My reporting on the Albemarle County Police Department survey story isn’t an attempt at a takedown of the ACPD detective and Police Benevolent Association chapter president apparently jonesing to get his boss fired; what it is is, it’s a media critique.
Now, to be sure, I don’t like that the guy who already has the pelt of the first Black woman to be the Charlottesville police chief now appears to be aiming at the first Latino to be the first police chief in Albemarle County.
And that it seems he’s using Sean Reeves being on medical leave, and the results of a year-old employee survey, to stir up controversy, in service of those aims.
Not meaning to criticize at all – because, I mean, I give Mike Wells, the detective and local PBA chapter president, a ton of credit here.
I may not be a fan of what he’s done with respect to the Charlottesville police chief story, and appears to be trying to do with the ACPD, but damn, he sure is good at what he does.
Hats off, my man.
ICYMI
- A year-old report highlighted concerns inside the ACPD: Why is this presented as breaking news?
- Media generates controversy over Albemarle County police chief being out on medical leave
No, the critique here is of the role the local paper that first reported on Reeves being on medical leave, and then framed the story on the year-old employee survey into being breaking news, is playing here.
My view, the folks at The Daily Progress have to be smarter than to let themselves get used the way they’re letting themselves get used on this one.
I’m not at the level of a Woodward or a Bernstein, not even close, but I knew, as soon as I got my first email from Nikki Sheridan, the self-styled community activist from Fluvanna County who we now know to be a close contact of Mr. Wells, that something just felt off.
Ms. Sheridan, in her first contacts, advertised to me that she was sending me information that the PBA had obtained from a FOIA request; it didn’t take much in the way of sleuthing to determine that she’s not a member of the PBA board, meaning, she had to have a contact there who one could surmise was using her to feed the info, and the PBA narrative, to the media.
That, right there, was something that I felt I needed to look into, as I also began to examine the story that was trying to sell me, about the survey.
Is that not obvious?
I get these kinds of reachouts, let’s say, often – which is to say, no, I don’t just independently figure out on my own things like, for example, that the U.S. Center for SafeSport has put a UVA Swimming coach on double-secret probation, or that the Augusta County Board of Supervisors discussed the dismissal of a supervisor facing sexual harassment accusations in a closed session in clear violation of the state FOIA law.
What else: Tony Bennett is thinking about retiring, Ryan Odom is the leading candidate to replace him.
The MAGA Waynesboro vice mayor dude using a slur to refer to Pete Buttigieg on a podcast.
Actually, that last one was all me; I had decided to start Jim Wood’s podcasts after he was elected, thinking it was possible that he might slip up and say something of a controversially stupid nature at some point, and it didn’t take long.
ICYMI
- UVA Swimming coach Gary Taylor on probation after admitting to emotional abuse of athletes
- Judge rules in favor of Augusta County in FOIA case involving March 20 closed session
- What you need to know: Breaking down the Tony Bennett UVA contract extension
- UVA Basketball: Coaching search appears to be narrowed down to three top candidates
- Waynesboro vice mayor hits Buttigieg with gay slur after asking for federal money
Point being, reporters and editors don’t know everything that’s going on, and the job isn’t to know everything that’s going on – the job is to know enough to check out what people are trying to tell you about what’s going on.
I don’t teach media ethics classes – admittedly, never even took a single journalism class, in high school or college; the news business was my fallback after dropping out of law school – but I can’t believe that I’m alone here in thinking, with respect to the survey story, why is this random person from Fluvanna County emailing Augusta Free Press to share documents that the local Police Benevolent Association chapter obtained from Albemarle County through a FOIA request?
Is it really just me among those of us in the local media who thinks there, maybe I should look into the why, in terms of that odd reachout?
Now, I will concede, it would have been easier, certainly less time-consuming, to just take the documents that were sent to me, and to talk with the PBA representative that Ms. Sheridan told me she would help me get in contact with – who was, I will note, quoted in the Progress story – and use that to write a quickie clickbait news story, and move on the next one.
It can be tough to commit to putting a lot of time into any particular story when there’s so much to report on, and so little time.
And just sayin’, I doubt seriously that my time and effort on this one is going to impact whatever happens next, and further down the road, with whatever is going on inside the Albemarle County Police Department.
The word from the local PBA chapter is that they’re going to do their own ACPD employee survey, and I doubt any of us will be surprised that the results of that survey will end up confirming whatever the PBA wants the survey to confirm.
Or that, when the survey is done, the Progress will make sure to give it a banner headline, and sympathetic coverage.
My working theory on what my job is supposed to be is, I’m supposed to try to get as close to finding out what the real story is as possible.
I know that I’ll never get to 100 percent on any story, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try.
I don’t think that’s asking much, either.
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
