Reporter Catches Fire For Linking To Blogger’s MySpace
Posted on August 4, 2008 at 9:07 amThe controversy over a Tyson Foods plant swapping out Labor Day for a Muslim holiday in deference to the Islamic presence in its work force took an interesting turn over the weekend.
Blogger Christy Frink, who took issue with a newspaper story on the subject and the accompanying comments beneath it, was “outed” as an employee of Catholic Charities of Tennessee by the reporter for the Shelbyville Times Gazette covering the story.
In an extensive blog post on the controversy and his experience covering related issues, reporter Brian Mosely, attempting to turn charges of bias on him around to his critics, used Frink’s MySpace, where she listed her employer, to call into question her objectivity on immigration issues.
The blogosphere was not pleased with the tactic.
The Times-Gazette is doing a fine job of reporting on this issue, but I’d advise Mr. Mosley to lay off the personal redirection and speculation. I get the impression he’s imagining he’s on the cusp of some pulitzer-winning expose of a grand conspiracy of charities to bring refugees into this country. Or something. He’s either doing so out of ignorance to the economic complexity and sheer magnitude of the situation or he’s being willfully naive in order to, as Christy suggested, stir up controversy with the local yokels (which he certainly has).
Stick to calling for reform, avoid insinuating vested interest and conspiracy on behalf of the organizations trying to help these people. Someone might mistake you for an insane person.
Given that a reporters’ claim to objectivity is his or her ability to interview and to portray meaning or facts as close to the subject as possible, it might have helped Mr. Mosley to have done an interview with the blogger about her work before jumping to the conclusion that the vocation of social work itself engenders blinders.
First of all, I have worked in Social Work myself. I wish that Mosely had linked to that site instead of her MySpace page, but that’s just me. He obviously took the time to dig around about Christy, but he linked to the wrong page if you ask me. That didn’t set well with me at all but he made his choice and put his name on it. He should have linked to the site he referenced regarding her employment. That way it would have validated not only her but him. She might have information that he doesn’t. See where I’m getting at.
It should be noted that the reporter in question, Brian Mosely, was a “victim” of what could be seen as a similar “outing” back in January when WBIR blogger Katie Granju linked up to Mosely’s personal blog to call into question his objectivity in his previous reporting.
Comments
10 Responses to “Reporter Catches Fire For Linking To Blogger’s MySpace”
Let me see if I have this straight… Christy Frink’s opinion on Islamic holidays is tainted by the NEWS FLASH that she’s a Christian? Because with a name like “Christy”, I’d have guessed she was a Buddhist for sure!
[…] by acorcoran on August 1, 2008 Update! August 4th: Bloggers (here) are now going after Mosely for exposing one critic of his reporting as an employee of a refugee […]
Reading through the chain of stories, blog posts, comments, blurbs, illiterate screams, and whatnot, it seems you can place all in one of two categories: people removed from the situation who are outraged that anyone can speak so poorly of a discrete group of foreign black muslims (omigawd you can’t SAY that about them!), and people there, on the ground, who have had to deal with a large influx of Somali refugees.
Smug PC versus knowledge.
As someone from another part of the country whose community had a similar influx of Somalis, let me say this:
We watched as our high school became a battleground, with the Somalis hanging together as a very cohesive, hateful, and aggressive pack (oooo, he used an animal word!) constantly stealing (actually, when they gang up on kids and beat them up and take Ipods and money, I guess it’s actually robbing), and destroying things for fun, and screaming at teachers to shut the f*** up, and grabbing little girls’ breasts and butts and crotches as they saw fit. We saw late-night assaults near restaurants and bars triple. We saw them aggressively demanding that more and more county and city funds designated for general welfare purposes be devoted solely to them, and our PC-guilt-laden sociology-major welfare workers giving in and transferring money set out for eldercare, special education inititives, and whatnot quietly moved to “refugee assistance.”
They beat up their women routinely, right in front of everyone, and then scream “racism” when we stop them, arrest them, and encourage them to find new hobbies. They are incredibly rude and hateful to everyone with whom they deal - the’ll let us support them (many for several years now) while making it very clear that, as non-muslims, we should shut up and and be happy they allow us in their presence.
But we can’t say such things here, as this reporter now understands. It’s racist.
Bull. It’s culturist. And some cultures are simply unacceptable.
Is there any richer irony than a newspaper reporter accusing someone of bias?
Bloggers. They can dish it out, but they can’t take it.
In Texas, it’s legal to defend PROPERTY RIGHTS with lethal force after dark or if the owner feels threatened.
I would imagine that the arrogant legal (or illegal) immigrants to this country mentioned above would be better off not appearing to threaten their neighbors in the future…
YMMV.
The Reporter in the OP is just a sniveling coward who couldn’t back his story with eloquence or facts and decided to attack the source of criticism. That’s a tool of the left. Expect to see more of it as time goes on.
BTW, call your Congressional Rep and ask them to pressure the Speaker for a vote on off-shore drilling. Let’s get this one over with one way or the other.
[…] Shelbyville Times Gazette reporter Brian Mosely is now “questioning the objectivity” of a blogger who is criticizing his coverage of the Muslim immigrant population in Bedford […]
[…] Allison Granju comments on a reporter from her hometown paper accusing a blogger of bias: First of all, bloggers don’t have to be objective. Second of all, this is pretty ironic, coming […]
A thousand Christian friends and I are going to seek refuge in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates. We are doing this because we can no longer pray in public or express our religious beliefs without being labeled a racist and because we are poor, our US manufacturing jobs were moved overseas to China.
In Dubai, we will be given jobs at Al-Futtaim Auto and Machinery Company (FAMCO). After a few months of working staying in our subsidies housing, we will gather together and have 3 of our Christian refugees designated as employee representatives at FAMCO. We will strongly request, and naturally receive, that Christmas be offered as a paid holiday at FAMCO, replacing National Day (2 Dec).
Hey, we’ll also have Eid al-Fitr off!!!
I’m sure our new Arab benefactors will have no problem with this.
[…] John Carney doesn’t understand folks who get angry with publications just for reporting a story: [H]ere’s an excerpt from one of those “send editor comment” […]