Opinion : Panel discussion demonstrates disappointing limitations of modern media

What I learned on a Press Panel:

I learned that radio guys are in the business for a reason, they love to talk, if you want a guy that loves to talk, look there. I already knew that from an earlier experience we had in reporting. We were sharing the press box at a football came and I simply started at the two guys reporting on the game. I was amazed that two guys could talk just non stop about, nothing really, for hours! Up until then I thought that guys had their 1,000 word vocabulary, and when it was used up for the day, that’s all you’d hear.

I learned that reporters have all kinds of hoops that you must jump through to be heard. To me, it sounded like the public is supposed to cater to the media, if they want any coverage.

I tried really hard to not show my disgust with our media. I really did.

I didn’t do a good job of it.

I have no time for folks that are supposed to be providing the community with news, who have some arrogant ideas about what they will and won’t do for people.

One gal said, “I gave an hour and a half of my time for an interview and you gave me this much room” (indicating a 2” article)

Sometimes there are things more important that take more room, seemed to be the gist of the answer from our panel.

Really? Really???

I can see why the media gets a bum rap. They have worked extra hard at it.

We’ve well, they’ve decided, that because they wear the media cap it falls somewhere right below the “God” cap.

The overall consensus was that you cater to us and MAYBE, just MAYBE we will find you worthy of a story we’d use our golden keyboard to write about.

IF you send a fax addressed to the appropriately named department, and …

IF you address it to the correct reporter and…

IF you follow up with a phone call to make sure we got it, and…

IF you send an attachment, we DON’T open attachments because it might be to dangerous or we don’t have time, and…

IF you MUST send an email you have GOT to include a topic in the subject line.

I seriously wanted to say, “Are you kidding me?????”

Now call me green, but I have this weird idea that if you take the time to contact me, or you take your time to send an e-mail, that perhaps, JUST PERHAPS, you have something worth checking into!

Now I’m not saying that occasionally something doesn’t fall through the cracks with us….my apologies to the folks whose events we may have missed, but if we did it was purely because we can’t get to everything or that we simply forgot it in this one reporter show, or sometimes we just hit overload in trying to cover everything.

But never, I repeat NEVER think that we don’t think your events or ideas are NOT important to us!

Every e-mail we get, whether you address it to Dean or Jim Bob, will be read and every intention is that we will get it on our website. Nothing is so insignificant to us that it’s not worthy of our attention.

The day we get so arrogant that we won’t read your e-mail or refuse to make an attempt at a story after we waste your time with an interview, please stop by the office and smack us upside the head and remind us that we are here as a service to this community.

We are here because of YOU.

We are here to write about YOU.

We are here to talk about YOU.

We are here to get word out about what YOU think is important.

If it sounds like I am irritated with the media, I am.

If it sound like I am really ashamed about what I saw on our press panel, I am.

If it sounds like I don’t want to be like them when I grow up, I don’t.

The only thing you have to do to be covered on our website, is simply drop us a note about whatever it is that’s happening, we’ll get it on the website.

If you sent an idea in, we have probably saved it on my phone to get to when we get a minute. The best way to get anything on the website quickly is to send us the facts of a story.

If you take your time to write something into a story form ready for print, you are more than welcomez do that and we’ll happily put it up on the site and give you credit.

Our space isn’t limited, so send us the things that make the story alive.

Send us any web links that go along with your story, any video you might have, pictures etc.

That’s the beauty of web reporting, we never run out of room for you!