Playing by the Rules

I consider Walker Johnson a friend, but his column last week in the Halls News was, in my opinion, way off the mark. It had to do with my blog a few weeks ago regarding how I felt a WATE reporter had been treated unfairly by the Sheriff's office's public information officer.

In his column, he takes us to task for "not playing by the rules" and "moaning" about how we were treated. Below is my response to Walker's column.

Walker, about the only thing I agree with you concerning this week's column about the debate with Martha Dooley on my blog is the fact that, it is indeed hard to find.

I know that you and Martha are close friends so I assume you were simply defending her honor.

A few examples of disagreement:

" If you are a news reporter you best play nice with your sources or they can dry up on you faster than a lawyer's smile."

Martha's not a source, she's the sheriff's public information officer. It's her job to work with us. We don't have to like each other, but it does help if there's at least a sense of mutual respect. The incident I wrote about on my blog was really about respect or lack of it. Our reporter was totally disrespected by the Sheriff's office and I felt it required attention.

"They, on the other hand, are just doing their job and if they are gracious enough to give you their rules, it is up to you to play by them."

We do play by the rules. We work very hard to make sure our stories are accurate and relevent. sometimes we step on toes along the way, but we never violate our ethical boundaries. From the tone of your column, reporters are just lap dogs who should be happy when they're occassionally thrown a bone. Give me a break.

All we ask is that PIO's do their jobs in a timely and fair manner, not hand out information and interviews as if they were some reward for good behavior. We prefer to work "with" people, but we're not above working independently We need information on a timely basis..

As for your assertion that we violated some rule? What rule did we violate? Martha discouraged us from talking to Officer Johnson. That's not a rule, that was her opinion, and that's not her decision to make. It's the officers opinion that counts.

Our reporter visited his home and he and his family graciously invited us into their home. They even videotaped us inrterviewing the officer. They were very happy to see us. If they had asked us to leave, we would've left.

So who's moaning.. certainly not me. I simply called someone out who deserved it for the shabby treatment she gave one of our reporters.. I would think you'd do the same thing in my position.

And the next time you trash something I've written, at least have the decency to call me and get my side of it. You and I have always gotten along and I'm frankly surprised that you would rip me without at least giving me a chance to respond.

Walker, that's not playing by the rules....