Dear Somerville Journal

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Before posting a story giving credit where none is due, please check your sources.

While we appreciate the coverage and the sentiment behind your article on Veteran's Day,

The City Did Not Hold This Event. The Post itself did and paid for everything out of its own pocket.

I know that the commander of The Post made attempts to contact your offices yesterday to clear this up, but I also wanted to set the record straight.

Thank you very much.

::EDIT:: For those pointing out the quality of the article in question, my S/O just noted that..."A severely ADHD rabbit could have written it better"

IAWTS 100%.

Comments

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Never mind the quality of the article being somewhere in the sewer...I still want to know how it was that this alderman decided that the CITY hosted this event - and why it was that the reporter didn't follow up with The Post to find out whether or not that was a factual statement or get the post's take on the event?

[spatch]

Because that would've required, y'know, effort.

Sadly this is often par for the course when it comes to local newspapers -- the lack of real news, I mean. (I come from a small town which once reported in the police log that police had been called to investigate "a cat walking down Newell Street with a dog food can on its head." The entry laconically finished with "The cat was gone by the time police arrived.")

The lack of investigation, I'm thinking, is definitely exacerbated by the whole "online blog reporting" thing. You're totally right on the LJ entry analogy because it's true. The Veteran's Day story is completely being treated as a blog entry rather than a news story, and anyone can shoot their mouth off without corroboration on a blog. Old newspaper work ethic is being replaced by the super-koolness of online immediacy.

God, I hate that word. No, not corroboration. Blog.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Oh. Yeah. The E word. Forgot about that one.

You're right in your assessment.

Blog is a word I've always found to be clunky, vaguely froggish and rather icky sounding all around.

Maybe we should start writing for them.