Thursday, July 2, 2009

Too many hurt feelings and erroneous facts

There were some hurt feelings at this morning's Merchants Meeting. Apparently the media is not treating the Merchants and Coconut Grove correctly according to some. But as I told one person, if you don't like it, you'll have to buy the Miami Herald. I think any mention of our events is a good thing, but the facts do come out wrong many times.

The person who complained felt that people are sending out press releases without anyone double checking them. I know I was very hurt a week or so ago when the whole committee for 4th of July was mentioned in Neighbors and I was left out. I didn't care about having my name in the paper, I just felt that I am at every meeting day and night, doing my part, and then the person who wrote the press release just left me out. Am I invisible at these meetings?

The Merchants Association is the group putting on many of the popular events during 4th of July -- the Coconut Scavenger Hunt, the hot dog eating contest and other things, but they are not given credit.

I, myself, have learned to live with it. I am interviewed almost daily by various media outlets, the stories come out and I am nowhere to be seen. It's just a fact of life at this point.

But I do have to agree that if there is a big committee, one person should not be responsible for writing press releases and then just sending them out without being double checked. There is a committee for a reason. Everyone should have a look at the releases before they go out, I don't buy the excuses about being in a hurry or having deadlines. If the facts come out wrong in the stories, who cares if the paper's deadline is met?

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