Sunday, May 10, 2009

When The AJC Gets It Right

I certainly use the stick often enough so it's time for the carrot.

Cameron McWhirter's piece on John Oxendine's questionable fundraising is simply stunning.

If you want to read political analysis on this situation, check the Georgia Voices section to the right. I'll only say - this is exactly the type of story the paper does well and my goodness let us all pray we see more.

Today is also the first time I've seen the new "How We Got The Story" feature and it is brilliant. One of the tragedies of these waning days of newsprint is people do not understand how newspapers work. This veil of ignorance allows certain purveyors of the media is the enemy mantra to easily produce their shadow puppet shows of deceit.

Those three paragraphs explaining how McWhirter and others caught and produced the story benefitted the grand old fishwrapper more than any musings and grovelings by the seemingly endless supply of public editors.

No one knows if the re-design will save the AJC, but today certainly brings a glimmer of hope.

3 comments:

Rusty said...

Wow, I really really dig the "how we got the story" feature now that I've seen it in action on a story where someone will inevitably cry about bias.

Richard Campbell said...

The interesting thing about the "how we got the story" bit is that it shows that anybody could have gotten that story just from reviewing the campaign disclosures...

Tina Trent said...

Unintentionally (or maybe intentionally?) funny election stuff also in "Recession Hits Mayoral Campaign." Sam Massell, explaining why some donors haven't contributed yet:

"Former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell said some donors are waiting to see which candidates have the best chance to win in November."

Tough times means thinking hard before you bribe.