Rant: Media outlets – get over it!

Ok, so it wasn’t my most brilliant of moments this past week when I mistakenly posted the wrong start time for the Polar Bear Plunge.

But, you know what, WANE-15 and especially the Journal Gazette and their Jaclyn Youhana?  If I had a dollar for every time you’ve posted an incorrect time, location or other information, I’d have quite a few millions.

Those of you with sensitive ears might wish to avoid this next sentence….

If you really want to get into a pissing contest over mistakes, fine.  We can do that!  I could build a blog centered around your mistakes that could keep an army of monkeys reading for years.  It would constantly be refreshed with plenty of new daily material and I’d never have to look far to find it either.  How many times have I had to turn people away at work because the Journal Gazette printed the wrong hours for our facility?  In fact, it just happened last week – on CHRISTMAS EVE!  How nice was that?  I’d wager this one mistake on my part pales in comparison to the plethora of mistakes you’ve made over the history of your paper or television station.

And one other thing guys – I corrected the post as soon as I realized my mistake – I didn’t delete it or try to hide the fact I had it wrong, or blame it on someone else – unlike yourselves.

And Jaclyn, don’t make nice to someone’s face and then slam them in the next day’s paper.

But, then again, I appreciate the link and the traffic driven to the site by the mention, so I guess I really do get the last laugh!

Added at 7:26 am from the Journal Gazette article:

Before the groups jumped in the water, they lined up a few yards back from the shore, clad primarily in bathing suits, swim trunks and flip-flops or old sneakers. They sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” with gusto. On the final line of the song, the noon plungers took off for the water, some sprinting, others jogging, some as if they were having second thoughts.

Really? They finished the anthem, counted down from 10 and then took off for the water. See how easy it is to make a mistake?

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5 COMMENTS

  1. The mainstream media is dying. By all accounts, editorial content, advertising, daily use by consumers….it’s all evaporating. While it’s easy to point to the internet as the culprit, and that is a factor, the greatest factor in the demise of the MSM is their long-standing, arrogant attitude towards their audience.
    They call us “the great unwashed”. We are perceived as unintelligent folks who rely on those “enlightened” and “intellect” people at the newspaper (the source of content for radio and TV in this, and most, markets)for information and direction into how to live our menial, hopeless, lives. The arrogance of intellectual superiority has continued to blossom, as their control of what you and I read, hear and see, continues to diminish. And that irritates them.
    So, rather than see the error of their ways, and refine and improve their content to hold, at least a modicum of balance devoid of bias, they simply send out little people (those you describe) to attack the content, and character, of those (like your, Stephen) who they perceive (rightly so) as a demon and a threat to their “intellectual monopoly”.
    Stephen, the day of content control by the Mainstream Media is over, and some folks can’t deal with reality.
    Thank you for your work.

  2. Um…where’s the “slam”? Maybe I read a different article than the one you are referring to. I could see nothing derisive in the mention of the posting error in Youhana’s article. She simply included a fact that was pertinent to the story. The personal and hostile attack on the journalist, based on the J-G article, is unmerited.

    • Um…why mention the website? The slam is the fact that I spoke with her for a few minutes, offered my side of the story, which was a simple mistake. I also mentioned to her that a correction had been posted as well. I don’t see any of that in the story, just the fact that this website – and she named the website – got it wrong. That’s the “slam”.

      As far as it being personal, tell me how it was personal. If you’re talking about the section I added at 7:26, then I refer you to your argument that I was simply setting the facts out in the correct order they happened, which was pertinent to the story. How that was personal or hostile is beyond me.

      And frankly, Frances, it was merited. You obviously don’t know the history between the JG and local blogs and the disdain the JG has for them.

  3. While I think you were a tiny bit strong, Stephen, I have to agree with you. If you spoke with her at the event and explained things to her, I think she should have at least mentioned that as well, or at the least, that you’d tried to correct the error.

    But, that is the problem with media today – they only deliver half the story or enough to embarrass or further their agenda.

    I think you were correct in going after it the way you did, even if I found it a bit strong.

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