Posted on 02/19/2006 10:13:50 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
While the White House press corps seemed stunned that the Caller-Times broke the story on Dick Cheney's hunting accident, our local readers expected it.
And we were glad to meet their expectations. Frankly, the newsroom had some difficulty understanding what all the hubbub was about last week. As national newscasters asked repeatedly why a local newspaper first reported the story instead of the White House press, we kept asking, "Why not?"
George Gongora/Caller-Times
Reporters and photographers from all over the world
converged in city to cover the startling story that
began on the Armstrong Ranch.
We all heard our newspaper and this community falsely described as "Podunk" and "small town," clearly proving that some of the national press had failed to do their homework.
Nueces County has more than 316,000 residents, and it's just one of 12 counties we cover.
We're a consistently recognized, award-winning paper, named by the Press Club of Dallas as the best mid-sized paper in six states 13 out of the past 17 years. Our paper reaches 190,218 readers, and our Web site, Caller.com, has more than 197,319 registered users.
Out of the 1,456 daily newspapers in the United States, we rank 167th in circulation.
Our journalism is top-notch, and our work ethic is strong, as we devote resources exclusively to investigative stories and to features about your friends and neighbors.
We're a newsroom full of professional journalists who could work in larger markets, but choose to stay here. We like this community, our co-workers and the team we've built here.
We take seriously our jobs, our readers and the privilege of being journalists.
Our readers, such as Hugh Smith, know there is nothing "Podunk" about the Caller-Times.
"The National Press Corps is sitting around with egg on its face, trying to blame anyone they can think of for not 'giving' them the news," Smith wrote. "Someone needs to tell them to get off their collective rear ends and go to work and quit waiting for someone to tell them what is happening. If they don't know how to do this, have them come on down to Corpus Christi. I am sure the good folks at the Caller-Times would be happy to give them some training."
Added reader Tom Sussman: "As a long-standing and ardent critic of the current state of journalism, I found your article to be a breath of fresh air. Maybe real journalism isn't dead."
We're a newsroom committed to changing with the times, building a multi-media operation that delivers information any way you want it, through print, Web stories, Web video and e-mail alerts.
Caller.com video taken by online content creator John Metz of photographer George Gongora demonstrating a shotgun drew 10,000 viewers on the Web in just five hours. The quality was so good that both CNN and MSNBC aired it nationally.
The national press doesn't corner the market on great journalism. It can happen in any community, and as our readers here know, it frequently does.
My staff here knows that I expect them to be first in breaking news in our area, and we would have been deeply embarrassed had we not been first with the Cheney story.
Cheney told Fox News' Brit Hume Wednesday: "It strikes me that the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is just as valid a news outlet as The New York Times is, especially for covering a major story in South Texas."
Breaking what was national news last week was not a fluke for us.
As Managing Editor Shane Fitzgerald told me: "We were just doing our jobs."
Libby Averyt is editor of the Caller-Times. Phone: 886-3681. E-mail: averytl@ caller.com
Overnight replay of Meet The Press on MSNBC now.
Last chance to watch Mary Matalin zing David Gregory and Maureen Dowd.
Must see TV!
Mary Matalin absolutely mopped the floor with Gregory and Dowd... it was a beautiful thing to watch! KUDOS, Mary, if you're lurking... ;-)
I missed it this morning, can't wait to see it too.
Here's the transcript: (overkill gloating)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11363075/
have they started yet?? Is the PMSNBC or CNBC??
Take that, arrogant, lazy, self-important media elite!
Roundtable yack is starting now!
How many patting-us-on-the-back articles is this lady going to write?
Probably about as many as when she was sent to jail over the weekend of her honeymoon when she refused to testify against a capital murder defendant she interviewed at the Nueces County Jail. That defendant was later convicted and sentenced to death.
WARNING: Please refrain from bitch-slapping your monitor when Dowd speaks.
Love that bold flower power!!!
Listen to aging valley girl speak. you know, you know, you know, ad nausum.
Trying to beat the MSM at their own game?
Dowd doesn't get it! The vice President isn't supposed to spill his guts to the press.
Anybody wanna bet that Laura Ingraham picks up on Gregory's butt-monkey after his "yea-fine" apology?
What an @ss-clown
Here comes the bitch slap.......
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