The story about Fridays head-on accident on Highway 11 that was published first online Friday and then in the Times on Saturday has led to a significant amount of criticism of this newspaper, its reporters and editors.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and Im glad to have the Web site as a medium for people to share their views, regardless of what they are. I did want to address just a couple of criticisms that were made about the newspaper.
Some Web users were upset that the story of the accident appeared online as quickly as it did. The call came across the scanner at about 8:45 a.m. Within about 20 minutes, I posted a short story online that said there had been a two-vehicle accident and that the highway was shut down. The story also told readers where traffic was being diverted.
I made the decision to post it quickly, as breaking news, because the state highway was shut down. There is an obvious public interest in getting that news to readers as quickly as possible. It wasnt done to beat any other media with the story in this kind of case were not competing against anyone else in particular.
It was not until our reporter arrived back at the office with a few more details but not names and photos that we updated the original posting. That occurred at about 10:15 a.m. A photo of the accident, to show the severity of the accident, was posted. The photo is small enough online with no click-through for a larger view that it would be difficult to determine whose car is in the photo.
The paper also was criticized for posting the names too quickly. However, as I pointed out Sunday night in a comment, the Times did not post the names online until after it had received a news release from the Green County Sheriffs Department late Friday afternoon. The news release went to other media, as well, for public dissemination.
Id be happy to answer any other questions here readers might have about our coverage decisions.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and Im glad to have the Web site as a medium for people to share their views, regardless of what they are. I did want to address just a couple of criticisms that were made about the newspaper.
Some Web users were upset that the story of the accident appeared online as quickly as it did. The call came across the scanner at about 8:45 a.m. Within about 20 minutes, I posted a short story online that said there had been a two-vehicle accident and that the highway was shut down. The story also told readers where traffic was being diverted.
I made the decision to post it quickly, as breaking news, because the state highway was shut down. There is an obvious public interest in getting that news to readers as quickly as possible. It wasnt done to beat any other media with the story in this kind of case were not competing against anyone else in particular.
It was not until our reporter arrived back at the office with a few more details but not names and photos that we updated the original posting. That occurred at about 10:15 a.m. A photo of the accident, to show the severity of the accident, was posted. The photo is small enough online with no click-through for a larger view that it would be difficult to determine whose car is in the photo.
The paper also was criticized for posting the names too quickly. However, as I pointed out Sunday night in a comment, the Times did not post the names online until after it had received a news release from the Green County Sheriffs Department late Friday afternoon. The news release went to other media, as well, for public dissemination.
Id be happy to answer any other questions here readers might have about our coverage decisions.
