I had some time today to re-examine the media coverage of the Ron Doerge investigation and I am still perplexed about the initial article in The Neosho Daily News.
The lead of the story made it appear as if some mysterious, malevolent force was trying to create a problem in Newton County. "Someone identified only as 'administrator' has posted a copy of a complaint allegedly filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission on the website www.neoshoforums.com " That was how Michelle Pippin's article began.
The problems with the article are not with Michelle, but with the editing. With an inexperienced staff like the one Buzz Ball has in Neosho (with the exception of John Ford), it is important for the editor to help guide his reporters in the right direction.
Instead, Michelle was left wide open to ridicule with her last paragraph. "Although the identity of the 'administrator" is not revealed on the Neosho Forums website, the Neosho Daily News has learned who this individual is, and he, too, could not be reached by press time."
In the first place, the name of the administrator is very definitely listed on the Neosho Forums site. Even though I am fully aware of the administrator's real name, I decided to see just how long it would take me to find out who he is through some simple research.
First, I checked out the Site News on the Forums site and quickly found his name on an item posted Oct. 8, 17 days before the Daily article ran.
I decided to throw that one out since not everyone is as familiar with how to navigate Neosho Forums as I am. It took only a few seconds on the Google search engine to find a July 21, 2003, "Ozarks Connection' column from the Springfield News-Leader, which featured the administrator's vision for Neosho Forums and similar sites he was setting up across southwest Missouri.
It took less than five minutes to find two sources with his name, which I am not printing because I don't want to make things too easy for the traditional media. The Joplin Globe must not have had any problems since the name was featured in its Tuesday, Oct. 26, edition. Many times hard-working young reporters can work miracles if they are given a little advice, a little encouragement, and pointed in the right direction. In these days of the Internet, e-mail, cell phones, etc., there is no reason why reporters can't come up with the information they need most of the time. But they have to know where to look and sometimes it takes an experienced hand to show them.
I can remember three or fours years ago when I lectured to journalism classes at Missouri Southern about the ways in which the Internet can be used for investigative journalism. Many of them were amazed at what could be found out by surfing the net. There are ways of finding out many things that were not available to reporters only a decade ago.
Unfortunately, many times young reporters are not exposed to that kind of training. It's not their fault. They are doing the best they can. The inability to verify the administrator's name is a minor problem. The stories that aren't being done because reporters don't know where to look for information is a major problem. As long as we have editors and reporters who don't know how to dig or who are not given the time to do so, it is the reading public that will suffer.