My general rule of thumb, taken from a legendary AP editor from back in the day, is the saying "It happened, didn't it?" The other story there is that police appear to now have a records request policy of first in, first out, regardless of media affiliation or whether a story is already out there and/or if the report has already been made public. I thought since it had already been sent to another media member, it ought to be forwarded to any other outlet that asked right away. Instead, I was put in the queue. It put me in the position of needing to trust another news source, which I never like to do if at all possible, and especially not with a potentially explosive story. The bad news for anyone is that any error would get amplified by the number of publications who repeated it.
Apr 24, 2023·edited Apr 24, 2023Liked by B.C. Kowalski
It took over 90 days for Wausau Pilot to write an article. Why? Was there any coverup by anyone at City Hall. The details of this report should be exposed now that the Wausonian has the report. And, why a decision not to have higher charges especially since there was an accident and she was multiple times over the alcohol limit!
It’s not the first time we all missed an OWI first offense - they don’t go through the same channels as criminal cases. I also question why it’s a citation considering there was a crash with some injury to the other party. According to the report she was intoxicated past the point of capacity. We missed Snyder’s second for the same reason - it happened far enough apart from the first one that it was a citation again. As for Watson, I’m sure the Pilot got a tip from someone - I doubt she came across it otherwise since it was 90 days old as you pointed out. Well anyway, I’ll certainly be reporting the details here.
Old news or not, if you have details of the arrest of a local official, I think local residents would like to see that story.
My general rule of thumb, taken from a legendary AP editor from back in the day, is the saying "It happened, didn't it?" The other story there is that police appear to now have a records request policy of first in, first out, regardless of media affiliation or whether a story is already out there and/or if the report has already been made public. I thought since it had already been sent to another media member, it ought to be forwarded to any other outlet that asked right away. Instead, I was put in the queue. It put me in the position of needing to trust another news source, which I never like to do if at all possible, and especially not with a potentially explosive story. The bad news for anyone is that any error would get amplified by the number of publications who repeated it.
It took over 90 days for Wausau Pilot to write an article. Why? Was there any coverup by anyone at City Hall. The details of this report should be exposed now that the Wausonian has the report. And, why a decision not to have higher charges especially since there was an accident and she was multiple times over the alcohol limit!
It’s not the first time we all missed an OWI first offense - they don’t go through the same channels as criminal cases. I also question why it’s a citation considering there was a crash with some injury to the other party. According to the report she was intoxicated past the point of capacity. We missed Snyder’s second for the same reason - it happened far enough apart from the first one that it was a citation again. As for Watson, I’m sure the Pilot got a tip from someone - I doubt she came across it otherwise since it was 90 days old as you pointed out. Well anyway, I’ll certainly be reporting the details here.