A Question for the AJC
Decatur Metro | September 12, 2009 | 10:13 amHey AJC, nice article about the Allen Wilson demolition. Where’d you get the tip-off that it had begun?
Where’s your “How We Got the Story” so I can rest easy that it was your intrepid shoe leather that chased down this tale and not just a reporter trolling the internet looking to gather, but not give, tips?
I’m happy with the tone of the AJC article and the interviews it did. There are families in Decatur Housing Authority homes who are stable, hard-working, long-term residents, some two-parents, some multi-generational. Some of their kids are on the principal’s honor roll at RMS. My kids have loved playing in the common areas of some of the complexes. These folks are the equivalent of hard-working folks in rural Wyoming or Vermont, who have chosen or had chosen for them a less professional, more blue collar lifestyle. But because we are in a semi-urban area, it’s easy to have a mental picture of South Bronx “projects” when thinking about DHA housing. I don’t know any of the other subsidized housing, past or present, in metro Atlanta. But I know that the DHA community is not necessarily a bad place to live and certainly attendance at CSD schools is a real plus. These folks are part of Decatur as much as any of the rest of us and they belong here, not elsewhere. If we lose that community, we will lose some of what makes us Decatur.
Reply
Regardless of how they got the tip on the story, I think the AJC obviously did the work on this story, interviewing residents, Paul Pierce, etc. and wrote a good story. Sorry it wasn’t you, DM.
You’re right Tyler, it is a good article.
But Istill think there’s a valid point to make that if big media is going to use the blogs, they should give credit where credit is due, since that’s a key component of the unofficial rules of new media news.
Just like the newspapers don’t like us cutting and pasting whole articles, we don’t like it when we don’t get credit. I currently don’t have the time or resources to write the article written by the AJC, but I have a much better pulse on the community than they do. That’s MY value. When they use it without giving credit, it hurts.
DM:
The phenomenon of major or more traditional media outlets blatantly ripping off news stories first posted in blogs is becoming more and more rampant. I’m seeing it pretty much on a consistent basis in the realms of “entertainment” and sports reporting.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
JB
It is a good article. I like its emphasis on some of the positive benefits of public housing. Congratulations are due to Paul P. and the Housing Authority Board for their excellent management of public resources and positive contributions to our community life. And congrats to DM for breaking the story.