Alan Cohen Staff

I just checked and it actually doesn't look like it has been fixed.

1 year, 10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Chad Jones Staff

Yeah, it's still displaying the phrase for me, torwig. And I'm looking forward to an explanation, too.

1 year, 10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Teresa Gubbins Staff

i see on this microsoft partner website that "eConsortian Ventures is a Global organization with its roots in Dallas, Texas. offering several unique approaches to vertical industry based custom application development services to a variety of customers in LFP graphics markets, Transportation and etc." whatever that is. but hey, they're a Global organization.

1 year, 10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Chad Jones Staff

(Though Gary will most likely defend his comment) I've got to emphasize the difference between this dumb news webpage and the official city government site of Anna, Texas.

One of these things is not like the other.

I agree that no one should contact Al Zwanenburg unless it is to ask serious questions concerning the phrase. I, nor anyone here at the site, would condone gratuitous hate-mail in any form.

And maybe the phrase isn't offensive to you personally, amanda, but failing to see how it might be for someone else--or failing to see how that phrase is not appropriate for the official government webpage for the City of Anna (which is comprised of 27% Hispanic citizens as of the 2000 census)--is a lapse of good judgment in my book.

1 year, 10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Chad Jones Staff

And let me add that I never once called or considered the page flat-out racist.

Let me paint you a visual.

Unfortunately, my computer is funked up at the moment, so I can't actually draw and post an image for you. But go along with it, please.

Imagine a wooden yardstick.

On one end is written the words "no big deal" and waaaay on the other end is written the words "racist conspiracy."

My reaction to this "ya donta speaka Italiano" is a few inches from the left end, but still feet from the right.

1 year, 10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Chad Jones Staff

Well, thanks for voicing your opinion. We shall agree to disagree.

But as for deleting frostbitesoul's comments, that's not going to happen.

Once again, let me stress that the main reason I found the phrase inappropriate was its location on an official government webpage.

Had I found the phrase on a random Anna citizen's blog, the story would be different. It's just plain different, no?

1 year, 10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren Staff

Robert, I don't think we should cast unfair aspersions here. I'll confess that I did so this morning, and I was quickly set straight. Here's the email chain (edited only to remove contact info):

From: Mike Orren
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 9:06 AM
To: Roy Appleton
Subject: Anna story
 
Roy, if you’re going to pick up our story without attribution, I’d appreciate it if you’d at least put a little sweat into making yours appreciably different.
--

Mike Orren
President and cofounder
Pegasus News

Roy responded in short order:

From: "Appleton, Roy"
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:04:52 -0600
To: Mike Orren
Subject: RE: Anna story

Mike,
 
“Pick up” your story? Get real.
 

So you see,  Roy clearly filed his report without any assist from our story. I think we all need to be a lot less peripatetic about our assessment of local media outlets stealing each others' stories. 

I mean, the two stories here are clearly quite different. Chad called the website "confusing," while Roy characterized it as "puzzling." I checked, and there's not two consecutive "z"s anywhere in Chad's piece. And the differences don't end there. Check for yourself.

I, for one, apologize for questioning Roy on this story. Let's get it together people...

1 year, 10 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )