Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Scoop Your Poop

What's wrong with this picture?

This is the City Council meeting Monday.

The best quote that exemplifies the entire meeting has to be the admonition by Councillor Sally Mayer, “scoop your poop.”

It was an announcement from the city staff through the Councillor as a reminder of the health risk associated with animal feces left to the elements. So, scoop your poop!

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

If only the council had taken this advice. The meeting was one of those interminable affairs. Over 20 action items were on the agenda, of them only a handful came to a voted resolution. All the rest were deferred; some after extended discussion and debate.


I was not going to mention the comment posted on the anonymous Eye on Albuquerque blogspot that accused me of being its author. I am not! However, several people, including a couple of councilors inquired if I wrote the Eye.

It seems there is some confusion. I will speculate as to how that confusion came about.

I used the Eye on Albuquerque as a reference on a couple of postings in the past few weeks. I have communicated with the editor of the Eye by e-mail several times. I have made no effort to ascertain who or whom the Eye is. Knowing that the Eye wishes to remain anonymous, simply means I take what is said with a great deal of skepticism, as I would any anonymous source. No matter how many times the Eye’s information might prove accurate, the anonymity maintains the skepticism. Credibility is an entirely different issue.

When I was researching the Million Dollar Recruiting post, May 1, I asked APD for permission to use the city-produced picture of the runaway bride. The request went up the chain of command. Before I got an answer, I learned that the police department had produced a press release and provided hard copy handouts of the picture for the news media. I lifted the picture from the APD website for inclusion on this site.

A couple of hours before I went on line, the Eye on Albuquerque posted, what I consider a relatively harsh entry that also used the same picture.

At this point, I believe there was an error made. Because the Eye posted and I had requested the picture, someone made the assumption that because of my request, I must be the Eye. Whoever has been reading the Eye, was not aware of this blogspot, but had heard that I was blogging.

Unlike the Eye, though I have been critical of some of the same things the Eye has, I have attempted to take a more journalistic approach to my reporting and analysis.

On May 2, in the Eye's comment section, “anonymous said... LIE on Albuquerque, AKA Mark Bralley (SP), enough with your (expletive deleted) rhetoric already…..”

I don’t expect an apology from the commenter, for the personal attack, but if somebody accused someone other than me of writing my material, I would at least disabuse anyone of that notion.

When I’ve gotten a fact wrong, I’ve corrected it and I don’t write anonymously!

I don’t have time to write two blogs and it’s not my style to write as the Eye does. It would be nice if the Eye were to set the record straight. Scoop your poop.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

People who have the ability to read with a critical eye can easily spot many differences in the writing "style" of both the "eye on albuquerque" blog and your blog. I read and enjoy many aspects of both blogs. I don't necessarily agree nor disagree with everything I read on either. I particularly enjoy your use of the old photographs that you use on your blog. There is room for, and also good reason for anonymity though I do agree that it would be kind of the "eye" to clear up any misconceptions as to its authorship.

The Eye said...

We noticed the post on EyeOnAlbuquerque.com accusing M.G. Bralley of being The Eye and almost shot an email over to him to let him know about it. Unfortunately, we got busy working on some other things and didn't get to it.

We sincerely apologize to Mr. Bralley for any inconvenience that the accusation may have caused and also for not getting over here to set the record straight earlier. For the record, Mark Bralley is NOT The Eye.

As noted above, The Eye takes a very different approach to blogging about the city and its government. We are generally more opinion oriented much like the editorial page of any newspaper. We also tend to be very aggressive (and hopefully at least a little humorous) when expressing that opinion. You can read our reason for anonymity here.

Mark Bralley spends a lot of time developing his stories and is far more "journalistic" in style and presentation. We commend him for his efforts and agree with him on many (but by no means all) issues.

Regards,
The Eye