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Editorializing
December 23, 2006
“City workers apparently (emphasis added) cleared streets as promised during a recent storm that dumped several inches of snow and caused dozens of injury accidents” – the lead sentence from an article on the front page of The Oklahoman on Sunday, December 17, 2006.
Who can point out the reporter’s editorial point in this sentence?
The word APPARENTLY!
The article states that, after using a geographic mapping system (GIS) to analyze City snowplow data, that the City did indeed plow according to its plan. How nice.
Most Public Works vehicles now have GPS monitors installed. Each vehicle’s movement can be tracked either real time, if a person has access to the City intranet, or after the fact, as in the case of The Oklahoman analysis. Public Works gave the newspaper access to this data, and using GIS, they analyzed the City response to this season’s first snowstorm, and, lo and behold, the City delivered as promised.
What really grinds my gears is the way the article, a front-page article, no less, was led. The data confirmed what the City told people after the storm – that the roads were plowed as timely as possible, and according to the City plan. That should have caused the reporter to eliminate his prior premise and run an article reporting on the facts. Instead, he still added a hint of blame/accusation at the City by running with the word APPARENTLY at the beginning of the article.
A second recent Oklahoman article really caught my attention. The devoted a front-page article to an even more ridiculous topic – the size of parking spaces at local malls.
A few excerpts:
“Want to tset the laws of physics? Try backing a Hummer H2 out of a nearly 14-foot long parking spot without plowing into another car… She had been stuck in one of many parking spots that are smaller than Oklahoma City parking code require.”
“At Penn Square Mall recently, some cars in the parking garage’s compact spots were less than 6 inches apart.” NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The Mayor gets special treatment?!?
Just outside the zoning office, most of the spaces in the lot between the city municipal building and an office building at 420 Main St. are smaller than the required at 8 feet, 1 inch wide and 17 feet, 2 inches long.But some spots in the lot have plenty of room, such as the mayor’s 10-foot-wide reserved parking spot and City Council members’ 8 foot, 7 inch wide reserved spots.
“I’m very confident that he (Mayor Mick Cornett) has not asked for a larger parking spot,” said David Holt, an aide to the mayor. “I’m sure it was unintentional.
“If any one wanted him to make his spot smaller, I’m sure he would oblige — but that would probably cost more money than it’s worth,” Holt said.
(Actually, the City Manager’s spot happens to be 12 feet 1 inch wide… since my esteemed boss went out and measured it herself after the article was printed - good research, Mr. Staff Writer.)
Well, I’m sure glad someone is looking out for our needs like this. Because, really, there’s nothing worse than bad parking spots. No homelessness… no kids without food in Oklahoma… no crime problem… everything is hunky dory here!
“People then have wrecks and there’s door dings. No-body wants door dings.” Hell no, we don’t!
Oh, and by the way, John Estus happens to be the Staff Writer on both of these stories. Hmm.
Posted by paul at December 23, 2006 04:09 PM
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