I have no idea if this means anything, but FYI from Melanie's blog July 26, 2006--
We have a new features editor who's also a familiar face. Thad Ogburn, previously our deputy metro editor, stepped into the job a couple of weeks ago. He'll oversee all features content for online and print, including the daily Life, etc. sections and the weekly features sections: What'sUp, Home&Garden, Sunday Journal, A&E and Travel.
Ogburn has held several leadership roles here: He joined the paper as a copy editor and rose to the position of news editor, the person who oversees our news sections copy desk.
In 1999, Ogburn became the first editor and general manager of the North Raleigh News and led the community section for several years. More recently, he helped launch The Durham News, our weekly N&O/community paper, in 2005. A native of Winston-Salem, Ogburn brings both experience and creative fire to the job. You can contact him at togburn@newsobserver.com or 829-8987
I can't find a connection, loads of Ogburn's in the Triangle.
http://www.sandyogburn.org/
This just uncovered. More on CondorFlight's discovery yesterday about the relationship between the NandO and DPD.
http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/041115_prince/
Arrested for Attempting Interview
November 15, 2004
Raleigh Reporter Accused of Harassment
"A News & Observer reporter was arrested Sunday morning after a woman he was trying to interview for a story charged him with making harassing phone calls," Jessica Rocha reports today in the Raleigh News & Observer.
"Ruth A. Brown, a property room technician with the Durham Police Department, filed the complaint against reporter Demorris Lee, 36, of Raleigh.
"Brown's testimony three years ago convicted a teenager of robbing her. It led to a jail sentence of at least 10 years for the teen, Erick Daniels.
"But the case has been reopened by Durham police, and a Durham advocacy group also is reviewing it.
"Since 2001, Lee has written about Brown's case and Daniels, who claims he is innocent of the robbery.
"Lee said he remembers leaving two voice messages on Brown's home answering machine last month when he was working on a story about Daniels' attempts to clear his name. Lee said the messages were respectful and were a routine part of the reporting process. If Brown didn't want to comment, he said, she could have simply told him so.
"I think it was only fair I call and ask her to respond," Lee said in the story. "I would have been derelict of my duties if I didn't give her the opportunity to respond to Erick Daniels' contention that he was not the one who robbed her."
"Lee was released without bail Sunday morning by a Wake County magistrate on a written promise to attend a Nov. 24 court date in Durham," the story continued.
"Arresting a reporter for making harassing phone calls is extremely rare, said Orlando Hudson Jr., Durham County senior resident Superior Court judge.
". . . Melanie Sill, The N&O's executive editor, said that during her tenure at the paper, a reporter has never been charged with harassing a source. Reporters routinely call people who are part of news stories to give them an opportunity to comment, she said.
"'Leaving a telephone message doesn't constitute harassment,' Sill said. 'This doesn't do justice to serious cases of harassment. This is a waste of the justice system's time.'"
She told Journal-isms today that "we're completely behind Demorris, all of us here all the way up to corporate headquarters." The paper is owned by the McClatchy Co. Sill said the company was consulting lawyers. She said she had looked up the statute and that it clearly said it was against the law to threaten or harass, which is not what Morris was doing.
It's another lesson that "people can abuse the justice system," she said.
Ernie Suggs of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the regional representative on the board of the National Association of Black Journalists, told NABJ members today that, "The NABJ Board is aware of Demorris' situation and working on a plan."
The Triangle Association of Black Journalists issued a statement, which is at the end of today's posting.