Good afternoon, All
My name is John Adams, and I am the pseudonymous publisher of Free Whitewater (freewhitewater.com), a small blog about municipal affairs in Whitewater, Wisconsin. I am the sole publisher and author of the website, and have been publishing there since May 2007.
Occasionally, I publish press criticism, and I have offered critiques of articles in The Week, Janesville Gazette, and the Whitewater Register. Readers at my website are familiar with an occasional series about the Whitewater Register, called Register Watch™ , in which I publish reviews of stories and articles appearing in my weekly hometown paper.
Like many bloggers, I am an ordinary person with an interest in local affairs, and press coverage of my town. There is nothing special about either my background or my abilities; I am a common man.
No one believes more in a free and confident press than I do – I believe that better press coverage — rigorous, inquisitive, and independent – produces over time a better politics and a more open, free, and productive culture. (As it is, Whitewater, Wisconsin has a poverty rate higher than her neighbors.)
I’d like to ask a few questions, about your press coverage of our community, and I’d like to publish your replies on my website, with your permission.
- On average, how many stories directly about Whitewater, Wisconsin do you publish weekly?
- How many reporters, on your staff, cover Whitewater, Wisconsin (on any topic) regularly? If you have more than one reporter assigned, are they assigned to stories based on issue, or the reporters’ relative experience, or any other standard other than mere availability?
- Of these stories on Whitewater, how many are original copy from your reporters, and how many are press releases?
- If you publish press releases from politicians, community groups, or businesses, do you identify the release expressly as a press release? If so, how do you indicate to readers that a published story includes, in whole or in part, content from a press release?
- If you do not expressly indicate that a published story includes, in whole or in part, content from a press release, then why do you not so indicate?
- Do you have a standard of journalists’ ethics to which you subscribe, and to which you hold reporters, editors, photographers, &c. responsible?
- If so, which standards are those to which you subscribe?
- Do you have a policy for checking your reporters, editors, and photographers for potential conflicts of interest? If that policy is separate from any other principles of journalists’ ethics to which you subscribe, then what is that separate policy?
- Your newspaper has a website. Do you have plans to expand that website, or change it in significant ways? If you have plans for expansion, do you feel that web-only publishing might be in your future?
- Are you, or any of your reporters, photographers, or editors members of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council?
- As you know, Sunshine Week – http://www.sunshineweek.org — takes place March 15 through 21. Do you plan any articles, stories, or particular focus of coverage on freedom of information during that week?
- If you should have a hero or heroine, among journalists, politicians, or anyone else, then who would that be?