Frustrated
Update: Well, all that whining on my part for nothing. Gov. Easley announced a $300,000 in grants for technology-themed high schools, none of them in Guilford, Rockingham or Randolph.
Click here to read the news release.
Update 2: Click here for more on the award to Alamance-Burlington.
-----
If reporters have a common gripe about Gov. Mike Easley, it's that the wording in this announcement is all too common:
RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley will make an education announcement at 10:15 a.m. WEDNESDAY (May 18) in the Governor's Press Conference Room in the Administration Building (115 W. Jones St.) in Raleigh.
Friends, you now know what the capital press corps knows - not much. Oh, and that note arrived just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, which is right when most of us are trying to file stories for the next day's paper or the nightly broadcast.
Why is this sort of announcement annoying? Because contrary to the popular image of reporters gaggling around their favorite public officials, the reporters up here at the state capital spend a lot of time trying to make stories specifically relevant to readers back at home.
For me, that objective often leads me to spend more time talking to folks back in the Triad than the denizens of the halls of power here. But if I don't know what's going down, it's a bit hard to ask intelligent questions.
Now, it's not that we don't appreciate the invite to Easley's shindig. I always love hearing from the head of state.
But because that notice arrived late Tuesday, we reporters have had little time before the conference to do any prep work, that is if we had any information to prep on. We don't really, at least nothing solid.
So why do governors and others of equivalent stature do this sort of thing? I'm not in the clairvoyance business, but my educated guess is they want to control the story. The less time us scrubby press types have to get other voices on the record the bigger roll the governor's (or whoever's) voice will have to play.
Sigh.
So I'll give your regards to Mr. Easley this morning and report back here what he has on his mind. And if it's important enough, I may be calling some of you for your thoughts.