Venal Newspaper Tricks

UPDATE:
Actually, there is no update because the newspaper has yet to respond either to this blog or to the email sent to the newspaper's Corrections Editor.

Through a back channel we have learned that the writer of the original piece, C. T. Bowen or C. L. Bowen, or whatever his name might be, said he'll probably never see the email and besides what he wrote was perfectly OK. That's what happens when they let the inmates take over the asylum.

Now, on to much more important things like. say, the City Manager, Charter Study or even public civility.....stay tuned.
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When a newspaper decides you aren't one of the good guys, you automatically become one of the bad guys, and thus, subject to all the mean, venal and nasty tricks a newspaper can use to make you look like an ignorant peasant.

One of those tricks is to routinely identify you in an unflattering way, often ignoring the mitigating facts. Here's an example:

The mighty and self-congratulatory, whiter-than-the-driven-snow St. Petersburg Times didn't like fact that I wouldn't meet with their editorial writer when I ran for Zephyrhills City Council two years ago. I felt that was my choice, the newspaper apparently thought otherwise. Not unexpectedly, the paper trashed my campaign. I lost the election BY ONE VOTE, and that's a story in itself. In all fairness, the Times reported on the irony of a single vote loss against a powerful incumbent who usually bested her opponents by 2 to 1 margins.

Now, watch how things change. Today I was identifed in that newspaper as, "Rj Morgan, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2004"

See what happened?

Through the miracle of journalistic license I went from a one-vote loser to just a loser.

There's an old adage: "Never argue with a man who buys his ink by the barrel." But, it's equally true that there's nothing to be gained by sitting and suffering silently. That's why the following note is presently sitting in some editor's In Box.

Sirs:

I believe if you examine your own standards of
fairness you will agree that errors of omission are as
damaging as errors of commission.

In a Pasco edition editorial on Monday you wrote of
me, "Frequent City Hall critic Rj Morgan, who ran
unsuccessfully for City Council in 2004, shared
Reynolds' sentiments."

If you check your archives you will find that your
newspaper wrote several stories about my loss of that
election: stories which placed great emphasis on the
fact that I lost by one vote. The closeness of that
race was significant then and it is significant now.

If for no other reason than consistency I would
suggest that in the future you identify me as
"Frequent City Hall critic Rj Morgan, who ran
unsuccessfully for City Council in 2004, and who lost
by one vote, shared Reynolds' sentiments." It's just
six more words, but they are essential if you wish to
be fair and correct.

Sincerely,

Rj Morgan

Will anything come of this note?

Who knows? The paper could use it as a springboard to bring up every nasty, mean and evil thing they can find out about me. Or, it could do the right thing and admit that just because one expresses, forcefully, a differing opinion he's not the spawn of the devil. It's their choice.

Arjay