Reporter’s Truthiness Gets in the Way of Truth in a Brooklyn Community
On a local news website, I saw a strange title. The author of the piece, Elizabeth Elizalde referred to the politician as a “Hometown Hero.” I thought to myself, ‘that guy isn’t from here.‘
Although using alliteration might be pretty writing for a college class, Ms. Elizalde misled Brooklynites with the title of her article. (For my middle-aged readers who are trying to remember what alliteration means -it’s is using words that begin with the same letter or sound such as in “Hometown Hero”).
I searched Elizabeth Elizalde up and saw the freelance writer had a Twitter acct. so I sent her a tweet. I’ve talked with a lot of young reporters on Twitter in the last year and always had a good experience.
She responded and blocked me.
Yup. SMH.
(For my readers still living in the ’90’s, SMH means Shaking My Head)
I’ve never heard of a reporter blocking someone because of a comment. Elizalde is from Bushwick, Brooklyn so she should have a harder shell. Could she not see that her use of these words implied that this politician was a lifelong resident of Sunset Park? I was concerned that the politician was allowing something false to be printed (other politicians have allowed that to happen in Brooklyn). I wasn’t the only one who saw this:
I shot a private message to the politician and he responded that he would have the article corrected. BTW, I was a big supporter of his until he turned his back on a large portion of the community. One of the biggest problems he has is that he isn’t from the area and doesn’t live in Sunset Park so when he thinks that he is doing something “fair,” it’s not because one part of his neighborhood is at such a disadvantage.
Was Elizalde trying to mislead people? I’m not sure. I think it’s more that she is wrapped up in her own truthiness to be able to understand that even in little local papers people need to be able to read accurate information and not just pretty words. Her article commends the politician as if he was a god, but a quick quick Google search of his name will show that he hasn’t been connecting with a large portion of his community. I know Elizalde knows Brooklyn has grown accustomed to fluff pieces and press releases in our papers, but I haven’t.
I also wrote to the editor of the paper. The woman who is the editor is fierce! I look forward to updates on her other site because her site is one of the few places where the truth about anything political can be found. Elizabeth Elizalde actually writes well so I’m surprised she would push through an article like that with that editor. I sent the editor a tweet and she responded positively, but only changed the title and added this to the bottom:
Clarification [June 2, 10am]: An earlier version of the headline misleadingly referred to the councilman as Sunset Park’s hometown hero, although he was not born in New York. We’ve adjusted the headline accordingly.
She should have done better than that because a lie was allowed to be printed. So Cornerstone Media should have don
She wants clicks for the article, but are clicks more important than the truth. What do I mean by that? She knows, but I will explain for everyone else.
The original article’s link was not changed – here’s the link:
.http://sunsetparkvoice.com/politics/carlos-menchaca-sunset-parks-hometown-hero-brings-voice-voiceless/
On June 1st, a new article article title and link was done:
Carlos Menchaca: Sunset Park’s Councilman Brings A Voice To The Voiceless
.http://sunsetparkvoice.com/politics/carlos-menchaca-sunset-parks-hometown-hero-brings-voice-voiceless/
Elizabeth retweeted the paper: https://twitter.com/sunsetparkvoice/status/738090703272706048
The original remained with a redirect code at first, but now it just stays at that page and when someone searches for that politician and the word hero, it comes up in a search (both through google and their site). If you understand a little code, you can see what they did here:
Both Elizalde and the editor kept the original link up on Twitter and they are still there days later.
I wrote today’s post because while sometimes it is the politicians who try to play us, it’s also the media that diverts us from the truth. Whether it’s a reporter whose truthiness covers the truth and won’t correct mistakes when they are pointed out OR an editor/media outlet that is just looking for clicks, it’s all the same to me.
Half honest – is that a thing?
Maybe politics is just a topic Elizalde should avoid as pretty words can’t be used to cover the truth. Words are all we have sometimes.
Update: July 12, 2016: Elizabeth Elizalde reported for the same online news website about a suicide in Bay Ridge. The train motorman had a panic attack and ran down the tracks. That was reported in almost every news piece about the the story, except she didn’t have that in her story. Her story makes it seem like the motorman made a mistake. He did not – it was just PSD.
Hugs,
marlene
Topics: Brooklyn | No Comments »