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

[kpht.livejournal.com]

Was that article written by an 8 year old? I had to read it twice to figure it out. What the hell was the part about people talking to each other? Did it even belong in the story?

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I think the idea was that there were some officials there, but no one really from the public, so it was politicians grandstanding in front of one another.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

That was the article, yes...and that line totally lost me too.

Isn't talking to each other usually what people do when they gather in one place for a common cause?

[kpht.livejournal.com]

LOL.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

But see, that would have been an incorrect statement too.

The Veterans' Day events happen every year and every year, a select number of local politicians deign to show up. The first time I attended, they grandstanded in front of me (as a newcomer) and not one another.

I think the concern voiced by Alderman Pero was that there wasn't a real showing by the general populace which, well, there never is.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

I should add that while there's never a substantial crowd of random people from the community at these events, they're always jammed with members and veterans of the post - not just politicians.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

this article makes the nondenomination baby diety cry.

"He evoked previous Veteran’s Days, in which ... the veterans interacted with citizens and civilians"

yes, those veteran's days of yore, when people could TALK TO ACTUAL VETERANS - a rare breed, seldom seen in the wild.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Well, everyone knows that veterans today are neither citizens nor are they civilians, no matter how long they've been out of the military.

And if they're still in...well...good luck hunting one.

To catch one in the wild may requre rigging a trap baited with a home cooked meal and a warm bath.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i hear beef jerky and those foil-wrapped tuna pockets work for bait in a pinch.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Only if the prey in question has been living on a steady diet of expired MRE's for at least a year.

To catch a truly evasive one, it may require a Hustler magazine and case of beer.

[spatch]

I've also been told that should you be waiting in the blinds, a Last Call works wonders to flush some of 'em out.

[spatch]

So basically Alderman Pero felt he wasn't grandstanding in front of enough people at the event and decided to continue in front of the newspaper reporter?

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Because it's important to point out that there were both citizens AND civilians there.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't going to read it until you said that. Now my brain hurts, and I'm wondering how long the Journal has been taking its writing lessons from the stereotypic Livejournal entry.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Oh no...that keeps them in hiding longer. Trust me. They hear that and stay put on the, "If they can't see me they can't accuse me of hearing last call" principle.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

I think that this is even worse than a typical LJ entry. I have to wonder if the "reporter" in question had 10 too many before transcribing his notes?

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Is it just me or does it appear that the journalist stopped writing long before the article was complete and said, "Good 'nuff."???

[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?

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It felt like half the article was just missing.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

LOL. And this was what was left after the editor picked out the legible parts. That would explain a lot.

[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.

[ron_newman]

I'm not very happy with the state of Somerville Journal reporting these days. The paper tells us that Share Group is leaving Davis Square, but not why. It says that the Winter Hill Star Market is closing, but not why. The article about Progressive Democrats of Somerville last week was inaccurate enough that one of our members is drafting a letter, which may be published next week.

Meanwhile, if you want to see the public turn out for a veteran-related event, the annual Memorial Day parade is a better bet.

[ron_newman]

This press release on the city website seems to say that the city held an event outside the VFW post on November 10; this was separate from the event that the post sponsored on November 11. Does that sound right to you, hellgirl13 ?

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

No, it doesn't. The post has an all day event on the 10th to celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday. This event, every year, is privately financed and funded by one particular member. Each of us gives money back to him personally (whatever we can afford), but he ends up spending anywhere from 3k - 5k out of his own pocket to have a cake cutting ceremony and a recognition of one or more Marines in the area.

My old landlords mother who is in her nineties usually cuts the cake. She was a Marine in WWII.

This event on the 10th lasts all day and well into the night and draws politicians, post members that you never see otherwise, families, friends and military men and women in town, on leave.

The city has nothing to do with the events on the 10th or the 11th at The Post, other than to show up, partake of food and drink and mingle and celebrate.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

What can we do about this? It's telling that someone without a major in Journalism or English can still make a better reporter/investigative reporter than those supposedly qualified to do so.

I don't like to see local newspapers go under, but with reporting like this, it's easy to see why they do.

I would like to see a huge change and help out in any way that I can with making local news a viable source of...well...local news!