Scoop

So, on the same day that I was worrying about being scooped, I in fact was able to out scoop, by breaking a drug arrest, and the capture of a "Liquor Still." (Yes, its the Appalachians!) This is a pretty decent sized story here, not so much for the meth, even though that's a big bust, but because of the still, and the tradition of bootlegging the area has. In fact, a Sheriff's Investigator told me all in all it was a pretty sadly designed still, and that the guy should have known better.

Anyway.. back to the business about scooping. I learn of the story because as I walk into the Sheriff's office, the investigator says, "Tell Blake (Editor of the Paper) that I didn't give you the story on the still first."

To which of course i replied, "What Still story?"

The paper found out about the still tuesday. (it happened tuesday night), after the paper had gone to the publisher. (I am not suprised they learned of it, one of the deputies involved is a routine source in the paper.) But apparently, folks at the paper werent' to happy that they didn't find out until after they'd put the paper to bed, so they were in a bit of a snit when they talked to the deputies.

A bad move. With the way reports tend to get done at the Sheriff's Office, it could have been a full another week before I saw anything in writing about the bust, by which time the paper could have blown it open. Which just goes to show there's no reason not to be respectful with the authorities. Being respectful doesn't mean laying down, or not pushing back if they try withhold stuff which they can't legally withhold, but I think alot of journalists think that being non-biased means always being against the authorities, which isn't true. I'm for just reporting what happened, and letting others decide what the implications of a given story are.