September 2008 Archives

Since I started working at the Post more than seven years ago I have encountered people who hate us. I always wondered why. But now I know.
On Saturday, Sept. 6 we ran a story about a jam session at a local establishment. Not only did we get the name of the establishment wrong, The Italian GARDEN, but we spelled one of the musicians’ names wrong, Bill Teague. Worse yet, Teague, along with Justin Mora, is one of the co-hosts of the jam not just a guy that showed up to play (Not that it makes a difference – we should have spelled the name correctly either way).

I know some of the musicians at the jam and have played music with them so it was a bummer for me to know that this story got botched. The worst part is I’m the one that botched the name of the restaurant in the photo caption (It was correct in the story, which I didn’t write. Though I would’ve liked to, it would’ve been a conflict of interest and I try to stay out of stories when I know the people involved). There are two restaurants in Chico with the words “Italian” and “Garden” in them and I am constantly mistaking them, even before I pitched the idea to do a story on the jam session. It sounds like and excuse, and it is, and I hate making excuses for myself and my mistakes. I prefer to own up to them, learn from them and never make them again. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that the mistake was made. And here’s what happens when mistakes are made:

* Both the establishment, The Italian GARDEN and the jam hosts, Mora and Teague, got screwed out of what should have been a cool story about the cool thing they are doing for the community.
* The Post, as the paper of record for the Ridge and the town of Paradise, took a hit to its credibility for printing faulty information.
* My personal credibility took a hit because I am a so-called “editor” and I let two stupid mistakes go into the paper of record.
* The writer of the story took a hit to her credibility for spelling the name wrong. Correct spellings of names are big in this business.
* People have one more reason to hate us.

So, to set the record straight, I am going to reprint the story with the correct information. You can also see the story and pictures in our Entertainment section of the www.paradisepost.com Web site. I apologize to all involved for the sloppy work. It is truly my goal to be the paper that people want to read, not the one that people make fun of for printing shoddy, half-assed work.

Without further adieu here is the correct version of the story: