Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Citizen-Times columnist John Boyle, a damn fine journalist and former colleague of mine, apparently took umbrage with my blog post of last week. In 15 inches of Monday Mountains section-front column space, Boyle claims to reveal Ashvegas, then proceeds to slag me for crassly proclaiming that the Citizen-Times would use the headline “Hero Slain” at some point in its coverage.
Boyle berates my post as “haughty and flippant at best, callous and ill-timed sniping at worst.” This from the master of the smart-assed retort. At best, Boyle’s column ranks right up there with simple cheerleading, and at worst stands as a self-serving attempt at lauding law enforcement for Web clicks.
Sadly for Mr. Boyle, he missed the point of my post, which was meant as a send-up of the newspaper’s simplistic approach to its news coverage, an approach that offers no depth, no insightful analysis, an approach which fails to further any meaningful understanding. I never questioned the trooper’s legitimacy as a hero — I highlighted the newspaper’s illegitimacy in its approach to portraying him as one.
Worse yet, the newspaper continues down the path I predicted. Look at my forecast, then look at how the newspaper coverage has matched it. If I’d tossed those story ideas around in a Citizen-Times conference room (and I have before) I’d be applauded. As far as the smart-aleck remark about a “hero slain” headline, Boyle knows damn well that similar sentiments have been heard a thousand times before in the cynicism-filled cubicles that fill the O.Henry Avenue newsroom.
My criticism then — and my criticism now — is that the newspaper coverage sticks to an easy story line that doesn’t serve me, or any reader, one whit.
Here’s the blueprint for the newspaper’s approach:
Script #1: Lionize any law enforcement killed in the line of duty. Tell the story in black-and-white, and frame it as good guys vs. bad guys.
Script #2: Bloggers who question or criticize the status quo are bad. Journalists must beat up on bloggers, who threaten their hold on information and lack the same high standards.
I do have to thank the Citizen-Times for calling me out. Boyle’s misfire only lends me credibility. That, and my nearly 15 years of service as a reporter and editor at the newspaper. Boyle says that “anonymous bloggers annoy the hell out of me,” then proceeds to name me. All I can do is refer Boyle to the numerous Ashvegas stories, comments and photos that all clearly point to me as the sole author. Everybody in town knows who writes Ashvegas.
Boyle also accuses me of “using a semantic exercise to take a potshot at his former employer.” Boyle gives me a slight nod, noting that he understands that the media overuses the word “hero.” But his accusation about the “potshot” assumes that I somehow owe the Citizen-Times a bit of respect.
That mostly ended a couple of months ago when the editors unceremoniously frog-marched me out the door after learning that I would be leaving to work for a competitor. (How dare I go to work for the Mountain Xpress. In a thoughtful gesture after my dismissal, Citizen-Times Publisher Randy Hammer bought me a beer, thanked me for my work and mostly repaired the damage done. Now comes Boyle.)
I view my post as more of a prodding at the staid practices of a dying medium, and I must have hit a nerve. I criticize because I love newspapers. If the industry wants to save itself, it must move beyond the tried-and-true and illuminate something more.
Boyle calls me callous for my post, which came a day after the shooting of Shawn Blanton along Interstate 40 in Haywood County. Yet Boyle works for a newspaper that routinely prints news about rapes, suicides and the minor misdemeanor. And makes money for doing it. In just one example of the newspaper’s hypocrisy, it editorializes against the Asheville Police Department’s policy of posting the names of alleged prostitutes and their Johns on the Web, then ignores the fact that it has done the exact same thing, naming alleged offenders without any concern for “innocent before proven guilty.”
A couple of days after the Blanton’s shooting, the Citizen-Times announced that it would go to court to try and force the release of 911 calls that a court had sealed. The newspaper wants to publish the last words of Blanton, begging for his life. In misplaced zeal to prove its relevance, the newspaper argues that the public has a right to know.
But readers who commented online ripped the newspaper for exploiting the situation.
