I will admit that this is personal for me. I delivered the Advertiser to over 70 households all over south Chilton County six-nights-a-week for over a year. I was not fired or laid-off but simply had to quit the job after gas prices increased to the point that I could no longer afford to make deliveries for their organization. Also, my father was the co-founder of the original newspaper that was bought in 1975 and became what is now The Clanton Advertiser. I am a long-time reader and resident of the small Alabama town that this organization is suppose to serve. On top of all of that I've been engaging in discussions on their new website which now allows people to comment on articles. There I've encountered the most disgusting opinions imaginable about Barack Obama and I'm proud to say that my participation has tamped down the fear-mongering and hate-filled rhetoric from those on the 'right' who used to be able to post without being challenged by anyone.
After sending yet another email demanding an answer for their irresponsible journalism, I received the following response from Managing Editor Brent Maze:
First of all, that one reason was not the only reason for endorsing McCain. It was the prevailing reason, and as I have said the factual inaccuracy you have numerously repeated on our site was probably just a poor choice of words. When you have limited space to put an endorsement in the paper, we can only limit our reasoning to that space provided. The reason why there hasn’t been a retraction or a correction is because we felt there was none needed, and yes this was discussed with our news staff. I seriously doubt that we changed anyone’s mind, and the question of Obama’s experience is a valid question. I’m not sure that four years of serving in Washington is enough time to learn what he needed. I’m not sure anyone truly knows what kind of legislation Obama will propose with the exception of his “redistribution of the wealth.”
Not only does he try to cover the fact that they plainly got it wrong about Obama's legislative record by giving a weak excuse for how badly the article was written, he is now parroting more Republican talking points about Obama!
I've removed part of his email dealing with one of my comments that was deleted since that issue has been resolved, but here is the rest of Maze's response:
I do not have a problem with you calling us out, but I do not appreciate being bullied by you or anyone else. You were trying to do that in a phone call earlier this week. Because of that reason, I have chosen not to run your letter to the editor. You or anyone else will not make threats about doing something if we don’t do the thing you demand. The only one that has the right to tell me how to do anything is my boss.
For the record, I was not bullying anyone. I simply let him know that there would be consequences if they refused to correct their mistake such as my writing on this blog and my canceled plans to advertise in their "newspaper." This is something that I'm sure they're not use to at all: accountability.
Of course I had to reply and included his boss as a CC, but my emails were 'bounced' back to me. Because the emails were bounced back to me, not at the same time but an hour apart, I'm pretty sure that they read my response and just bounced the emails so I'd leave them alone. How sneaky and dishonest is that?
Here is my reply to Mr. Maze (with a paragraph pertaining to my deleted comment removed):
What matters is that the only reason you gave for endorsing McCain in that article was based on a falsehood about Obama. What your staff really thought or were limited by space to print is irrelevant when what you actually published was plainly wrong. Whether it was a poor choice of words or not, you did indeed get an obvious fact wrong and I would think that as a journalist you would care about that. However, now that you are repeating more Republican talking points about him, I have a better idea of where you're coming from.
I do apologize if I came across too harsh in my phone call to you, but I was understandably upset and may have been a bit tense on election day for obvious reasons. Not only is it important to me that people get the facts right about Obama, it is just as important that a news organization presents both sides in a fair and balanced way. Unfortunately, you failed to do this and apparently are still unwilling to set the record straight. That is your right too, but with all due respect, it speaks volumes about your organization's journalistic integrity.
I'm willing to let this go now, even though I am not satisfied at all by your lack of an official response in print. I will hope that in the future you will take your responsibility to your community seriously and get the facts correct no matter what the subject or who it may favor. That's what journalists are suppose to do.
I know that The Clanton Advertiser is a small town paper whose priority is obviously (based on their name) selling advertising and that they are probably used to operating without scrutiny, but this kind of irresponsible and sloppy journalism should not go on anywhere without some kind of accountability. As an ardent Obama supporter, I am sick and tired of the falsehoods being spread about him, and the fact the the Advertiser refuses to even admit their mistake shows their obvious bias and a complete lack of professionalism. Just because they are located in a very pro-Republican county in a very pro-Republican state does not give them free reign to mislead their readers and never set the record straight just because the fact they got wrong was about a Democrat.
They truth is obvious: They lied about Obama and will never admit their mistake. Due to their lack of any published response, I now believe that it was their intent to deliberately mislead their readers about Obama's record. Because of this and their recent inclination to censor comments on their website for no good reason, I will no longer be participating on their website, will never advertise with their organization, or even read their sorry excuse for a paper.
I encourage anyone who reads The Clanton Advertiser to take everything they publish, regardless of who it may favor, with a huge grain of salt. If you truly care about a news organization getting the facts correct and fairly representing all political candidates (especially when it's something as important as a presidential election), then I suggest that you cancel your subscription, refuse to advertise with them and boycott anyone who does buy ads in The Clanton Advertiser. This is the kind of accountability a dishonest and irresponsible news organization deserves.
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