A response to DMN‘s James Ragland

by Michael Davis of Dallas Progress

Usually, I don't respond to haters but I couldn't pass this up.

A funny thing happened today. Remember my post about the whole "issue" surrounding the holiday party at the W last week? Well, the writer of the article (James Ragland) decided to take some shots at yours truly on the DMN blog. By the way, several people have commented on my post saying the article was silly.

Let's clear something up...

Things that I am:

* A person that is not a journalist, and doesn't want to be a journalist.

* A person that cares about his community with a certifiable record of working to help people.

* Someone that does not need to be certified or needs the approval of anyone who writes for any paper. I find it laughable that people send in letters to the Morning News all of the time criticizing articles, and of all the people that needle to DMN in various forums he decides to take me on.

* A person that absolutely doesn't crave a "stamp of approval" or to be deemed credible by James Ragland. He acted like I attacked his whole life and career because I thought the party was a non-issue. I'm pretty sure that Ross Perot Jr or anyone else can get a meeting with the Mayor without having to have a private party. Perot's rich, he had a party at his house and the entire world wasn't invited. So what. I've needled Perot over the affordability of stores and other things in Victory Park, which was the subject of an article in the Fort-Worth Star Telegram and several other outlets. I've also talked about it in editor's roundtables at the Dallas Morning News offices!

* Someone who has linked to some of Ragland's articles in the past. But he wouldn't know that, would he?

The funniest thing this guy wrote was, "Mr. Davis might consider getting out of the office himself a bit more, and expanding the universe of people with whom he chats. "

Is he serious? I'll leave the readers to contemplate that.

* A person that still thinks it was a stupid article. Again, I'm pretty sure that Ross Perot Jr can't get any more City Hall access than he already has by having a private party. Get real - he built Victory Park, dude.

If people want to take things personal and be sensitive about what I write, that's on them. If he took on Minyard's for an issue like this the way like he took me on, maybe we'd be getting somewhere.

One of my mentors back home always said, "if you don't have any enemies then you haven't done anything that required a tough decision in your life."

I'm not as easy a target as some people think. And you think someone who has been a journalist for so long would have a thicker skin and pick bigger targets.

As I mentioned, a lot of people at the DMN do a great job. If you read the blog you'd know that I shout them out from time to time.

Now that we got that cleared up, we can get back to more important issues.