The Need For Questions

The WayneWho Staff believes that we should apologize to the Osceola News-Gazette reporter, Jessica Solis. Ms. Solis wrote the article that our un-news site was critical of last week. We were critical of the subject matter contained in the article which was headlined as "Osceola County study: East U.S. 192 lacks identity, purpose," and towards the end of our article we were critical of the Osceola News-Gazette and how their information was presented. It was not our intention to be too hard any individual for the content of the Osceola News-Gazette's article. In hind site, using the term 'reporter' to describe a collective group in our un-news article was probably a mistake. We are sorry and we hope that you are not reprimanded for defending your reporting ability.

If you did not get a chance to read Ms. Solis's rebuttal, let us share it with you:

"The News-Gazette could reprimand me for doing this, so let me preface by stating that I’m only representing myself and not the newspaper. I also don’t represent the county, or position myself as an expert on Osceola government.

I was told about this blog entry from someone in the community, and although I normally stay out of these forums, I think this time I have to speak up since it seems like my actual duty as a reporter is being criticized/mocked. I might not be a reporter 'worth the weight of the pen,' but I do my research. Firstly, I apologize that my article on the east U.S. 192 review led you to the conclusion that the study was a definite plan for the county. Twice in my article I wrote the plan was tentative, so as to not mislead readers that this was something in the works.

Secondly, I don’t 'drop down' articles on paper. If I did that, I wouldn’t be a reporter. I attend these meetings where I take notes, and then I request comments from locals, officials, etc... Then, I take all of those notes and try to turn them into an article. You might not like my writing, but everything is attributed and researched. I can’t write an article about what I think of the review– it’s unethical to do that in journalism.

The things you see in the paper with my name attached to it are never my opinions; they are the thoughts and statements of others, and I attribute it as such. I come in to let the community know what their leaders are doing or planning, and what’s on their minds as well.

In regards to 'spitting facts,' I also don’t do that. Everything is sourced and fact-checked. Nothing is ever called a fact, and I can only debunk sources if they have given me a piece of information that can be called true or untrue without attribution. But opinions are allowed– as long as they’re not mine. This blog entry took a lot of what-ifs and used them to criticize my reporting. Regarding this specific article, I never meant to write an investigate article, since there are no concrete details for it. Regarding my reporting, I’d like to believe I ask the questions when needed.

My name and my contact information are attached to every single article I put together for the paper. People– residents and government officials alike– can recognize me, approach me and give me their opinions any time they want (and they do!).

I love when readers and locals call to either give me more information or ask me why something was or wasn’t in the newspaper. It's the feedback from the community that helps keep me on my toes. My name is Jessica Solis. Feel free to reach me at 321-402-0429 if you have any questions, comments or concerns. Thank you, and my apologies for the extra long post.

September 21, 2009 2:57 PM"

After a lot of discussion, the WayneWho staff believes that this rebuttal explores a fundamental difference that we have with the the Osceola News-Gazette as far as what 'journalism' is. While we in no way see ourselves as journalists, reporters or even ready-to-be-canceled sitcom writers, we rely on journalists very heavily in our real world personas. We need journalists to ask the questions that we cannot because we would be ignored as regular citizens. While not every story requires probing questions, we believe that when it comes to quality of life issues for residents there should be no free pass given to decision makers. We appreciate that Ms. Solis agrees with our assessment that no investigation was done for this story, but that was not what our article was about. All we asked the Osceola News-Gazette to do was ask some questions to properly vet the article. It appears that this did not happen and the article was based solely on notes from a presentation. We would hope that as thinking individuals their staff would understand why we would misinterpret this as the Osceola News-Gazette being in lockstep with local administrations.

When the basic pattern for a media organization is to go to meetings, take notes, request comments and then "try to" formulate articles based on only this level of limited informational contact, the WayneWho staff now understands why we are left scratching our heads after reading most of the content presented in the Osceola News-Gazette. We have been left confused because it was always our belief that 'journalism' was not only a craft of conveying important information, but that it was also a craft of the pursuit of the details behind that information. The WayneWho staff believes that asking questions and passively requesting comments are not the same thing. We were under the belief that it took asking questions to not only get to the truth, but to also properly convey the information being presented. We did not know that asking questions based on common sense thoughts was unethical and not allowed in journalism. This explains a lot about the world we live in now. Maybe if a journalist would have asked questions like "Where is the yellowcake?" or "Why haven't we found weapons of mass destruction?" our world would look a little different and more of our country's young men and women would still be here enjoying life with their families. Maybe if a journalist well versed in the financial world would have asked "Just exactly what is a subprime mortgage derivative?" more families would still be in their homes. Please don't think that we are saying that journalists who do not ask questions are to blame for all of our country's problems, but what we are saying is that "Freedom of the Press" is not just a slick slogan to be wasted on a bumper sticker. It means that our founders understood that the media played an important role in keeping our country free by keeping government on its toes. Hence the word "Press" as in "Press for information." While some may look at these comments as lofty ideals that do not apply to local media, we would argue that they are even more important for the local media. But that is just the view of an un-news source. Maybe AMATEUR sports will be the savior of our community? What if? Who knows?

We guess all the WayneWho staff can hope for is that the questions we presented in our article find their way into the notes when this Beauti-Staycation plan goes from tentative to 'up for a vote.' We can hope that when there are more concrete plans besides those recommendations from the 192 Enhancement Committee study, it will finally be time to ask questions so we can see what is on the minds of our local leaders. Until then we will continue to comment on all of
the what-ifs presented by our local officials and the local media in our un-news sort of way.

Thank you for your letter and thanks for reading. We welcome all comments, critiques and questions from all of those 'someones' in the community.