If I knowed ye was a’comin I’d a taken you to the Cork & Keg in fayetteville. …
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Mmmmmmmmmm, Quite I’m I’m thinking.
That was my take also.
I caught part of the Sheriff’s press conference this morning before work and he did say he had urged a bill that allowed him to only maintain records like this for 5 years, so he said some may have been destroyed.
Note: I don’t know if ‘urged’ is the correct word to use but he made it sound like he had some influence and wanted this legislation.
This whole tragic incident just smells.
Edited to finish my “Note”. This comment system has been flaking out on me all day.
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Listen? Hear that? Hooves! Must be zebras!
It sounds like great reporting expedited both of them getting new jobs. I don’t understand the attempt to spin this as anything else???
That’s how I’m reading it too.
You don’t know her circumstances.
Neither do I. I DO know that lots of people between 20 and 45 or so would move if they could but post-divorce child access rules keeps them in place for a while. I’m not saying that’s the story here; I have no idea. Also, lots of people live where they do because of extended family, or because they like it, even if the political environment is repressive, maybe even BECAUSE of that. I myself have chosen to live for a time is a pretty unforgiving cultural backwater due to the nature of the work and the people I’d be doing it with.
Also, with respect, Pulitzers are not always or necessarily what they’re thought to be. It’s actually quite a lot more likely that a reporting team that goes against the local political ethos in providing in-depth serial reporting on a matter of local concern will attract a Pulitizer than will some big time big city big name glamorous reporters.
Go into the Pulitzer site and you’ll see what I mean.
I wonder what the reporters and paper were threatened with.
It’s most likely these two reporters got tired of working for a permanently frozen salary, which is the rule at BH Media. The facts that:
- they’d been courted for months by a local news startup; and
- they can now hang Pulitzer finalist on their resumes; and
- they nailed a HOT story last week suggests this:
The local startup sweetened the offer to the point where they couldn’t say no.
It’s really easy picking off BH employees, because the company has a no-raise policy, and that applies to COLAs, too.
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They were planning to leave for some time before this story to go work on the new site developed by the previous long-time owner of the World. Last Friday, current management learned they were planning to go and told them to decide by Monday if they were staying or not, and if not, to leave now. The World (which has done a lot of very good investigative reporting) lost 4 reporters on Monday. The timing of the Bates story and their departure really is a coincidence. http://jimromenesko.com/2015/04/20/tulsa-world-loses-four-journalists-to-former-world-publishers-soon-to-launch-news-site/.
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Yeah, this looks like a nothing to see here story - except for the part about work conditions and pay at a local newspaper are so bad that a couple of top people would rather take a chance on an Internet startup. Local news website? They’d better make sure they cash their paychecks as soon as the ink dries, and not accept stock as a form of compensation.
What does a local news website reporter say to his friends? “Hey, you want whipped cream on that?”
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