Sunday, December 03, 2006

Blogger: Dupont is playing media

The In the Mailbox blog notes that Anderson Guest House owner Robert Dupont's initial interview with Sarah Overstreet of the Springfield News-Leader may have come as a result of her known propensity for soft feature columns:

The only reason he would talk to a columnist known for warm, fuzzy stories and sticking up for the little guy is because he's afraid of his past. By going to Overstreet, he's hoping for an ally; that the bad ol' media won't ask tough questions about why he was operating a home that he shouldn't have been operating. Unfortunately, this doesn't help him look any better.


Blogger Joe Hadsall, formerly editor of the Nixa News-Enterprise, and currently a designer for the Joplin Globe, notes quite correctly that Globe reporters gave Dupont numerous opportunties to put his thoughts on the record (So did area television stations and other news outlets for that matter.):

Since the beginning, group home owner Robert J. Dupont, a convicted felon, has had a chance to talk to the media and address issues surrounding the fire, as well as some questionable things in his past. He wouldn't talk...a Joplin Globe reporter had to go to his house requesting comment, because Dupont wouldn't return calls. And he still wouldn't talk.


Dupont's gambit appears to have backfired since Ms. Overstreet does write a wonderful feature column, but she also has a long background as a reporter and knows how to do a hard-hitting piece.

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