Ask And Ye Shall Receive

The Commercial Appeal runs a few blogs on their website. They don't quite seem to grok the whole blogging thing yet. But they are getting there. Over on Blake's Blog, maintained by political reporter and shrewd eye Blake Fontenay, he usually posts bits that didn't make the cut for publication, but he has also gone into discussions about his love of college football and has tried to get readers of his blog to cough up some discussion. He's getting there.

Anyway, today came great news! I've been bugging Blake, in his comments, to have the CA print a transcript of Mayor Herenton's New Year's Day inauguration speech, the one that ignited the firestorm of recriminations and infighting that's consumed City Hall ever since. Today, they did the next best thing. They have uploaded an audiofile of the speech in MP3 format (Right click and "Save Page as...") and also left a link for Windows Media Player.

It's wonderful to see the CA take this step, a welcome change of attitude from the Glass Block of News of old. It's not newsprint publication, yeah; it's only for those who find Blake's Blog or another blogger who links to it. I'm downloading it tonight. (I'm on dial-up and it's a 12MB file; takes an hour for me.) I would ask other Memphis bloggers to get the word out on this availability and to give it a listen, if you've been following this story. Hear the Mayor boast, brag and browbeat for yourself!

Next step: A written transcript. Anyone know a transcriber who'd take up the job pro bono? Maybe the paper has an intern lying around? Back when the story was red-hot, it was imperative to give readers a clear, easily read copy of that speech, so that we knew exactly what was said, and not just the soundbites of television nor the selected quotes of the paper, so that we could make up our minds for ourselves and have a complete picture, without selection bias.

When someone else pops off, here's hoping the Commercial Appeal will jump on something like this a bit faster. And in print. Or at least with a detailed writeup on the website with a link to an audiofile, if one is available. It's what the web is all about, and what good news reporting ought to be in the age of computers and the Internet.

Once again, kudos to Blake for making it happen and the Commercial Appeal for doing it.