In a typical comment, one reader wrote: “I believe in freedom of the press but it should be tempered with common sense and good taste.” Another reader more bluntly said: “The newspaper does not need to meddle into this, at this time, all they want is scoop material and they have total disregard to the family and friends of the slain officer.” Here’s one more: “Get out and really find something to report. Geesh, when they call em ‘Rags’, they hit the nail on AC-T. Leave this one alone.”
The newspaper’s own reporters and photographers are sensitive to the charges of exploitation. Here’s a quote from the blog of Citizen-Times reporter Leslie Boyd, who blogged about covering the trooper shooting:
“People were reluctant to talk because I’m the press. They don’t know whether I honestly want to pay tribute to a murdered officer or if I might just be out to catch them wailing with grief so I can get a good photo. Our photographer, Steve Dixon, was with me for part of the day, and he said, “If my son was killed last night, I wouldn’t talk to us.”
Boyle wants to dismiss this forum (and its 50,000 unique monthly visitors) as little more than “sitting at a computer and cutting and pasting other people’s work onto your blog.” But if Boyle would look closely, Ashvegas has long been a mix of original content — writing, photography and videography — and references to other people’s work.
If Boyle would look at his own publication, he would see that the Citizen-Times “cuts and pastes” more than 50 percent of its content from other sources — the Associated Press, Gannett News Service, national columns, letters by local residents, comics, obituaries, etc. How about all those press releases that are posted online as “news updates” but are verbatim copies of the original press release?
Gannett actually noticed the cut-and-paste mentality a couple of years ago and launched an effort to make its newspapers more “local.” Editors measured and evaluated every column inch to determine whether the content was local or not. In the end, the Citizen-Times never deemed more than 60 percent of its content as locally produced. That’s a lot of cutting and pasting. Gannett has since abandoned the effort.
Through his misinterpretation of my post, Boyle has opened me up to lowest-common-denominator invective of the Citizen-Times’ online message boards. There, I’m reamed as a “coward” who should be “crucified” for what I’ve said. (That’s the least of it.) They are truly anonymous comments that the paper would never put in print.
I kindly ask the newspaper to take down the offensive comments.
In the end, Boyle goes yet another worn route — to the dictionary, where he finds a simple definition to make his point about what constitutes a hero. All I’m saying is that life’s not that simple, and I’d ask my newspaper to reflect that.
I’d also ask that it stop hiding behind the bloody rags of dead trooper and start giving me thoughtful, rounded reporting.
Ash,when you FIRST mentioned how you could have delved deeper into the tragic initial head lines I so meant to stand up and applaud so I shall now. The video ride along with a trooper,breaking down social barriers for my Native American ancestors, and a virtual guestbook simply perfect…a ^5 and a huge hug for those of us who need to respect this trooper in a small way instead of feeding on the ghoulish details.You, dear Ash earn your respect!
TJ, here’s what I wrote higher up in the thread, in response to the same question:
i’m giving you way more than the C-T deserves here, but to answer you fully, here’s some of what i’d like to see:
-a short video story with a reporter riding along with a state Highway Patrolman. show me, up close and personal, what it’s really like out there on the road, with the most powerful medium at the newspaper’s disposal – a video ride-along.
-a well-rounded profile of the trooper that goes beyond the knee-jerk reactions you get in the midst of grief. it’s fine that the newspaper tells me the man was a coach, a dad, a husband, a son — that’s all information i gleaned on the first day of coverage. yet that was all regurgitated in the Sunday front-page piece. tell me something real. tell me that Shawn Blanton was allergic to peanuts. tell me what it really meant to the community to have an enrolled member of the member of the Cherokee Indian tribe serve on the Highway Patrol. did this guy see himself as breaking down social barriers for his people? please, please tell me something more than what i could write with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back.
-perhaps the newspaper, in this case, should have created a place for everyone who wanted to leave a sentiment mourning the death of Blanton, and post that prominently. a virtual funeral guestbook of sorts. then leave the sentimental there, and have the newspaper use its resources to pursue the real story, which is – how could this have happened? despite all the training and safety measures, how does this sort of thing continue to happen? that’s the real story that can be make a meaningful difference to the community.
Okay, boys. Scores for everyone around. But here’s the question, Ashvegas. How would you do it differently? If you had your say in the newsroom, what would we have seen?
