Open Source in Tuttle, OK

[firecat]

A follow-up story:

http://www.tuttletimes.com/siteSearch/apstorysection/local_story_088201244.html

The city manager is quoted thus:

[CentOS is] a free operating system that this guy gives away, which tells you how much time he's got on his hands.

Comments

[garviegirl.livejournal.com]

Sorry to just crash in, but I really wanted to comment.

You're right; I should have tried to contact Johnny. I did try, but not really hard. I looked for an e-mail for him, and when I didn't find it quickly, I didn't press it. The main gist of the story was supposed to be how this thing affected the local community, and what it meant to local people, and that's what I went for. I didn't want to get too technical because it needed to be something that my 80 year old subscribers who don't even have a computer could have a chance at understanding. The subscribers were the audience I was aiming for, even though I knew this story would have a larger following.

Another roadblock is the fact that the news team at the Times is just me, and we had several other stories break that week that also needed close attention.

Johnny contacted me after the story ran, and I put his letter in the April 6 issue of the paper. I was glad to have his second viewpoint in the paper, plus it took the issue a little deeper for those readers who wanted to know more.

I know some people online are saying I was biased for the city manager, but to be honest, I thought I was being hard on Jerry by putting his quotes in the article. I think he did too; the link from the city website to the paper has been removed and I haven't heard from him since the interview. Such is life.

[firecat]

Thanks for your comments. It's interesting to see the inner workings and all the decisions you had to make!

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

As an ex-journalist, I attest that this sounds exactly like the way things can work out, especially on a smaller paper with a smaller staff.

All you needed to do to be "hard" on the city manager was to state the facts of the case, including quoting him directly, as you say. He doesn't sound like he backs down from grudges very easily, so good luck with future newsgathering.