Another great editorial by Samantha. It was nice to know the story behind the story. I believe she mentioned they had asked her to cover their meetings, and then when she did, some really bad stuff came out. Then, all the guilty parties tried to blame the paper for reporting the information.
Sounds like the deals from before with the Tourism Committee, Chamber of Commerce, and Economic Development groups.
Good job Samantha, keep up the good work. We need people like you keeping us aprised of what is really going on in our government. Right now, the city leaders and committee chairman and menbers fear you coming to them to ask questions and sit in on their meetings.
How about some follow ups on the Expo Center management issue, and the upcoming issues on the new Restaurant Association and Hotel Association having their members required to be on the tourism commission. I know that is putting a big kink in the present committee and commission's lines.
I didn't notice any special journalism skills in the animal shelter editorial but if you did thats OK I guess. There is nothing wrong with someone giving a booth buddy a pat on the back every now and then. I had heard that the animal shelter board of directors had a lot of trouble from the employees and were just trying to take action to get them under control. One employee was suppose to have been caught in the act at the animal shelter a time or two. The Times story and editorial appeared to be slanted toward the employees side more than the volunteer board members side.
If you want happy-go-lucky news, and to be sheltered from the real world, read the News Journal.
If it weren't for the type of articles Samantha writes, we the people wouldn't know half of what goes on around the county.
The News Journal only prints what they want us to see, not what really goes on. Knuckles occasionally has a story, but only after Estep blesses it. No stories derogatory to the big boss.
Anonymous wrote:I didn't notice any special journalism skills in the animal shelter editorial but if you did thats OK I guess. There is nothing wrong with someone giving a booth buddy a pat on the back every now and then. I had heard that the animal shelter board of directors had a lot of trouble from the employees and were just trying to take action to get them under control. One employee was suppose to have been caught in the act at the animal shelter a time or two. The Times story and editorial appeared to be slanted toward the employees side more than the volunteer board members side. Who hires the employees? The board hires them. If it was the employees fault, the Board must have hired the wrong people. The facts are, the board either goofed in hiring them or the board didn't know how to motivate them. I heard the workers were good people.
I was dissapointed that Swindler appeared to take a side in this issue. I know some of the animal shelter board members and they have told me about some of the problems they were trying to correct. Swindler has discouraged a few of them from even wanting to serve in public positions. She should know better than this since she is not only a reporter but also a small town newspaper editor. The Times needs to control her just a bit. She will be gone from here in a year or two to another town and the Times will be trying to clean up the damage she has left behind. It would be wise for them to start now.
I was dissapointed that Swindler appeared to take a side in this issue. I know some of the animal shelter board members and they have told me about some of the problems they were trying to correct. Swindler has discouraged a few of them from even wanting to serve in public positions. She should know better than this since she is not only a reporter but also a small town newspaper editor. The Times needs to control her just a bit. She will be gone from here in a year or two to another town and the Times will be trying to clean up the damage she has left behind. It would be wise for them to start now.
I didn't see it as her taking a side. She reported what see saw, and read and based on the information provided to her.
Also, from the mess that the Shelter was in, it didn't look to me like they were trying to anything but hide from the problem. That's the problem with most of our boards such as this, they run and hide when problems arise.
Control her, on the contrary, let her go even more than they do now. If it weren't for her, the people of this area wouldn't know half of what we know now about the "goings on" of our committees, the Toursim, Chamber and Econ. Dev. committees. Thank goodness for her reporting. Knuckles only writes it in his paper to keep up. I'd say Don squashes a lot of Trent's stories, especially those that Don is involved with.
The only ones that don't like her are the Don and Bruce followers, she's disrupted their network of good ol boy favors and appointments. The city is sure politically correct around her too, they're scared to death of her, and should be.
I doubt that anyone is scared of her unless perhaps her man. According to her editorial she likes her man neutered.
Response 1 That is typical of you and a couple of your friends. You never deal in facts, just insults. You and several cronies along with the News Jounal are turning her into a popular legend in this area. ---------------------------------------------------- I'm sorry... but that was funny! Response 2 You have a warped sense of humor. You make our area look like we are a bunch of lunk heads.
Anonymous wrote:Most people thought the article and editorial made our area look that way.
Maybe you think you speak for "Most" people, however if for some reason you feel the Animal Shelter is a representation of our area, maybe its time the Shelter cleaned up its act and began operating like it should.
When something is as screwed up as the Animal Shelter, we need the papers here to report it, not ignore it.
If it wasn't for Samantha bring this to our attention, it would be no telling how many animals would have suffered and died at the hands of the director they had, and their blood would have been on the board members as well.
This sounds like another round of "good ol boy" board appointments to me, they don't keep track of what's going on.
