I'm beginning to wonder if anyone at the Flint Journal reads their own website. Tonight I looked in and found the following story tease:
Fenton City Council appoints Doran Kasper to fill vacancy left by Michael Moffitt
by Vera Hogan Community News
Friday August 01, 2008, 4:51 PM
FENTON, Michigan -- At a special meeting Thursday, the City Council voted 5-2 to appoint Doran Kasper, a Fenton eye doctor, to replace Councilman Michael Moffitt, who resigned last month to move out of state for his employer.
Councilwomen Cheryl King and Diane North cast the dissenting votes.
Dr. Doran Kasper
Continue reading "Fenton City Council appoints Doran Kasper to fill vacancy left by Michael Moffitt" »
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Then after finishing that, I scrolled to the next story and found this tease:
Fenton City Council appoints Doran Kasper to fill vacancy left by Michael Moffitt
by Vera Hogan Community News
Friday August 01, 2008, 4:51 PM
FENTON, Michigan -- At a special meeting Thursday, the City Council voted 5-2 to appoint Doran Kasper, a Fenton eye doctor, to replace Councilman Michael Moffitt, who resigned last month to move out of state for his employer.
Councilwomen Cheryl King and Diane North cast the dissenting votes.
Dr. Doran Kasper
Continue reading "Fenton City Council appoints Doran Kasper to fill vacancy left by Michael Moffitt" »
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See more in Community: Fenton, Fenton Township, Mlive, News, Politics
Realizing that I had already read that story, I moved to the next story and guess what?
Fenton City Council appoints Doran Kasper to fill vacancy left by Michael Moffitt
by Vera Hogan Community News
Friday August 01, 2008, 4:51 PM
FENTON, Michigan -- At a special meeting Thursday, the City Council voted 5-2 to appoint Doran Kasper, a Fenton eye doctor, to replace Councilman Michael Moffitt, who resigned last month to move out of state for his employer.
Councilwomen Cheryl King and Diane North cast the dissenting votes.
Dr. Doran Kasper
Continue reading "Fenton City Council appoints Doran Kasper to fill vacancy left by Michael Moffitt" »
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See more in Community: Fenton, Fenton Township, Mlive, News, Politics
Each of the stories included a photo of Doran Kasper and was identical in every respect including the posting time of 4:51 p.m.
Then I picked up my Friday home delivered edition and on page 2 there were 7 (count them seven) corrections. They ranged from the wrong comics (which they dutifully printed on the second page of the newspaper), a wrong location, the wrong information about a retired police chief, a missing election photo, an incorrect listing of a weight loss event, the tardy correction about a July 22 article that gave incorrect information about the enrollment date for Southwestern Academy and a wrong golf score.
Yeah that correction policy is really working. The top editor's main lieutenant keeps a listing of all the corrections in a monthly log in his computer queue. The list includes the date of the correction, whether an apology letter was written, the nature of the mistake and other pertinent information typed in by the editor.
Many reporters know how to easily access the listing and as far back as three years ago, many of us kept track of each other's errors by looking over the editor's shoulder. With seven errors on one day, that list for August 2008 is going to take a while to type and even longer to track all the apology letters and memos to the editors explaining how they happen.
Here's the link to tonight's page just in case you want to look in and see the triple posting yourself (warning these links don't often work past the day they are collected.)
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/ (If you read this a couple days late, you can try to access the archives by clicking on the date - in this case August 1, 2008, but finding that link may take more time that its worth).
P.S. I'm still working on the salary story and will post that in the near future. I have a few responses, but could use a few more. There's also a great story, if I can round it out, about a well qualified writing stringer who is trying to get paid for a couple stories he wrote for the 100th anniversary of GM. Apparently the Flint Journal bosses thought they were getting all the work for free.
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5 comments:
Glad to see the cream of the crop is taking care of business now that they've eliminated those pesky characters in the buyout purge. It's almost laughable the way johnny danger and tony baloney have decimated any traces of a once-proud newspaper. johnny continues to bully reporters, while tony digs his head deeper in the sand and prepares his long-winded staff meetings, singling out the few pets who have written stories he deems wonderful. no wonder the few good remaining reporters sicken each and every day they drag their asses into that depressing place, wanting only to spit out their 3 stories a day (don't forget your sunday ideas and fill out those budgets!)and try to leave within the 8-hour shift. pride in your work is a concept that has totally eluded jd and tb. and what's really sad is they kept their jobs. i guess the captain and first mate of the titanic are safe as they steer the ship into a sea of icebergs, oblivious of their own shortcomings. they were in charge when something could have been done to restore journalism, and they are now overseeing its demise while slapping each other on the back for a job well done. how can those idiots sleep at night. even in their ignorance, they must have a small clue that no one there has any respect for them.
Flintdawg:
Thanks for dropping by. A little less of the personal stuff next time OK? I know this is personal and I know it is emotional, but the name-calling is not so good. I edit the last line out of your comment because it is not in keeping with what I want this blog to be about.
Otherwise, please keep coming.
Jim
perhaps i became too emotional and unprofessional and will heed your advice in the future. feelings overflow watching your business crumble, which is not an excuse but a thought felt by many. i realize my posting was a rush of that spilling out without tempering it some and considering the feelings of those left behind. for that i apologize.
flintdawg:
No problem and I appreciate the apology. I just don't want the threads on this blog to resemble some of the mindless banter on MLive (read any thread involving a story about Mayor Williamson or interim police chief Richard Dicks.
That said, your reflections on the current state of reporters at the Flint Journal was spot on.
You are always welcome here.
Jim
When you combine relative inexperience with a toxic work culture, errors are bound to occur. The saying used to be: "If a paper can't get the small stuff right, how can it be trusted with the big stuff?" The problem now is, no one expects the Journal to do the big stuff anymore.
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