Very well written argument, by the way. You’re a damn fine writer. And I love me some John Boyle, so don’t beat up on him too bad.
tj
I love journalism and Freedom of the Press (including the trashy gossip blogs I read, but shouldn’t; Thank you Dlisted!).
But a good journalist is also defined by what s/he DOESN’T publish. For example, it doesn’t serve the community for the newspaper to continually publish reports of rapes, even when they are not between strangers. I can’t tell you how hard it is to get women to file a report with police when they are assaulted, knowing the whole time that it is public record and that it will probably end up in the Citizen-Times.
When there is a true danger to the public, yes, the media should act. But it’s gotten to be salacious.
Last week the APD had an incident report of an alleged rape that was marked "BG," meaning it was between a boyfriend/girlfriend. The reporter put it in the paper anyway. (No mention of the "BG," and no names…but does it matter???) Before that we had a report of rape by a woman who wouldn’t talk to detectives and had given several fake addresses and phone numbers. We could not locate her to get a statement. I told the CT this. And yes, it went in the paper anyway. Thanks for that intrepid reporting and for making her even less willing to be found. (WLOS, by the way, declined to do a story after I explained the circumstance. I really appreciated that.
I do understand the need to make money. I understand wanting a hot story. I don’t judge that. I’m all for it…
But there are many things that I knew, stumbled upon or was told as a reporter that I never wrote and to this day have never shared with anyone.
In my years at the C-T I wrote some stories and asked some questions and made some mistakes that I truly regret – but I can never be accused of having been unethical or of "doing someone" in a story who hadn’t been warned it was coming.
And I certainly never did that to someone who I consider a friend. That’s what really bothered me in this case, with Boyle’s column — the quarterback sneak on a buddy who had worked at the paper for nearly 15 years who worked hard and who was never unkind to anyone there.
So disappointing.
Judge is releasing 911 tapes…this is so very cruel to the Blanton family. I am going to be sick now.
Jennifer, thank you.
Bill, i appreciate you reading here.
Podcast lover, i do miss the podcasts. and it was mostly Boyle – he’s a funny mother-effer.
Lena, thank you! there’s no need to pick sides. i think we’re cool. i vividly recall your sensitivity to stories about deceased military personnnel, and it was great that you were there to remind us all. those checks, that sensitivity, that thoughtfulness before acting, seems to be lacking.
Oh, Jason.
You know I love you and I love Boyle but I have to wear my "Team Ash" shirt right now. I think Boyle could’ve easily made his point without bringing your name into it. When I read it yesterday morning, my jaw dropped off my face (it was quite a sight, would’ve made great video). I think he misunderstood your point and was wrong not to understand your side before dragging your name through the mud and open up the message boards for immature criticism from uninformed readers. It was almost as if he needed some fodder – but why single you out?
I read your post as calling out the CT for it’s simplistic approach to major breaking stories … it’s predictable every time. I could sketch the A1 in my head 🙂 You were calling out the sensationalistic reporting & the fact that they would only scratch the surface with this story and move on. What greater good came from their stories? What good does a 4.5-column mourning photo do? New Rock 93.3 is holding an auction tomorrow for his wife because they found out he was an avid listener, a P1. Why hasn’t any other media outlet done something to raise money for his family? Instead they exploit his wife’s pain on the front page / news clips for all to see.
I had no idea they wanted to release that 911 call; it’s appalling and disgusting. There are certain things that should be left private. A dying trooper’s last words for the world to hear is not something that should be on public display. I’m sure you probably remember how offended I would get over them wanting to cover funerals, especially for deceased servicemembers. I was furious when the 911 tape from Rachel Ledford’s death was posted, with a trucker saying she looked "like a dead animal in the road." But privacy & the media’s sheer decency are a whole other debate …
I think your response was the right thing to do. Rock on, Ash 🙂 I think you and JB should arm wrestle this one out.
You two boys need to bury the hatchet. Kiss and make up. You had the edgiest podcast in the city before Ash left. And this one was the best of them all:
http://www.citizen-times.com/assets/mp3/B082916817.MP3
The Ashevegas blog and the Mountain Express are both so much more interesting than the Citizen-Times.
