News-Record.com

John

Why are you not covering the story on Jerry Bledsoe? I understand that he hasn't been kind to the N&R in his series about the Greensboro Police Department. But I also think this has mushroomed into a very serious situation. Would you not agree that when peoples live are in danger, it has become a huge story? I think by not reporting this story the N&R inadvertantly gives the crooks cover.

Sorry to be so blunt, I just don't understand,

We have written that a threat was made on Jerry's life, Wayne. Jerry has done a great job telling his story in the Rhino. It tells a personal story about what someone goes through when his life is threatened.

You want us to repeat it? I don't know what we could add to it. Can you elaborate on which crooks are getting cover from our not reporting it? (Bear in mind that the Rhino claims to have a larger readership than the N&R.)

Thank you for responding. I'm not sure I know exactly who the crooks are. I believe there are some in the GSO Police Department and maybe some in City hall. I know that our Police Department is worse than sorry. I had so many break-ins on my proprties last year that I quit calling them. I had eleven at just one property.. I also know the Rhino has very little credibility, but because of Jerry Bledsoe, maybe, just maybe the damn inept politicians will be forced to to what they were elected to do. Like Most of my friends I'm just plain fed up with PACs and Political Correctness. It is just as bad here as it was at Duke. I'm fed up.
I'm ready to sign petitions.

We are working on a series of stories about crime in the city, the frustration and fruitlessness that citizens feel about it and what's being done. I don't know that it will point to any crooks in the PD or City Hall.

I await the results of the efforts at greater transparency brought on by the new council. They could start by moving along on the assault allegations against the three officers and on the black book, don't you think?

I think the N&R.s efforts to do stories about Greensboro crime is great. If your paper had not run the Project Homestead series they, Homestead, would still be ripping us off.
My disapointment with Homestead was not with you or the N&R but with our Mayor and Council who afraid were of Michael King. Again another example of Poltiical Correctness. King was an expert with the race card and he played them perfectly. Maybe the Council used Linda Miles for cover but she too made some fancy legal rulings for not not investigating Homestead. I believe she is now paying a price for it.

Again, thanks and I'm looking forward to the stories

From "Roger Greene" at Guarino's blog:

"Rest assured that the relationship between Bledsoe and the News and Record is so hostile that if he (Bledsoe) turned up floating in the Randleman Reservoir with a gunshot wound they'd be all over it in section B page 4."

That about sums it up. For a lot of us.

The amount of craziness in comment sections of blogs continues unabated.

I've never heard of Roger Greene and have no idea how he can speak with any authority. Perhaps that's why he's making his comment on a blog not connected with the paper.

Despite what you think, there isn't any hostility toward Jerry from us. I disagree with his views on some things, but that's hardly hostility. He's written often about his hostility toward us, however.

As I asked Wayne, what about the story would you like us to report? What is it that you think we can add to the story that he hasn't already said?

John, NOT CRAZY. Would you (and some of your "we're-so-superior" pals) PLEASE take that out of your sad, pathetic arsenal of debate tactics?

I don't know who Roger is either. But he nailed it.

And pssssssst, folks commenting at the blog in question are talking about you/your paper.

Based on a lot of experience in trying to carry on a dialogue with you about what the N&R should be covering/INVESTIGATING in the area(S) it says it covers, I'm not going to waste my time.

Good luck with all the public records requests. I know that stretches a lot of journalistic muscle.

So John, just so I'm clear on your position, you have no hard feelings towards Jerry Bledsoe and you wish him no ill. Fair enough. He has some animosity towards the N&R rooted in his 'Death By Journalism' book. Am I right?

Then you say the Rhino has covered the story and since they claim to have greater circulation than your paper, it's already been covered adequately in Greensboro to warrant no further investigation. So would it be fair to state that despite this advantage claimed by the Rhino there's still a huge group of readers of the N&R that don't read the Rhino? If so, could we say that number would be pegged at several thousand?

If a citizen not named Jerry Bledsoe who wrote columns in the Rhino was threatened by an organized crime organization would it be considered newsworthy if you had exclusive initial coverage to that story? I'm trying to gauge the playing field here if you'll indulge my mental condition for a moment? I'll be glad to give you my life history as well if you need more bonafides from me.

But let me be more open. I don't buy large chunks of the story Bledsoe has written as dictated by David Wray or provided to him in way of documentation. But, when Bledsoe writes in first person about his own experience I find it credible and highly newsworthy. In fact, one would think it even more newsworthy considering the lack of animosity the N&R exhibits towards the subject and therefore something their readers might want to know about. Sometimes we get so much conflicting information from our media out here in real world land that we need more than one source in order to try and triangulate the truth.

Thanks. Now I have to take my meds. Through the miracle of chemistry I'm not really that easily offended. ;-)

The craziness reference refers to the silliness of the quoted comment. If you take it at face value, which I did, it IS crazy. And ignorant, I might add, because it shows a lack of understanding of how we think and operate, yet acts as if it has some sort of authority.

Roger, this idea of hostility between Jerry and the paper has been staged and driven by Jerry. I think he's wrong and mean-spirited on most of what he writes about me and the paper, but I bear him no ill will.

Jerry tells a story of federal officials notifying him that there's evidence some criminals want him "touched." He tells his personal story. Even if you can imagine that he would sit down and talk with us about it -- and there is little evidence that he would -- what do you think we could add to the story? If the answer is "not much," then why would we do it? To duplicate something that has just been written in the Rhino? And if Jerry wouldn't grant us an interview, then what? Quote his words in the Rhino and retell the same story?

The Rhino prints a lot of stuff we don't follow up on. We print a lot of stuff it doesn't follow up on. TV is the same way.

I admit I'm fascinated by the interest Rhino readers have in the News & Record picking up a story that is printed in the Rhino. I wonder if it every works the other way around? You have read Jerry's story in the Rhino. Why is it you want to read it again in the News & Record?

John
You give Hammer too much credit. Don't you realize most of us are reading the Rhino because of Jerry Bledsoe. He is very popular especially with us old-timers who remember him from the N&R. He is very believable, And yes, it does appear that your differences with him possibly taint your thinking. This death threat on Jerry is scarry. And when the possibility that our police may be involved then it is almost un-belivable. Even worse, most of us think some of our city council and manager are incompetent . Doesn't this make it a huge story?

The Troublemaker has a story this morning that
makes this even more un-belivable. It looks like we need John Wayne or Matt Dillon.

Pardon my denseness but what exactly is the huge story that hasn't been reported?

We reported the threat on Jerry. We have reported that some people think the manager and council are incompetent. I'm not aware that there is evidence that the police are involved in the death threat, and I didn't read that in Jerry's piece other than supposition.

Wayne, when can we put the "you don't like Jerry and that's why you don't write about this" stuff to rest? It's a strawman, old and baseless.