Way back at the beginning of April, KHOU-11’s Jeremy Desel reported on cost discrepancies related to METRO’s big expansion plans.
The Examiner News‘s Mike Reed followed up on the story nearly a week ago.
The Chronicle finally decided the story was worthy of mention this weekend.
So, great for he-says/she-says “reporting.” But where is the analysis? The watchdog coverage?
Here’s hoping the TV stations or Tom Bazan or Texas Watchdog are up to that task moving forward. Because we are talking about a LOT of money up for grabs, and a guy who doesn’t exactly have the best record when it comes to spending the public’s money.
UPDATE: Carolyn Feibel emails and explains that her reporting relied upon updated figures she obtained herself (rather than Magaziner’s), that she interviewed relevant parties, and that this took some time. She also points out that this took place as she was learning a new beat, and vows that she’ll certainly be watching the money.
Those are all fair points, and in retrospect, my question about the analysis was too harsh. Mea culpa! I do think the Chron might have run a filler blurb about this news while Feibel developed the longer story, and that would have been timely, but those are not decisions made by the reporter. It’s also worth noting that the newspaper really didn’t seem to have much of a contingency plan to cover the beats of reporters it laid off, and the news product has suffered while able reporters scrambled into new roles. That’s a management problem, not a reporting problem, and I regret that I am belatedly making that point/clarification. We’re looking forward to reading Feibel the METRO Watchdog moving forward!
