I’m not gloating. I get the majority of my local news from the Post and Courier, and I think they do a good job. Because I work for a weekly, I’m often times forced to cover something they’ve already written about, and I take advantage of our lengthier word counts and extra research time to dig a little deeper.
But I’m forced to raise an eyebrow when the P&C covers something I’ve already done, and does it in a very similar way. We should never be scooping them — they’ve got an editorial staff over five times the size of ours, and we have to wait until Wednesday when we get a good tip. So back in February, when I wrote about dolphins becoming sick from plastic contaminants in the water, it was amusing to see the daily put dolphins on their cover a few weeks later, with the same story.
This week they’re at it again. The day after our bicycling cover story hit the stands, P&C publishes this breakdown of the new bike law. You could have written their story with mine in hand plus two quick phone calls.
And a week and a half after the public meeting on the incinerator, the P&C decides it’s newsworthy. You know they read my story — check out the woman they chose for the picture.
Not that I mind at all. We have different readerships, and the incinerator is a topic I feel should be very closely monitored and covered by the media. People need to realize where their trash goes, and Charleston has to make big decisions this summer about how we’ll handle it for the next 20 years.
What’s most surprising to me is that the incinerator management accused me of writing with an agenda when I sent them a draft copy of my story. I even cut the parts about Ms. Doctor’s grandkids not playing in the yard. P&C’s story included that quote, and reads like a scathing indictment of the facility by the local neighbors.
I’ll be interested to hear if the incinerator responds to this opening line from P&C …
“Smoke and ash pour out of Charleston County’s trash incinerator nearly every day, fouling the air over Victoria Doctor’s home and those of her neighbors in Union Heights.”
The emissions from the incinerator are clear. You don’t see any smoke coming out, at least in my tour and experience driving by it on Spruill Avenue. And the ash is hauled to a covered pile (where wind does blow it wherever it may — I had it all over me from standing outside by it). But “pour out?”
3 Comments
Perhaps you should spend your time covering stories instead of bashing The Post and Courier. Not that I’m a huge fan of the P&C, but don’t you think you could do something useful, rather than venting on petty grievances regarding the newspaper?
I’ve noticed this trend with the City Paper, that some of your writers will randomly post anti-P&C entries that have nothing to do with anything. Can you just not find a real story to work on? Or are you so insecure that you feel that you have to occasionally write up these flames in order to try and convince others that you’re a better publication?
I just think the public would be better served by you guys using your resources to cover real issues, not media rivalries.
It’s a blog, not a print story. We use our blog as a forum to reflect and critique. I think making observations and comparisons about two outlets’ coverage of the same story is worth noting.
There are three stories linked to in this post that took huge amounts of time for me to research and write. I don’t think one post pointing out P&C’s week and a half lag time on the incinerator public meeting discounts the work we put into covering real stories, on a daily basis.
But you’re right, I’m very insecure. ‘Bashing’ the daily just seems to give me a feeling of self worth as a journalist.
Now what about that ’smoke?’
I’ve noticed that the Post & Courier seems to be slowly dropping staff and combining positions. I wonder if that plays into their lack of creativity — running low on staff to cover things.