I’m sure they are watching your every move over at that tired old newspaper, because they certainly are not out there doing hard-hitting or investigative journalism. It’s simply amazing how little news content is in the C-T each day.
One of the main problems is that the reporting staff at the C-T never seems to change. Yes, Gannett goes through editors and publishers often, but it is the same tired old hacks who barely edit press releases. It’s time for most of the to go!
I am grateful to have Ashvegas and Mountain Express, as well as other online news sources such as the NY Times. They way I get news has dramatically changed and I really view the Citizen-Times as a source for very local lite news, not a serious journalistic endeavor.
Keep up the good work here. I know for a fact that you have many loyal readers.
I don’t read newspapers and haven’t for years, since long before I started blogging myself.
I read Ashvegas every day, along with a host of other alternative news and info sites that bring me a faster response and a noncorporate perspective I strongly prefer.
Amen to nearly everything Gordon said. Boyle is a standout writer in a lackluster paper I perceive as offering poor writing, bad grammar and bad syntax. I found Boyle’s "outing" of the least anonymous anonymous blogger in town inappropriate, and his utter misunderstanding of your point just plain weird.
This kind of heated exchange can be pretty exciting in journalism, but this one seems based on hurt feelings and misunderstandings, not a give and take of ideas and perspectives.
I’ll take blogs and alternative news sources. I’ll take Ashvegas.
Viva revolution, sister. Some of us get it.
Thanks, Martha!
Fly on the Wall, how would you react if you were called out in the daily newspaper?
Thunder Pig, i hear you. respect. but there’s nothing "left" or "right" about my desire for great journalism. and just because the C-T is the 100-lb gorilla in the room of local media doesn’t mean they can’t improve, or that there isn’t an alternative.
Chuck, the C-T did a short story on how more troopers are killed in the Southeast. It was about 12 inches long, and offered little context or depth. Here’s the link:
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880619036
This is what I emailed to John Boyle concerning the Blanton shooting:
"Dear Mr. Boyle:
The real story is not whether Shawn Blanton is a hero or not. Although I believe it’s much better to be a live hero than a dead one. But the fact that we, the citizens of North Carolina, probably won’t be allowed to find out the exact circumstances of his death. Here’s some research for you to do on part of the ‘real’ story:
Do some digging on how many active duty state troopers North Carolina has compared to other states in the southeast. It’s been my impression that N.C has significantly more than say, Georgia, which is larger and, I believe has a greater population.
Also check out how many of N.C.s troopers are killed (shot or otherwise) in the line of duty v. other states regionally. These figures just might give you some tentative hypotheses about why in-the-line-of-duty trooper deaths seem to happen in N.C. more often than surrounding states. It’s a trend that’s been happening for years, and I believe, goes back to the training (or lack of it) and the mind set that the N.C. Highway Patrol inculcates into it’s troopers in regards to how they see and deal with citizens.
Cordially,"
Xxxx Xxxxx
Let’s see if John, or any other AC-T reporter does any digging for the real story!
C.
I thought you were being a typical cynical lefty in your "coverage of the coverage". That is why I did not link to your coverage of the shooting.
Which was a shame, because you were the only lefty who blogged about it, although from a weird P.O.V.
As much as I hate the AC-T, they were the only local source of up to date info online about the shooting.
Get off your high horse.
All that being said, I have only purchased two copies of the AC-T in the past year.
Methinks you doth protest WAY too much, you tool.
Ash –
Good stuff…thanks for making me think. I think both you and John made some valid points…and as usual, there’s lots of gray for all of us to ponder.
G-man, so say we all! thanks brother.
You obviously hurt Boyle’s feelings, Ash. I guess this is one of the hazards of media criticism…
Ditto to Arratik’s comment – criticize the AC-T reportage around here and folks will show up to give one a ton of shiznit for it.
We know that a few very good reporters are wrapped in a cocoon of corporate horror over there, and we know that the editorial board will follow the standard, ordinary narrative forms.
