Talking with JinC regaulars - 4 - 17 - 06

(One of a series of posts in the original web log tradition: notes and "thinking out loud." These posts will be most easily understood by regular visitors here, and are written with them in mind. But others are welcome.)

First, thanks to those of you who have commented here and at The McClatchy Company's The Editor's Blog where Raleigh News & Observer exec. news editor Melanie Sill blogs.

If you haven't visited The Editor's Blog recently, I hope you do soon. There's a lot of current conversatin at this post, Convergence debate.

A number of people, including some of you, have made excellent comments that speak to what journalism's should to be, and how far short of that The N&O falls.

I also appreciate what some of you have said there and here about JinC and my comments at The Editor's Blog.

I haven't responded to Sill's threat this morning to ban me outright from the blog.

I wanted first to reflect on the accusations Sill directed at me, even though Sill's made them all before.

Having done that, I still don't understand why Sill singled me out from among all the people who have been very critical of The N&O's kind of journalism, and its many factual errors and omissions of news that goes against The N&O's liberal/leftist slant.

Mind you, I'm not saying Sill should target and ban those other people along with me.
I don't want that to happen. It would be terrible if Sill and McClatchy did that.

What I'm asking is why Sill has singled me out. She hasn't cited even a couple of specific questions I've asked that she thinks justify banning me.

Sill accuses and presumes I'm guilty and need to be banned.

There's no substance to her accusatings or presumption that I'm guilty of offenses that deserve banishment.

How did The McClatchy Company get to where Sill has it?

How does Sill's banishment threat fit with what McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt tells us is McClatchy's strong support for transparency and the "new journalism?"

Later tonight I plan to leave a brief response on the Convergence debate post thread at The Editor's Blog. Among other things, I'll ask Sill to be much more specific.

Tomorrow I'll post another Talking with Regulars (TwR) post.

On other matters - The Churchill/Sandhurst op-ed submission is about ready.

After that I plan a "Go, Tony, go" post in salute to new White House press secretary Tony Snow.

Thanks for continuing to visit and comment.

John