Loose DeKalb Lips Make Waves (Of Oppression) For AJC

Ahoy! Botched metaphor. I know.

Loose lips might sink ships, circa 1942, but they never torpedoed any ships of journalism. To the contrary. Lip flappers, whistleblowers, gossips and media whores power and embolden entire journalism empires, causing ships to rise off of copy tides. Just look at the numbers for the Guardian empire lately. Off the charts!

Over in less high profile seas, say here down South, in today’s 1-minute news cycle there really is no such thing as a genuine “scoop” brought about by wildly exclusive information. Except when there (rarely) is, of course.

But don’t tell that to the powers-that-be at the AJC, as they’re lashing any remaining, hardworking reporter-bees left on their deck to the mast and thrashing them mightily, as punishment for having failed to sight enough scoops in their cruddy little scopes.

Two independent sources have now told me how Atlanta Journal & Constitution reporters, good ones, are being “written up” (or threatened with some type of disciplinary action) for failing to bring home the bacon fast enough. Failing to reel in genuine news “scoops.”

(“Scoops” being 100% exclusive 411 about specific, non-public events – but before the event occurs, allowing for a news organization to be first out of the gate on disseminating word of that particular news situation; to “own the story” in other words, something that’s increasingly hard to do in our hyper-connected world unless Edward Snowden or Julian Assange just happens to waltz by your office and dump raw intel on your desk. And “written up” being a documented threat by one’s superior to take away one’s job, rank, authority, paycheck and/or general livelihood should you, the super’s underling, not perform in some sort of, subjectively, better manner.)

Mark Winne at WSB-TV, for example, often gets genuine scoops about soon-to-be-made arrests by various Georgia law enforcement, and is thus frequently the first and only reporter in place for that classic, high-value video, law enforcement-enhancing moment – ye olde perp walk.

Of course it’s one of those open secrets in Atlanta old media circles that Winne’s brother is an FBI or GBI agent (I forget which agency) who tips his family member, Mark, off to lots of special events soon to happen. If that’s the case, they’ve had a lock on a good-visuals franchise for years now, and will continue at that game for as long as the gig works, I suppose.

Oh Dunwoody, So Much To Answer For

The Dunwoody Media Empire, comprised of The Crier and a blog that finds lost cats, have been pimping secession from Dekalb County – in the form of a shining City on the Perimeter… for a while now despite very little information being disseminated as to the financial ramifications of doing such a thing.

And oh how the hollerin’ raged on into the night when Rep. Jill Chambers and Rep. Hatfield voted against incorporation recently, saving Dunwoody residents from themselves, as the cat blog so un-poetically put it.

The tip line tells Mostly Media that all might not be dead in Dunwoody-based legislation at the Dome after all, thanks to specific lobbying efforts by a certain key citizen, a Dekalb resident who wouldn’t even be incorporated into a new city if there ever is some of that incorporatin’ still to be had.

In addition, the tip line tells us Rep. Hatfield may now be being persuaded (presumably by just such lobbying efforts) to change his vote to something much more favorable to the creation of a City of Dunwoody… if there was to be a resurrection of future legislation in hopes of keeping incorporation hope alive.

Keep in mind, if a City of Dunwoody happens, Dekalb County would lose its flowing-gold revenue stream (Perimeter Mall area). And hon, very nasty things have been known to happen in Dekalb Cty over lesser matters… making The Hot New Battle of Dunwoody-DeKalb the one to watch in ’08. All to be found in utterly partial, localized, micro-media.

A new media trend emerging in Atlanta? Wake me up when there’s some video I can click-on…