Your journalism creds are solid, and your blogging cred is unmatched in the mountains. Boyle was feeling pissy – He is the establishment columnist, being cutesy and waiting for people to tell him how funny he is, and he doesn’t like internet folks doing it differently.
His "outing" of you is lame, bogus, and dishonest. He knows you’re public. If he were trying to be accurate, he would have called you a pseudonymous blogger. Instead he did what establishment journalists do – call out bloggers for lack of professionalism while being conspicuously unprofessional themselves.
His comment here displays a real contempt for you, Ash. It’s time to start http://www.johnboylesucks.blogspot.com
I think we ought to declare Monday, June 23rd John Boyle Sucks Day in the Asheville blogosphere. This hackery must be commemorated through the generations.
Blog on, Bloggy McBloggerson,
The blogger formerly pseudonymously known as Screwy Hoolie
JB, thanks for your inspiration.
Your points are well said, No One.
Thanks, Tam!
Arratik, now i know what it feels like on the other side…
Celo, yeah, it did feel like a low blow. He could have at least warned me about what was coming, or better yet – gasp! – called me to talk to me about my viewpoint. neither happened in this case.
Anony, you’re right – my criticism here can, in a way, be viewed as a criticism of myself. so, what would depth and perspective look like in this case?
i’m giving you way more than the C-T deserves here, but to answer you fully, here’s some of what i’d like to see:
-a short video story with a reporter riding along with a state Highway Patrolman. show me, up close and personal, what it’s really like out there on the road, with the most powerful medium at the newspaper’s disposal – a video ride-along.
-a well-rounded profile of the trooper that goes beyond the knee-jerk reactions you get in the midst of grief. it’s fine that the newspaper tells me the man was a coach, a dad, a husband, a son — that’s all information i gleaned on the first day of coverage. yet that was all regurgitated in the Sunday front-page piece. tell me something real. tell me that Shawn Blanton was allergic to peanuts. tell me what it really meant to the community to have an enrolled member of the member of the Cherokee Indian tribe serve on the Highway Patrol. did this guy see himself as breaking down social barriers for his people? please, please tell me something more than what i could write with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back.
-perhaps the newspaper, in this case, should have created a place for everyone who wanted to leave a sentiment mourning the death of Blanton, and post that prominently. a virtual funeral guestbook of sorts. then leave the sentimental there, and have the newspaper use its resources to pursue the real story, which is – how could this have happened? despite all the training and safety measures, how does this sort of thing continue to happen? that’s the real story that can be make a meaningful difference to the community.
Interesting debate between you guys.
Ash, I’m wondering how you would have done it differently if you had been leading the coverage for the C-T? You talk about their lack of depth and perspective, but you don’t elaborate and explain what that might look like in a situation like this one.
It’s always easy to criticize, but since you were there and involved in decisions like these, it would be interesting to know what you did to encourage that kind of effort as opposed to the overly simplistic approach you claim they take. Rather than saying what they shouldn’t do, I’d like to hear what you think they should do on stories like these.
Give’em hell Ash…I quit subscribing to the AC-T several years ago and have yet to see any reason to change my mind!
I must say I didn’t quite get the point of Boyle’s column. How’d you piss him off? This felt kinda personal. As the old saying goes, "with friends like this…"
Script #2 sounds eerily familiar. It’s been half a coon’s age ago, but I do recall times when we ourselves caught a huge ration of crap from certain AC-T staffers and freelancers whenever we criticized their news coverage…
We still love you Ash..let’s go get a bottle of some cheap disgusting wine, and burn copies of ACT.:] I would rather read your blog any day than read ACT or watch WLOS.
This criticism of Ashvegas comes from the same paper that printed a photo of Blanton’s wife Michaela crying at the funeral on the front page of Sunday’s edition, which I think was in quite poor taste. Of course the Waynesville Mountaineer printed a similar photo MUCH larger and WLOS used shots of Michaela crying her eyes out TWICE in the Saturday night newscast. It’s one thing to cover the funeral, but publishing (or broadcasting) shots of the grieving wife in one of the worst moments of her life is not right.
Wow! Talk about striking a nerve. This is the most original writing (volume and content) you’ve done in years, my friend. Glad to spur you on.
John Boyle