An unnamed Fort Wayne morning newspaper?
Posted by John B. Kalb - 11/13/09 @ 7:28 pm - Filed Under Uncategorized
Want to share my recent experiences with the subject:
On October 31, 2009 a “letter to the editor” was sent by email to both of the Fort Wayne newspapers. The subject was the non-use of local contractors on the unnecessary new downtown hotel. (You can read this letter - it was published by the News-Sentinel on Tuesday, November 10)
After sending the email, one week went past with no contact with anyone at the morning paper. So on the morning of November 5, Stacey Stumpf was contacted by telephone asking why it had not yet appeared. Her answer really floored me- she said that the letter was full of “number errors” and would not be published unless they were corrected. Of course, she was asked for examples and she indicated that the writer had listed that White Lodging had bought the land for the hotel for $1.00. She said that according to the newspaper’s archives she found that White actually paid the city $17 and some cents for the land. After stopping my laughter on this item she was asked for another example. Stacey said that the city paid $3.5 million “for all the Harrison Square land and the land for the hotel was just a portion of that” I told her that was in error and she was asked just where in the archives that info was found. She hemed and hawed and we discontinued the conversation with me saying I would be stopping to see her that afternoon.
I asked for Stacey when I arrived at !PM. She came down to the lobby and we talked about our earlier discussion. She then told me that she had called Greg Leatherman after she had received my letter and that he was the source for the $17 plus change and the statement about the cost of the land. I took out of my file that I had brought along a copy of our morning paper that told that Leatherman had stated at a recent City Council meeting, ” six commercial and 26 residential properties were aquired by the Redevelopment Commission for Harrison Square at a total cost of $11,923,389 of which $2.4 million was for the Bill’s Palace and $2 million was the eminent-domain price paid for the Belmont Liquor Store.
Stacey then went on to inform me that Leatherman had told her that 18 local contractors had received written contracts from the general contractor. She was asked if the local Associated Builders and Contractor’s Association had been asked about these numbers. No answer - I had contacted them and they reported that only one of their generals had even been asked to bid on any part of the job!
Stacey then repeated the statement that”only if these so-called number errors were corrected to her satisfaction” would the morning paper even consider printing my letter.
Two emails between editor Tracy Warner and myself resulted in a repeat of the above statement, even when corrections to the “silly” $17 vs $1 plus other clarifying statements was summitted.
Is our morning newspaper “in the pocket” of our city administation or not? Sure sounds like it is!
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5 Responses to “An unnamed Fort Wayne morning newspaper?”
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There’s no doubt they’re in the pocket of FWCS but they haven’t been kind to the mayor recently. I don’t know what to make of it. They’ve actually printed every letter I’ve sent them, although it’s taken some as long as three weeeks to show up and a couple of them were hard to recognize as something I wrote.
John,
The glaring misnomer in your post title is referring to the morning paper as news. They have shown repeatedly that they allow their opinion to over-ride the basic facts.
John:
Thanks for the expose’ on the JG. Next time though, it would help us lazy readers if you would guide us to the letter to the editor here.
Hmmm. Pravda comes to mind. No, no lets talk about something more recent—Iranian daily news. Got to get those facts straight if you expect to be heard. I wonder if they check their facts on other Letters to the Editor? I am pretty sure–not. Heck, Tracey doesn’t even check his facts on his own editorials. So they are giving you “special” care John because they don’t want you to be labelled as a propigator of falsehoods.
Isn’t nice to know that they care so much for you?
John,
It is absolutely absurd…
They certainly do NOT fact check their own editorials, other people’s letters to the editor, or many of the pieces they write about the City of Fort Wayne.
I am so glad I cancelled my subsricption a while ago.
Mike