On New Developments, and "Ethical" or "Horrible" Journalism
While many developments are plowing forward, killing off beautiful trees, despite fiery opposition, we’ve gotten many comments on our different feeds. Reno is changing rapidly, and as many point out, the ball seems to be in the court of developers with armies of lawyers, lobbyists and PR teams, with deep pockets for contributing to the campaigns of many of our current city council members. Will one of them refuse this money? We will be following 2022 donations closely. We will also be curious to see who puts their hat in the next electoral ring.
The new opening date for the Cares Campus is May 10th and more and more city spokesman interviews are being given to the media. In our experience of reporting about massive shelters, those who willingly want to go to these, outside of harsh weather conditions, typically do well in prison or packed environments, bullying others and thriving off of big group, rules heavy dynamics. This mindset obviously does not apply to all. Consider the picture above. Does that structure look inviting to you?
When we posted about one member of the community hoping to actually sleep at the new campus, the story was angrily met on Facebook by comments from the Volunteers of America Regional Development Officer, who wrote “Color me shocked,” another “hit piece” by Our Town Reno. We can’t quote or remember the rest, because after back and forth commenting with us and others, she deleted her own initial comment. VOA had been in touch with us after we broke a story of a security guard pepper spraying someone who didn’t want to get out of bed fast enough. Were they being nice because of damage control? At that time, we suggested having one of our reporters stay a few hours at the temporary tent structure to see how staff worked there. We never got invited for that. Of course, when there’s a new development, such as the opening of this mammoth structure, the city spokesman is always ready to speak to media, and tours are given when no one is actually staying there.
Someone else commented that we committed “horrible journalism”. How so? And how would you define journalism? Has mainstream journalism not been for years reporting mostly from narrow perspectives?
Speaking of comments about our journalism, one comment about our look through social media posts affiliated with Shea’s Tavern and Lacey Shea got this comment: “… the innuendo associating the owner, and her family, and their businesses with white supremacism, due to liking photos of a few customers on social media, does not seem to rise to the level of newsworthiness or ethical journalism.”
Where is the innuendo? That photo of that man in a strange Blackface costume is the first ever post on Lacey Shea’s previous Instagram. If people are talking about it, including boycotting these establishments, and it’s filling up local Twitter and Reddit feeds, why isn’t it newsworthy? Is ignoring blatant racism in our community “ethical journalism”? We haven’t heard back from Lacey Shea, but the man in some of the posts with white supremacist signage and language has responded via Instagram.
Our podcast this week is on the hard working, ingenious and inspirational Reno Gastro Project. Find it in the hyperlink above or look for Our Town Reno where you get your podcasts and delve into the oral history version of our street reporting and heroes of Reno. See, we can also cheer a great project and local endeavor when we see one.
