After she took a development story last week that first appeared on Enclave without proper attribution and spun it promotionally, I left the following comment:
Ms. Overstreet: Your somewhat promotional piece of Steve Yokley's planned developments in the Feb. 28 edition failed to point out that much of what people are reading in the "neighborhood blog" was taken straight from e-mails that passed between Salemtown residents and Metro officials and at least one e-mail that Mr. Yokley sent directly to me. By quoting Mr. Yokley's comments about a "neighborhood blog," without presenting what was actually on the "neighborhood blog," your story makes it seem like that "neighborhood blog" simply fabricated information about Schoene Ansicht, which is in fact false. You also failed completely to source your article back to the "neighborhood blog," which is where you originally picked the story up as you intimate above. I hope that this is not the unbalanced, unsourced kind of neighborhood reporting that the Tennessean intends for the North End in the future.Indeed, if proper attribution and fact-checking set real journalists apart from "pajama journalists" as
bellows, then Ms. Overstreet seems more of a blogger than a journalist, but she does not even seem to maintain her blog. I did not receive a response to my comment and nobody besides spammers--whom she does not seem to feel the need to control--is reading it as far as I can tell.
I've been intending to post on this subject, too, Mike. As a Sylvan Park resident, I have to take issue with your argument that this is the poorest attempt at a blog.
ReplyDeleteI would argue for the "West End Word" by reporter Angela Patterson, who has posted once on January 15th (below). By comparison, Overstreet is prolific, which begs the question, is it better to blog and incorrectly attribute your sources or not to blog at all?
>Welcome to the West End Word
>by Angela Patterson
>
>Hello out there in the little >corner of the world that is West >End. Daily, I’ll be posting >information and interesting tidbits >of knowledge that are relevant to >you. But in order to make this >work, I need your input. Feel free >to comment on what I’m writing, let >me know what I’m missing, or alert >me to things happening in the area.
>
>Know that this blog also will cover >downtown and the Vanderbilt area, >so if you have any news bits for >those areas, let me know about >those as well. I look forward to >hearing from you.
I made an effort to invite her to come around, walk the neighborhood, come to meetings, etc..she said the right words, but the blog so far, is about 3/4ths short of half-hearted.
ReplyDeleteWhy bother?
Even worse, her piece on the drainage issue made it sound like there was one disgruntled anonomous (there's that word again) blogger who has a problem. Meanwhile the developers get name checked.
The Tennessean really needs to get serious about blogging if they want to be regarded as anything more than lightweight interlopers.