When do you ID an assailant’s ethnicity? Rod Dreher is calling PC BS on his own paper. Strong move, sir.
8 comments
He seems to be calling PC BS without first asking why it was omitted. I think it’s a fair gripe, but he’s either making an assumption about the editorial reasoning or not disclosing that information.
@ 1:33 pm on January 16, 2009
You might want to take a look at the comments to Rod’s post and update. The DMN’s story does indeed now say that the suspects are Hispanic. Which makes me think that Rod may have been looking at an early version of the story. This is a problem with online stuff that never cropped up in the dead-tree era. Which makes actual, like, reporting even more important. (Like maybe a call from Rod to someone one floor below his office asking if there were a reason for the omission…)
@ 2:37 pm on January 16, 2009
@ Jeffrey: Do you and Rod not like each other much?
@ 3:25 pm on January 16, 2009
Actually, Rod and I get along famously. Seriously. We even tag-team, with a couple of other folks, on the weekly Texas Faith feature. But friends don’t let friends drive drunk — or let their public errors besmirching the reputation of our operation run uncorrected.
@ 3:35 pm on January 16, 2009
I will be accepting pats on the back from now until close.
@ 3:54 pm on January 16, 2009
Jeffrey – I see from the latest update to Rod’s post that he concedes he should have “called downstairs” before posting his item. His apology was unnecessary and if I had to guess, was given for the sake of maintaining social peace at DMN HQ more than anything else. Why is it now the job of opinion page editors to provide corrections to metro reporters? Isn’t the “actual, like, reporting” the job of the reporter and his editor? And if Rod had made such a call, isn’t it likely that the newsroom would gripe about an opinion page guy interfering with the reporters?
@ 4:30 pm on January 16, 2009
Tim,
I honestly like the backhanded compliments of the DMN – actually, Rod, in this case – better than the straight up negatives posts. The responses are more interesting.
On a related topic, has your staff been given a quota of “DMN sucks” posts, or is this an unofficial declaration that they now a direct competitor?
I jest about the first choice. I’m seriously asking about the second.
@ 5:18 pm on January 16, 2009
Neal, its the job of everyone who considers him or herself a journalist to try and get the facts straight. Rod accused the DMN news department of being too PC to print a news detail. Had he done a bit of reporting, he could have found out that was not, in fact, the case. It’s the web reality: The first version of a story is often tweaked as time and more details allow. Broadcasters and wire reporters have long lived with that method of operation: Do the best you can as quickly as you can and then come back as soon as possible to make it better.
Many blogs have no particular standards, either of ethics or accuracy. One reason for a reader to visit the dallasnews site is that we do maintain such standards. None of us are perfect. I have a few corrections attached to my byline. But that doesn’t mean we don’t try to meet those standards. We do. Rod included.
@ 7:23 pm on January 16, 2009
FrontBurner® launched in March 2003, the first blog in Dallas run by a media organization. This is where the editors of D Magazine come to waste a tremendous amount of time.
8 comments
He seems to be calling PC BS without first asking why it was omitted. I think it’s a fair gripe, but he’s either making an assumption about the editorial reasoning or not disclosing that information.
You might want to take a look at the comments to Rod’s post and update. The DMN’s story does indeed now say that the suspects are Hispanic. Which makes me think that Rod may have been looking at an early version of the story. This is a problem with online stuff that never cropped up in the dead-tree era. Which makes actual, like, reporting even more important. (Like maybe a call from Rod to someone one floor below his office asking if there were a reason for the omission…)
@ Jeffrey: Do you and Rod not like each other much?
Actually, Rod and I get along famously. Seriously. We even tag-team, with a couple of other folks, on the weekly Texas Faith feature. But friends don’t let friends drive drunk — or let their public errors besmirching the reputation of our operation run uncorrected.
I will be accepting pats on the back from now until close.
Jeffrey – I see from the latest update to Rod’s post that he concedes he should have “called downstairs” before posting his item. His apology was unnecessary and if I had to guess, was given for the sake of maintaining social peace at DMN HQ more than anything else. Why is it now the job of opinion page editors to provide corrections to metro reporters? Isn’t the “actual, like, reporting” the job of the reporter and his editor? And if Rod had made such a call, isn’t it likely that the newsroom would gripe about an opinion page guy interfering with the reporters?
Tim,
I honestly like the backhanded compliments of the DMN – actually, Rod, in this case – better than the straight up negatives posts. The responses are more interesting.
On a related topic, has your staff been given a quota of “DMN sucks” posts, or is this an unofficial declaration that they now a direct competitor?
I jest about the first choice. I’m seriously asking about the second.
Neal, its the job of everyone who considers him or herself a journalist to try and get the facts straight. Rod accused the DMN news department of being too PC to print a news detail. Had he done a bit of reporting, he could have found out that was not, in fact, the case. It’s the web reality: The first version of a story is often tweaked as time and more details allow. Broadcasters and wire reporters have long lived with that method of operation: Do the best you can as quickly as you can and then come back as soon as possible to make it better.
Many blogs have no particular standards, either of ethics or accuracy. One reason for a reader to visit the dallasnews site is that we do maintain such standards. None of us are perfect. I have a few corrections attached to my byline. But that doesn’t mean we don’t try to meet those standards. We do. Rod included.