Loading…
24
I skipped the big headline number on the factory closing story and called the plant myself
When the big outlet ran that story about the plant in Lordstown closing and blamed it all on one thing, I almost shared it. Then I did something most people won't do and spent 20 minutes on the phone with a guy who worked there 14 years. He gave me numbers the article never printed, like how the line had been running at 60 percent for almost 2 years before any of this. I had to choose between trusting the clean story everyone was passing around or the messy one from a guy with no book deal. I went with the guy on the phone. His version had layoff dates that lined up with the local paper from 2019, which the national piece never mentioned once. So I posted a comment with just those dates and asked where they fit in the story. It got buried in an hour while the headline version kept spreading. Does anyone here actually call the people in these stories before sharing them?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
green.noah15h ago
Man that sucks but I get it. I did something kind of similar with a steel mill story in my town a while back and the local guy I talked to had dates that flat out didn't match what the wire piece said. The part that gets me is those 2019 layoff dates you found, that stuff is public record if you know where to look, so it's not like the reporter couldn't have seen it. Good on you for actually making the calls instead of just hitting share like everybody else.
8