An Exchange With A Journalist

There's been some back and forth between reporters and bloggers on the Bobby Caina Calvan affair. I'm simply posting my reply to a journalist, not posting their email - which basically amounted to trying to work some defense of Calvan into the narrative without really going on the record:

I don't usually do long back and forth email exchanges, so have no fear. I never doubted he was in Iraq, saw that somewhere - kinda crazy. Do I think he was, or ever will be there long enough to "get it." Nah. Read Michael Yon, or Bill Roggio if you guys want to "get" Iraq - might even try hiring them, or someone similar if you actually want to "report" it. I mean "you" as in McClatchy, this is not personal.

If a mil contractor tried to get into the Green Zone by brow beating some kid based upon, "Don't you know who Blackwater is?" we'd be reading endless summations of another example of the out of control, arrogant contractors in Iraq. But that wouldn't happen, as he'd likely see to his responsibilities by being doc'd out correctly and not dump on some kid doing his job, let alone brag about it to friends via the Internet afterwards.

As for the HOV nonsense, your guy led with the very guy he trolled up for his specific views on hybrids and HOVs - see link.

SACRAMENTO -- Saving the environment and reducing dependence on foreign oil motivated Charlie Porzio to buy a pair of less-polluting, fuel-sipping hybrid cars. He greeted a decision by California lawmakers to allow the vehicles to zip through carpool lanes even when driven solo as a welcome bonus for environmentally-aware consumers.

"There was all this hype that they were going to let us into the carpool lanes. I was psyched for it," said Porzio, a Boston transplant who now lives and works in the San Francisco Peninsula, along a congested stretch of Highway 101, between Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

A viewpoint that same newsgroup said was not very representative.

We did discuss the reasons most of us buy this technological marvel which was not because we might be able to drive solo in the HOV lanes!

As for "couching any suspicions" I may have so as to not be libelous - yeah, I learned that in J-school. Touché!

Bottomline, you're making more of this story than I think it's worth. McClatchy sent an envornmental reporter with a spotty work history to Iraq to coordinate copy from locals in a hotel room for 6 weeks, some of those locals may or may not have been vetted properly, we'll never know. He's arrogant and by and large bloggers weren't impressed. That ain't man bites dog stuff, it's just another day. I wish your colleague well and genuinely hope he remains safe. With his background, kind of a bitch he's in Iraq while CA is buring, huh? Karma is a bitch!

Take care and best of luck to you, you seem like a decent sort. - Dan

PS - Did Drummond quote a McClatchy colleague as a source without disclosing it as I questioned here? Or is there a no comment on that?

Comments

[docweasel]

After 2 cryptic, verbose and lengthy emails I received from this same guy, I spent about 2 hours on the phone with this reporter last night, and while we had a very interesting conversation about office gossip at the SacBee, reporting, blogging, the relationship between the 2, there was very little usable stuff I could work into an actual post giving any information about the Bobby Calvan affair, although I think at this point most people are about done with hearing about him, unless some new info comes up.

He was unable to vouch for nor debunk Calvan's resume, he had some weak defense for the use of "stringers" and a different definition of the word "write-around" that Charles Johnson seemed to think was damning in a post he wrote about Calvan's methods- instead of meaning that Calvan padded the story or invented details since he had no direct sources, you use peripheral sources to "write aroung" that, nothing nefarious or under-handed, at least according to the reporter.

Well, my blog is threatening to become 'all Calvan all the time blogging' so I'm about done with the subject unless something new breaks.

My only question is why this reporter inserted himself into this story by contacting me and Dan and writing these long, rambling emails that in the end, said a whole lotta nothing?

Dan had a funny theory I won't reproduce here :D
cheers
-d

[narciso]

Final note on the Calvan story; when does he choose to make this little observation; after filing another "Americans kill civilians, Sadrists told me so" on the 24th anniversary of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut; which happened in no small measure because of lax security procedures and lousy ROE. He does this in the Green Zone, where
not a few people have been killed over the years; some due to mortars, or frustrated car bombs