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How the story broke
The story behind the story of the day is worth telling, even if its significance amounts only to an easily-made joke about an eager politician.
Midday Tuesday, TxDOT public information officers contacted news outlets letting them know of a telephone conference call later that day. On the call, reporters learned details of the TTC project revision with the understanding that the news would be not be published until 10 a.m. Wednesday. Embargoes are somewhat routine when organizations distribute information to large groups of journalists, although TxDOT offered no explanation for the embargo Tuesday.
About 5 p.m., State Sen. Robert Nichols sent reporters a statement “for immediate release,” referring to all the details under embargo. With Nichols’ statement made public, all bets were off, on the embargo. As the New York Times reported last year, such complications are occurring more frequently as the Internet increases the competition between papers to break news. In short order, The Daily Sentinel, The Lufkin Daily News, and Associated Press all had stories on the changes to the TTC.
I had an opportunity to ask Sen. Nichols Wednesday why he broke the embargo. He simply didn’t know it was there, he said.
Comments
By Элина
August 17, 2008 5:59 PM | Link to this
Супер. Подпишусь-ка я на RSS пожалуй. :)