Thanks Don....

As a friend of mine just pointed out - this blog is doing no more than the Danville Register & Bee does when they jump on businesses like AutoVilla, or the city or anyone else who transgresses the legal and social boundaries of the community in a way that affects the community.

They pick and chose what they write about. So am I. It's a newspaper policy not to report on suicides - of which there are many in Danville. But how else will you know that the mental health system here is in a lot of hurt?

Unless a car accident involves serious injuries or death they don't bother (not juicy enough). And there are a host of lawsuits filed everyday that only merit a line or two in the back of the paper - if that. But if you don't follow up on that then how do you know the county is still struggling with how to charge for ambulance pick-ups? Not as sexy as crumpled car photos on the front page - but more relevant to readers I'd think.

Occasionally there will be some egregious action by some business or city official and they're all over it. But who gets all over them when they do wrong? Who's watching the watchdogs? When one of their own has 13 citations (and more in NC!!) why wasn't that reported? Who will report that? Why the bloggers of course! We don't have to please advertisers or scratch our buddies' backs.

How can you write about the hospital's ongoing problems with their billing system when they just gave you a lucrative advertising contract - $1 million contract according to Board of Supervisor Coy Harville. I'm quoting his comments in a public meeting to me about that. Sorry Coy - I didn't have anything to do with the ad department's deals.

So while the paper is supposedly a sort of "officer friendly" in the community - trying to expose corruption or illegal behaviors at least once in awhile when it falls in their lap, who is watching them?

Media General is all about the profit. And if they think stories about sex sells - they'll run them. And if more people buy the sex than complain about it - guess what? They'll continue to write about it. Media General is all about the profit. What is the community about? If, as everyone says, Danville is the City of Churches, or is about common respect and decency - then let it be known. If you don't - then nothing I write about will make any difference. It comes down to two things obviously - respect and money. I think when a reporter can get away with filming and laughing about women's bodies and humiliating them in the newsroom...and those who protest about it and similar issues are fired...then obviously money is winning out. I urge you pastors out there reading this to consider what will happen when the articles about African Americans and Christians and respect begin to dwindle. Will it matter?

Cities aren't felled in a day. They're eroded brick by brick...

Some day someone somewhere will file a sexual harassment lawsuit against a Media General property and if nothing else - this blog will be proof they did nothing.