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Did we deliver on our election campaign promises?
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The letter was handed to me first thing Monday morning, just as I walked in the newspaper’s front door.
Wow, I thought. What a way to start a week. That’s because when readers take the time to write to the editor, complaints far outnumber compliments. No big deal. That’s just human nature.
And sure enough, this hand-written letter started negatively. A reader said she has subscribed to another newspaper, “planning to let the Anderson Independent-Mail run out.”
Four paragraphs followed. I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue, but I owe it to readers to take it all in. Good or bad.
Good thing I continued.
“I have now relented my decision due to your excellent handling of the local election issues and the way you have informed us in your excellent separate section.
“After the first two weeks of your changes, I consider it is all improving. …”
How about that? Fan mail!
Now that we’ve had a week to recover from the primary election, it’s good to hear some praise.
On your behalf, we worked hard to get you prepared to go to the polls. It disappoints me that we weren’t able to inspire more than 26 percent of eligible voters in Anderson County to cast a ballot, but that’s beyond our control.
Polls show that there’s a strong correlation between people who subscribe to newspapers and people who vote. (Candidates take note: Political advertising opportunities abound.) So because you take your duty to vote seriously, we take our duty to inform you seriously.
In a January column, I noted that we tried to raise the bar for news coverage of elections in 2006, and we would shoot even higher this year. It’s easy to talk that talk. Did we walk the walk?
I pledged that we would schedule as many candidate forums as possible. On the heels of a handful of city council candidate forums earlier this spring, we delivered, partnering with radio station WRIX (103.1-FM) on 10 forums.
We solicited questions from readers. We aired most of these forums on IndependentMail.com, and people who couldn’t watch live could see taped videos. We published full-page reports on each forum in the next day’s newspaper, including extensive Q&As.
I promised we would focus on issues instead of personalities. How did we do? In the two weeks leading up to the June 10 primary, we published a seven-part series, with each installment posing a key question to Anderson County Council candidates.
As planned, we connected candidates with voters via a Voter Guide on our Web site.
Finally, we published a 24-page special section on June 5, as we normally do a few days before a big election. We hope it served you well.
Now, as we turn our thoughts past next week’s Anderson County Council District run-off and next month’s Georgia primary, we will start gearing up for the November finish line.
We’re wide open to constructive criticism. Help us out. Tell us what more we can do to help you.
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why was the same verve, in complete campaign coverage, not demonstrated in the city elections? election day, there was not one single thing in the paper about the election and it's candidates (other than a short piece reporting the alcohol/Sunday referendum). you spent weeks lynching Jeff Waters about the water bill fiasco and not one article pointing out the prevarications of Tommy Dunaway it revealed. do you pick and choose, based on your personal picks for leadership, how much attention/slant you give any particular candidate? it would appear as much, until public outcry and a trouncing at the polls turned your ship around.
i can say as to VOLUME of reporting, regarding candidates and this election, AIM has stepped it up. what smart newspaper wouldn't if that is the way they see things to be shifting.
i still don't see alot of investigative reporting into details of the statements you publish. it's like you report the statement of so and so, but you never verify those statements if it doesn't suit your slant. personally, i would have a hard time publishing something with my name on it, unless i first checked out their statements and had the hard evidence to back it up or show it to be fallacious.
did you followup to see if Dunaway indeed paid 4% tax on a primary residence in Anderson County for that election year? you published the carefully worded letter from the city attorney, but did little/no investigating of it yourself. if you did, which property was it? i find no record of it.
did you followup and see if claiming "because his driver's license listed his loft address" whether this made it his primary residence (or actually a breaking of the law?)
did you publish or followup with the revelation that his loft has been registered as a not for profit entity and cannot be used as a primary residence?
did you publish or followup on the revelation of his mortgage contract in Abbeville County, stating it to be his primary residence?
or the revelation of IRS and SC tax commission liens in place, just days before the election, which were miraculously cleaned up the next day after that information was submitted to the newspaper?
or the revelation of property bought and sold along the East-West connector?
your only response was, "i am not an apologist for what Tommy Dunaway does."
I agree with everything that in_search_of_truth posted. The articles printed still have no meat to them. It's almost as if those reporting/writing the stories have no sense of how to even begin. We get the minimum of information and there is never any follow-up or investigation done on any stories as was pointed out above. I'm always left with more questions than answers and the paper never seems to go after the REAL stories.
If you did I might begin to think Anderson had a true and reliable source of information.
There was more than one issue in the city election. We ran a series of stories on these issues, and though we might not have dug as deeply as you would have liked on Dunaway's residency, we did not ignore it. If we had done more, it still wouldn't have been enough to satisfy some people. We also did forums for the city races, just as we did for the county race.
As the fourth estate, when you see the power of the people being eroded away by secrecy and manipulations, you are supposed to be our saviour and speak truth to power. You have the ability none of use do. Don't rob us of your only haven from corrupt government. Are there no journalists at AIM that carry the banner of the people? Are we to fear and question your actions as well? There are journalists who have the ethical backbone to go to jail to not give up their sources and speak truth to power.
AIM would probably send Pearce to interview you AT the jail (and come back with a story about little green men!)
after coming back to read this, i realised the last sentence could be taken two ways. "you" was meant as "you the reader" not "you the author."
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