It's the kind of crack reporting that Alaska newspapers are becoming known for. The Juneau Empire finally figured out that Gov. Sarah Palin has a new communications director named David Murrow.
In an article published today, the Empire's Pat Forgey says that Murrow's predecessor Bill McAllister was "forced out" and complains that the governor's office hasn't yet issued a press release to announce the change in the position:
"The governor's office has not publicly announced the new appointment, and has been slow to announce the hiring of the last three communications directors."Perhaps the rather annoyed tone of Forgey's piece stems from the fact that he got scooped. Alaska Ear floated the rumor way back on June 6 that Murrow would replace McAllister. Here at TX4P, the Ear's buzzworthy note prompted us to do a little digging, and we found Murrow listed as the Palin communications director on the website of Murrow's book publisher. We reported on June 10 that Murrow had the job in our profile of the new communications director. Forgey appears to have become curious after the Alaska Budget Report newsletter talked with Murrow. So weeks after a gossip column and a little blog down in Texas reported the news, and only after reading that Murrow had the job in a newsletter, the Empire's intrepid Pat Forgey finally figured it all out.
Reporting the news sometimes requires more effort than just rewriting press releases. "Better late than never" doesn't apply to reporting the news, especially when "late" is measured in terms of weeks. Does anyone still wonder why newspapers are dying?
- JP
