A Duke City Fix (DCF) post on First Mate Sandra Richardson’s email detailing Captain Greg Payne’s role in Honey Bee Paulette De’Pascal’s campaign is generating a very animated comment discussion on the responsibility of MSM reporters.
Two of the Albuquerque Journal’s reporters, John Fleck and Dan McKay have been pulled into the discussions. Most notable is this comment by Mr. Fleck:
“Great story. Better if true.”
Corroboration is the difference between a wonderful tale (and a delightful blog item) and a defensible newspaper story – in this case, the difference between a bizarre email by a whack job and wrongdoing by a city official.
The problem is that Mr. Fleck’s excuse for the Journal not covering the story (i.e. Mrs. Richardson is a “whack job”) does not hold water. In fact, a quick Google search indicates that Mrs. Richardson is a very involved community member:
Albuquerque Tricentennial
Library Advisory Board
Participant in the Town Hall on Albuquerque’s Energy Future
Quality of Life Initiative – Campaign Member
And the list goes on. I’m not sure why the Journal continues to ignore this story, but some of the DCF’s readers have some great ideas about how the Journal might go about reporting it – if they were so inclined.