope you liked the art project.

Write me here or go to my website. You know the website because you know where you left the note! :)

* Location: Somerville, MA
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Re: Perhaps the Wheel helped Monsarrat to change

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Wha? Is this JonMon?

rebuttal

[crenshawseeds.livejournal.com]

With all due respect, it seems to me that you are discounting the opinions of people who like the Wheel in saying that my article is all fluff. Are their positive opinions less valid than your negative ones?

I argue that the information I presented - number of people who posted to the Wheel; quote from someone who thought the Wheel was “a good opinion”; quote from someone who thought it was good to “find out what’s on people’s minds,” wished the answers were funnier and liked that people had to physically write questions – is just as valid as your opinions.

People I did not quote posted to the Wheel saying how much they liked and appreciated it. Anonymous posters, like you, who had positive things to say.

I still agree that it was A MISTAKE not to include your opinions in my story. However, that does not mean that the story I wrote was completely fictional or fluffy.

If I follow-up on the story to show your view of the Wheel, I’ll need your help. Actually, I won’t need your help, since you’ve already given your opinions in response to my first inquiry. Thanks again! And sorry for ignoring you before.

Re: rebuttal

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

OK, mistakes were made. Now, let's fix them.