I don't expect some of the smaller newspapers in our state to be the most sophisticated newspapers. I do expect them to hold the line on a couple of pretty basic concepts in journalism, like balance and fact-checking. If you are not going to include an opposing viewpoint, the latter concept becomes even more important to protect the truth.
I could write something here like I expect big time blogs to look at the whole of a paper's work instead of cherry picking one article to blast the rubes down south for their "aw shuckin'" ways but would that really be necessary?
Having said that, Tondee's Tavern has a point. The article is a string of Goddard quotes with little journalistic context flesh out the piece. As I have said before, reporter Lori Glenn is usually very good and this particular article is a little surprising in its structure. Lazy reporting? Editorial butchery? An honest effort that just wasn't a home run? At this point, we do not really know but I have contacted another Moultrie boy, Observer editor Dwain Walden, for clarification.
Heck, maybe what this situation needs is an country boy stuck in the city to mediate before we have another horrible bush war between the "two Georgias".
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