STATter 911: Love Us or Hate Us

It seems as if STATter 911 has finally arrived in the world. While our stories this week have been picked up by newspapers, radio stations and long established fire and EMS websites, what I am most proud of is that STATter 911 now has its own thread on thewatchdesk.com.

In its short life, the thread, titled “STATter 911 Responsible Journalism?”, has 9 replies and 910 views. That is nowhere near the almost 85,000 views for an adjacent thread sparked by our initial reporting in May of the Kentland ambulance controversy, but give it time.

This thread began because of my response yesterday to an email critical of my coverage, or lack of coverage, of some issues in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Let me share that entire email with you:

Mr Statter,

Geoff

I referred to the above note in my little news digest yesterday. What I wrote, or didn’t write, became the jumping off point for someone using the name “Black and White” to start this thread. Here’s what they wrote:

This quote is from STATer911, is he admitting he entered into an agreement with the county not to report on issues in the county?

“STATter 911 was recently taken to task by a reader who wrote I have forgotten my roots as a volunteer and have made an agreement with PGFD not to report on Kentland anymore or cover the current dispute over the Landover Hills VFD banquet hall. Rather than try to answer this right now, let me point you toward a detailed article on the Landover Hills issue at gazette.net.”

It appears it would have been easy to say he had not entered an agreement instead of that posting….

This, of course, prompted people to respond. Many of the responses are not too flattering about your editor. See for yourself, here.

I greatly appreciate the fact that not everyone is going to like what I am doing with this blog and respect those who are who are critics. My only response to this is to paraphrase what I emailed to Geoff (I’d print the email, but I deleted it due to lack of space on my company email account):

Yes, I was a volunteer firefighter and still think of it as one of the most significant parts of my life. Right now, I am a newsman. I focus on fire and EMS and go where the news takes me. There are some big issues I have been reporting on lately that have taken up a lot of my time. I plan to get back into the Kentland story when there are developments. If you have any information that I have entered into some sort of agreement with anyone, about what I do or don’t cover, I encourage you to contact my bosses. Because clearly, someone like that shouldn’t be reporting the news.

By the way, all of you who have complaints about what we are doing here, feel free to use the comment buttons below each entry and let us hear what you have to say. This includes all of my friends on thewatchdesk.com.

Speaking of complaints, someone who used our comment section, wrote this about the Lorton fatal fire story:

First off to Statter and the rest of the Monday morning qaurterbacks how many of you have truly been in a fire, anyone can type! thats what I thought! Second yes mistakes were made and with that follows corrections. If you could please show me a fire department without mistakes you have truly created something. Stater hopefully you read your comments, don’t be bitter because you couldn’t hack it as a firefighter. Way to be one sided, you are a discrace to the brotherhood.

I will let others be the judge of whether I could or couldn’t hack it as a firefighter or as a reporter. I do have a request of the person who wrote this: Can you please give me examples of the “Monday morning quarterback(ing)” I have done on this story?

You may recall that it was the man in charge of the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department, Interim Chief David Rohr, who said Debra Chiles should have been found by firefighters. It wasn’t Dave Statter who said that. The only judgement I have made is that this is a news story.

On that note, of the many fire stories I have done in 35 years, this has been the one of those that gave me the most pause. Whatever mistakes were made, I realize that no one responded to that call with the intention of letting Debra Chiles die.

I have said before, as a reporter, I don’t do much in life except report on the people who do have important roles in our world. To me, few jobs are as vital to our well being as those in fire and EMS. I am one of those who feels the public, firefighters and EMS workers are all better served by knowing what goes on at the local firehouse and rescue squad.

I will get off my soap box now and let you have at me.