Yesterday I was surprised to find that former Daily Times reporter (and current Worcester County Times editor) James Fisher decided to use an email exchange between himself and SbyNEWS publisher Joe Albero as a blog post. Bad form James.
Fisher didn’t commit a crime, but he certainly violated certain norms of civil behavior. I wonder how his boss, Greg Bassett, would feel if I wrote posts based on our private conversations or email correspondence? We’ll never know because I wouldn’t do it. It’s almost like recording phone calls and then playing the tape at a party.
Over on Delmarva Dealings I used to have a portion of our “About” section that clearly stated that we would never use e-mail correspondence in posts without the author’s permission. While working on a re-design I deleted that section, but this serves as a good reminder to go back and re-write that section.
I don’t have a quarrel with the facts of Fisher’s piece with the emails or his previous post dealing with Albero, the Daily Times and their respective coverage of gang activity in Salisbury. I do have a quarrel with Fisher’s selective memory of the issue as regards Salisbury’s former mayor and its current police chief.
While Fisher is arguing that his paper produced plenty of coverage regarding gangs, he does so out of context. Reporting on gang graffiti only started AFTER Albero made an issue out of it. One of the reasons that the Daily Times is nicknamed the Tilghman Times is because the paper never called then-mayor Barrie Tilghman or her lap dog police chief to task after they publicly stated that there were no gangs in Salisbury.
To be fair, Albero is wrong to make such sweeping statements of the Daily Times’s coverage. Personally, I chalk it up to Joe just being an enthusiastic guy. It seems that these two are primarily talking past each other.
For me, Albero’s greatest error was in stating, “… I am NOT a Journalist, I'm a Blogger.”. Albero practices a form of journalism. Whether you love him or hate him (Albero), Fisher is absolutely correct on that point. However, despite my respect for Fisher as a reporter, I am loathe to be lectured by anyone in the employ of the Peninsula Media Group (the Gannett division which publishes the Daily Times). As I have documented numerous times, there their coverage of Salisbury and Wicomico County government is biased beyond almost anything you will find in the so-called mainstream media. If Fisher wishes to teach a course in journalism, I humbly suggest that he start with a few of his own co-workers.
14 comments:
you aren't that high and mighty ablero
I saw that exchange, the replies are asinine also.
Just a guess, but I bet James Fisher (and maybe even Joe) is saying "Fish On"!
OK, I was going to stay quiet on this one but allow me to explain myself just a little bit in reference to both sides of this story.
I take nothing back, first of all. I said what I said and it is what it is.
However, Folks, I am just coming back to reality after three solid weeks of very little sleep and quite a bit of traveling each and almost every day to Annapolis and back. My days started on the road at 6:30 am and I returned home as early as 11:00 pm but usually later.
While making such trips, I also continued Posts late into the evening and early the next morning scheduling articles in order to keep things going daily.
When James sent me his first e-mail, I tried to explain to him that I just didn't have the time to read all of his links to the three, (or so) articles he sent over but I disagreed with him. The rest, (as you can read) is history. I've been exhausted for weeks and to top it off, even after I returned I've not slept well and I'll be the first to admit, I'm tired.
Was I short, yes. Could I have replied more professionally, absolutely. However, I also burdoned my close friend with weeks of moderating comments and I truly have been going at it like a mad man trying to post articles and also moderate comments at the same time.
What most of you also aren't aware of is, I also take my Father In Law to Deer's Head Hospital twice a week, which I absolutely adore the one on one time with him and I'd do so regardless of what's going on around me. I have been trying to attend meetings and in fact I was at an early morning breakfast meeting with the Salvation Army this morning at 7:30 am, only after making sure our Grandson made it to school at 7:00 am for a field trip to Baltimore.
I know, I'm rambling on and on but let me add one more thing. As you now know, my Aunt also passed away today, adding even more stress and confudion to our lives.
I mention all of the above NOT to complain or ask for pitty, not at all. I'm simply sharing the fact that I am NOT in the proper frame of mind to play games with e-mail messages or tit for tat with Hames Fisher.
