Spotlight on a lousy job of reporting

The most ready trap for those who report the news is for them to become friends and cronies with people they are supposed to be observing.

I once knew a city beat reporter who stood during a council meeting to express his views on the business at hand. Such amateurish behavior was swiftly rewarded by a change in his assignment.

I was reminded of this when I wrote 7/10/07 about slicing the bamboozle money pie. It concerned, in part, the Advocate report on the intention of the city Personnel Committee to give employee raises but failing to do so. The report did not give the reason for this, though it may have been the most important thing about the meeting.

Whether from cronyism, oversight, or over-zealous editing, the result is the same: a lousy job of reporting.