The Angry Citizen ©

The Macon Telegraph
Knight Ridder

Editors and Mr. Kilgore,
Mr. Laffoon
Ms. Schlatter
Ms. Dalton

Is the Macon Telegraph so petty as to disrupt our subscription in payback for my complaints about Charles Richardson’s column?

My paper did not arrive on Sunday and I can get no response to my requests for redelivery. I have tried both the 1-800-679-6397 and I sent an E-mail via the website that included both an email address and phone number. Both of these were done before 9:30 am with a request for redelivery. As of 11:30am I still have received no paper or contact.

I will continue to criticize your paper and Knight Ridder for failing to provide a clear path for addressing citizen concerns about errors in your paper. I have some familiarity with the concept of Public Relations and pledge to do my best to hold you responsible for your mistakes. I would encourage you to reflect on the experiences of those media outlets that have attempted to rely on stonewalling as a tactic. It seldom works. The correct response from a public relations perspective is to either admit the error and correct it or show that the accuser is wrong.

I have provided you with links to my sources for alleging that Mr. Richardson used a discredited rumor and a false argument in his October 4th column. So far you have still failed to respond in any fashion.

John Kraus
The Angry Citizen

http://angrycitizen.net/angrycitizen/

It has become obvious that the Macon Telegraph is not going to issue any correction of Charles Richardson’s column of October 4 2005. This column has several factual errors that are used to excuse New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin while attempting to shift the blame to FEMA Director Michael Brown.

Mr. Richardson repeats an disproven allegation that Joe Albaugh and Mike Brown were “college chums”.

I provided the Telegraph with a link to a New York Times correction of this error when it was used by their columnists Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, and Frank Rich.

Mr Richardson also asks a rhetorical question — “Has he planned the agencies response to other catastrophes”.

FEMA’S bio of Mr. Brown reports that he led the response to 164 presidentially declared disasters including the Colombia shuttle diaster in 2003 and the Florida Hurricanes in 2004. While the actual amount of “planning” he did can be debated it should be obvious that Mr. Brown was not the rank neophyte that Richardson seems to indicate.

The complete text of my requests for correction can be found here:

http://www.angrycitizen.net/angrycitizen/irresponsible-journalisim/

This request was sent to the Editors at letters@macontel.com

I also sent it to Ms. Sharrie Marshall at smarshall@macontel.com

So far I have seen no retraction and have received no response.

I guess Thomas Jefferson was right in his evaluation of the veracity of newspapers.

http://www.angrycitizen.net/angrycitizen/jeffersonian-commentary/

I have on a number of occasions noted a disturbing trend in the McDonald’s chain to set their store clocks forward 10 to 15 minutes. Apparently this is done to let them end breakfast before the lunch rush. Recently on a Sunday morning I went to the local McDonald’s located in the Zebulon road Wal-Mart for breakfast. I arrived at 10:15 by my watch and the clock in my cellphone. I was rudely informed by the individual who identified herself as the manager that breakfast was over. I told her the clock was wrong and she stated she did not care what time I had she went by “McDonald’s Time”.

I noted that none of the employees was wearing identification and this individual refused to give me her name or to provide me with the name of the store manager. She reluctantly gave me a number to “Mac Attack” who she said owned the store. The number was “not in service”.

I contrast this with the Chick Fil-A restaurant across the street. On the wall in plain view is an Atomic clock that maintains its time according to the US Bureau of Standards in Boulder Colorado. I also note the presence of legible name tags and smiles along with a cheerful “my pleasure or our pleasure” to a customers request.

Any guess where I will be eating?

I guess McDonalds has forgotten rule #1 of customer service.