Just a few tidbits on some METRO "olds" from July...
Turning to a bit of "olds" that has been in the bH blogging queue for a while now...
Readers probably will recall the story that Stephen Dean broke for KPRC-2 a couple of Fridays ago (July 24), on the indicted METRO VP. Here is an excerpt:
A Fort Bend County grand jury indicted William Murphy Madison, 44, of Houston, on charges of online solicitation of a minor, and he was arraigned before a district judge in Richmond this week.
[snip]
Metro has suspended Madison without pay from his $136,000 per year job, where was hired in 2007 as Associate Vice President of Infrastructure and New Initiatives.
The Chronicle finally managed to cover this story the following Monday (July 27). Here is an excerpt from Dale Lezon's reporting:
William Murphy Madison recently was indicted by a Fort Bend County grand jury for online solicitation of a minor, said Sgt. Dwayne Williams, of the Missouri City Police Department.
Williams said the department began investigating the case in September 2007 after a woman alerted authorities that she had found inappropriate images in e-mails on her 16-year-old son's computer.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said that Madison, who had worked for the agency since September 2007 and had the title of associate vice president, was suspended without pay the day he was arrested pending the outcome of the investigation.
Notice anything missing? Okay, the bolded text gives it away: Neither of these two stories, several days apart, gave hard dates.
So I decided to email the reporters and ask about the dates of the arrest and suspension. Here's Stephen Dean's response (which came quickly):
The indictment was returned in December 2008 and he was arrested in the early part of this month. He posted bail a day after his arrest.
Here's Dale Lezon's response (which came much less quickly):
Thanks for the note. We reported what was available. As the case progresses maybe more articles will be written. Thanks again for the note.
Notice the difference. KPRC's Dean, who broke the story, gave this reader additional detail when requested (although still not exact dates). Lezon basically dismissed my email, strongly suggesting that his reporting need not extend beyond press release information.
In contrast, when I inquired with METRO's Raequel Roberts about the arrest/suspension date, she told me it was July 9 (and responded quickly). When I followed up with a question about whether Madison would be allowed to return to work if he was acquitted or charges were dropped, she said that had "yet to be determined."
It did not take much time to track down this information that was apparently unavailable (or just not of interest) to the Houston Chronicle.
MORE: On the same topic of METRO "olds" we should note that Raequel Roberts responded to recent criticism from Carolyn Feibel and the Chron editorial board. Here is the response in full, which was posted to the METRO blog in addition to the Chron.com comments section.
The response effectively makes two points: 1) The Chronicle doesn't bother to cover these meetings anyway, and 2) METRO will continue to decide how it wishes to post notices on some meetings, if at all.
Just when we think we can no longer be surprised by METRO's arrogance... we are! We're not sure why any media relations professional would go out of her way to pick a fight with traditionally sympathetic local media. Why not just thank the newspaper for calling attention to the practice, and announce that moving forward, notices of working sessions and meetings would be posted by Mary Sit, the organization's expensive blogger, when possible?
Because that would be responsive to the public, and that's apparently not METRO's credo. They'll post some notices if/when they feel like it, and they'll lash out at any monitored local media who dare ask questions!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/09 12:46 PM | Print |
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