One more post on this arena thing, just because I found something interesting about an article that was in the Times on Wednesday (the day after the hearing) and another that was in today.
The first, was clearly a quick review of the night's proceedings. I'm not even sure the reporter stayed until the end - he may not have been able to, I read it in Wednesday morning's paper, and I don't know what the deadline for a story is when a reporter's handing it in the night before, but this meeting ran until 11 and I can imagine that with the time required for editing, printing & delivery he may well have had to split at "halftime" to get the story in. Anyways, clearly done pretty fast in the face of that deadline. The one part that sort of puzzled me was where the reporter wrote "Both sides were well represented at the hearing...But opponents appeared to outnumber supporters in number, intensity and volume." OK, I was not there for the first half, when Marty Markowitz made his statements, but during the second half, I heard 3, maybe 4 supporters speak (including James Caldwell, as I mentioned yesterday, and all from the tight little cluster of people behind me who talked among themselves through most of the other speakers), versus a entire series of opponents. That's not exactly a ratio that would make me use the phrase "Both sides were well represented", and I would have left out the "but" and "appeared to" bits of the second half. I think "Opponents outnumbered supporters" would have been a pretty safe way of describing it.
On the whole, though, can't really carp that much - as I said, I missed the first half, and the guy had to be under some pretty fierce pressure to turn something out for publication - better to err on the side of caution & leave oneself a little safety margin with softeners like "appeared to".
The same reporter, Nicholas Confessore, had another article in today's (well technically yesterday's, Thursday's paper, I'm writing this way past my bedtime in another fit of gotta-get-this-down-now-itis and it is actually Friday right now, sigh) paper - this time he'd obviously had a little more time to think a little more about it, maybe review his notes a little more thoroughly...anyways, today's (yesterday's) article was actually a much better reflection of the general tenor of what I heard on Tuesday night.
I found it very interesting reading them side-by-side - my opinions of the topic aside, it was sort of fascinating to see the same reporter do a full story under what has to have been a pretty nasty deadline, then take the same topic & being able to work through it with a full day to consider it more thoroughly, producing a far more in-depth article. Figured I'd share.
Phew. I think tomorrow I will give myself a rest from the serious stuff & post a picture of a cute kitty cat or something of that type.
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