One thing I want to express more than anything else is the fact that I did NOT think I was being interviewed by the Daily Times or James Fisher. I truly felt we were having/sharing some personal thoughts on an issue and maybe it's my fault that I responded when perhaps I shouldn't have.
Part 1
I am not ashamed of anything I said and I am not mad at James Fisher, I'm extremely disappointed. Will I ever share an e-mail exchange with him again, absolutely not. Should anyone ever do so, absolutely not. Not unless you know right here and now that everything you say can and will be used against you in a Daily Times Court Of Law.
Perhaps James and GA don't truly understand what I mean by my not being a journalist, allow me to expand on that as well.
I have never attended school to become a journalist. Everyone who has followed the Blogs for the past 4.5 years has always seen me state that I am a Blogger, not a journalist. Now if some want to call me a journalist, so be it. I understand where they are going but journalists are far better writers and I simply do not choose to defame their profession by trying to claim I am anything close to it. Now do you understand where I was going with my statement?
Am I Press, absolutely. Am I a true journalist, again, I don't think so.
I appreciate your article GA and perhaps when I find some rel time where my head is more clear I'll respond to James Fisher as well as this Post. Until then I'll simply hold my course and sa I am truly disappointed in the Daily Times.
Remember Folks, we don't sell papers at Salisbury News. We provide information you other wise don't get elsewhere and if you feel you are getting a pirece of it now, that's only because Salisbury News has put enough pressure on the MSM to do so. I'm proud to have been the one to make that happen and I'm glad we've changed the scope of news on the Eastern Shore.
Now I have to go because there's a bunch more comments that have popped up while I've been writing this and there's a ton of stuff I have to do to get Posts prepared for tomorrow morning.
Part II
Mr. Harrison
How to use there, their, and they're
1. Use there when referring to a place, whether concrete ("over there by the building") or more abstract ("it must be difficult to live there").
◦There is an antique store on Camden Avenue.
◦The science textbooks are over there on the floor.
◦There are many documents that are used in investigations
2.Use their to indicate possession. It is a possessive adjective and indicates that a particular noun belongs to them.
◦My friends have lost their tickets.
◦Their things were strewn about the office haphazardly.
3.Remember that they're is a contraction of the words they and are. It can never be used as a modifier, only as a subject (who or what does the action) and verb (the action itself).
◦Hurry up! They're closing the mall at 6 tonight!
◦I'm glad that they're so nice to new students here.
Sorry for the bad spelling as well but I think you can get my drift. I should add, we're already over 315 comments accepted for just today's articles and many more for some of yesterday's articles too. This doesn't count the large group we've rejected. It would be nice to have a Blog like back in the old days where we only had 250 visits per day and maybe 10 or 20 comments. It can wear a normal person out in no time. Just ask the part time moderator!
It's the ignorant comments that wear me out. Those debating everything Obama don't bother me, sometimes I enjoy the back and forth until it turns ignorant.
I hope that Joe and James get over this and move forward. If there is a shining star in Gannet's crappy Delmarva Empire, it's James. I enjoyed working with him for interviews, and after he left the unprofessionalism has caused me to stop seeking the publicity I could capture from the DT. In my heart, I hope that James will stick with it and come to take over the DT, replacing the current editor.
James Fisher is a doofus. Look at his picture on his blog. Dee de dee
Marriam-Webster
Main Entry: jour·nal·ist
Pronunciation: \-nə-list\
Function: noun
Date: 1693
1 a : a person engaged in journalism; especially : a writer or editor for a news medium b : a writer who aims at a mass audience
2 : a person who keeps a journal
Joe, it's you, by definition.
Anon 2043 -
I appreciate the nudge. You just didn't have to be so verbose. I understand the difference, I just tend to mix "there" and "their" up when writing quickly. It's been corrected.
9:21, I don't care whether Fisher and Joe get past this or not.
What this revealed is that Fisher will stoop to taking what's assumed to be a private exchange and make it public. G.A.'s comparison of it to making a secret tape recording is dead on.
No honor among thieves or Daily Times reporters and editors.
Yes James, using a private e-mail exchange was not kosher! I beleive you will feel the backlash of your indiscretion.
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