Inaccuracies in reporting a disservice to voters
March 20, 2009
Thursday's article on the candidates' forums held Wednesday night by the Wicomico Democratic and Republican clubs, which I attended, contains huge inaccuracies that need to be corrected.
First, there was no letter of endorsement for Jim Ireton from Debbie Campbell and Cynthia Polk. The letter is an endorsement of Ireton, Campbell and Polk from the Salisbury Career Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 4246.
Campbell, Polk and Ireton do have common views on tackling crime, fiscal responsibility and protecting neighborhoods. Campbell and Polk probably do support Ireton, but have made no public endorsements of anyone during this election.
Getting this wrong shows bad reporting and bad editing. It is easy to read and understand a letter. Calling a respected endorsement from the firefighters "side-line politics" is more of the same underhanded, divisive shadow cast during the elections the public has come to expect from The Times.
The article also quoted Ireton when actually it was Gary Comegys' words. Campbell's quote about financial issues looked like words were thrown in a bag, shaken up and dumped on the table. Campbell is articulate and knows the difference between a budget cut and a revenue generator.
I could list other examples from other articles. Simply put, The Daily Times has once again not reported accurately and shown bias in its reporting and editing. Readers deserve better.
Dot Truitt
Salisbury
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
6 comments:
The Daily Slimes messing up or mis-reporting??? Say it ain't so Joe. What a shocker!!
Their blatant bias for Comegys is sickening. I don't understand why they want him elected, but it is obvious that they do.
Great letter!
Thank you Mrs Truitt for that great letter.
But you know what? Unlike this blog, The Times printed this letter without rebuttal or resorting to calling the letter writer an idiot, which occurs far too often on this blog. Unlike the keeper of this blog, The Times doesn't have a problem when people disagree with them.
Yeah, I guess the Daily Times didn't print a rebuttal to Truitt's letter. How could they? Every word in it is factual...as in correct. I was at Wednesday's forum, and every point Truitt makes in the letter is 100% accurate. It's not even a matter of whose political camp one happens to be in; it's a matter of reporting the news accurately. Either a thing happened or it didn't. A candidate said this or that, or they didn't. Maybe the candidates' words would be more accurately reported by printing exact quotes instead of paraphrasing sometimes (you know, like at certain KEY points).
I guess it's just me, though. I thought good reporting meant delivering the news in an unbiased way. We can't seem to get that these days in the DT or even on the cable news channels. It's not about the truth, it's about political axes needing to be ground.
Please, you people in the media, just give us the facts and let us form our political alliances based on that. Of course, that means THE facts - not the facts as you wish to skew them.
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