Wrong Column Perhaps?

As parochial or arrogant as it may sound, there’s something a little frightening about the idea of giving some average Joe off the street, with no formal journalistic training, a camera, a mic and a license to report. Even cub reporters who don’t have the benefit of journalism school are at least tested and trained by the rigors of newsroom immersion. - Liz Garrigan

So I attended the Nolensville Road Mayoral Forum tonight, something I'll be posting about later, and had a chance to speak with Howard Gentry's Communications Director Evans Donnell. As we were talking, I mentioned in passing the "Urban Plunge" blurb in the Tennessean (Nashville Scene...you knew what I meant), and asked what was up with it.

According to Evans, the whole story was false. Jeff Woods, in his Political Notes column, quoted Clemmie Greenlee as saying that Howard Gentry, attempting to spend a night in the shoes of a homeless person, was denied access to the Nashville Rescue Mission, even after saying that he was Vice Mayor and demanding entrance; the response supposedly given to him was "I don’t give a damn who you are. We don’t have no bed."

Evans says that this absolutely did not happen, and that the Scene did not contact them, or anyone else for that matter, to determine the veracity of these claims. The Scene article states that Gentry was in a "running outfit" but according to both Gentry and Donnell, he was in boots and jeans that night. Apparently Gentry had come walking by the Rescue Mission, he saw the Police there for some reason and kept on walking, deciding not to get involved.

The Gentry campaign has spoken with the Scene, and expects a retraction at some point. But perhaps this can all be fixed by the Scene transferring the column from the Political Notes section over to the Fabricator column, where the Gentry camp seems to think it belongs.

Update:

Buried in the Love/Hate mail section is the retraction by the Scene:

The Scene incorrectly reported last week that Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, while spending the night on the streets with homeless people to learn about homelessness, was turned away from the Nashville Rescue Mission. In fact, the anecdote the Scene recounted never happened. Gentry never asked the mission to let him sleep there, and he instead walked past the mission and spent the entire experience on the streets.

Obviously, newspapers are different than blogs, however, when you have an online edition to your paper, I think the least you could do would be to insert the retraction in the page in which it appeared. Now, if I were to search "Howard Gentry" and Homeless Power Project, the original article would appear, and I as a reader would have no reason to check the next months letters section to see if there was a retraction.

But, then again, I don't know anything about the whole fairness or journalistic integrity stuff; as I am simply a lowly blogger. I don't mean to pick on the Scene or Woods, as I know I've printed lots of error ridden posts, however, when I do find out that I made an error, I correct that particular post so that people who stumble onto it won't leave with erroneous information.

Update II:

The Nashville Scene has added the retraction to the original article. Kudos to the Scene.