I’m new to this whole land o’ the blog. So, y’all will have to forgive me if I commit a few blog faux pas or some spelling errors, as I am at a loss without my spell check.
This is a story about NPR. An affiliate from WCPN in Cleveland called me last week for an extensive interview about the blackout. (See, I work for a power industry magazine as an editor. So, they-for some strange reason-believe me to be an expert.)
Well, in the end, our WCPN reporter did not use an audio clip from our interview. Instead, she lifted a direct quote from our interview and passed it off as her final “capper” note for the article, which did, in fact, run the next day on “Morning Edition.”
Now, I realize that someone attempting objectivity isn’t as juicy as a sound bite from an angry senator or a lawyer already in line to file a lawsuit against any and all involved, but I had always thought that NPR-what I once considered one of the last bastions of truly independent journalism-to be above such tabloid posturing. But, that illusion went “poof” when our “objective” journalist at WCPN couldn’t manage to attribute her information to the correct source.
Now, as our e-mail system has pretty much been taken down by the “so big” virus-although our IT people will deny this to their dying day and insist the shut-downs and slow-downs are all related to our firewall keeping the virus OUT-I cannot attach my e-mail to said WCPN reporter. (Oh, yes, I did.) But, should this shit clear up sometime before Christmas, I will “blog” it in as soon as possible, along with her amusing “it wasn’t my fault” reply.
As a journalist, I’m so damn disappointed in us today.
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