Capitol Hill Blue
[hmm, so much for all those sensational stories that came out of CHB]
Good night and good luck
July 22, 2006 5:35 AM
By DOUG THOMPSON
In 2004, Amy and I left Washington for good and retired to the
mountains of Southwestern Virginia.
We needed the break. I’ve spent some 40 years in journalism and/or
politics and 12 years with this web site/mistress called Capitol Hill
Blue.
The plan two years ago was to spend more time on my photography,
video documentary work and community service.
That was the plan. Didn’t quite work out that way. I tried to walk
away from Blue two years ago but a number of factors drew me back in.
Most of it was my own inability to let go. Ego overcame common sense.
It wasn’t the first time I came back after trying to quit.
Over the past few weeks it has become more and more obvious that I
should have stuck to my guns two years ago and walked away. It was
past time and I had a good team in place to take over. Instead I
waded back in like a savior that wasn’t needed and mucked up the
whole mess.
We’ve made some mistakes over the past few years and too many of them
have been my doing. I’ve been too eager to jump on a story, too
willing to go public without all the facts and too determined to be
first, even if it meant going with improperly sourced material. I’ve
been lazy and too willing to use material that someone gave me
without verifying the material or even making sure the source was who
they claimed to be.
Some of the stories I chose to publish did not meet the standards of
journalism that I had spent the previous four decades striving to
meet. They may have been true or at least I believed them to be true
but “may” and “believe” are not good enough.
By allowing that to happen, I let down the readers of this web site
and the standards of the profession that has been my life’s work. I
apologize to our readers. You deserved better.
A while back, I asked Bill McTavish, the man I wanted to head up
Capitol Hill Blue two years ago, to come back and take over the site.
Bill took the challenge but when he announced his plans for Blue we
faced a reader revolt over what they perceived was a takeover attempt.
It wasn’t but Bill stepped back but didn’t leave altogether. At my
request, he undertook a thorough review of the stories we have
published since going online on October 1, 1994. He put together a
team of journalists, editors and educators and began the difficult
task of sifting through more than 25,000 articles in our database.
He finished that review recently and identified 329 stories that he,
as an editor, felt did not meet what he and his team considered to be
acceptable journalistic standards. I told him to fix those stories
and, if necessary, remove them. He did so and posted the results to
our readers on Monday of this past week.
With his job done Bill was ready to leave but at my urging agreed to
not only stay on the job but to take over full responsibility for
Capitol Hill Blue and to put together a new staff to run the place.
As Editor and Publisher, Bill has full authority to run Capitol Hill
Blue and restore its role as a non-partisan political news site that
reports fully-documented news. His fresh approach is much-needed. I
no longer trust my own judgment. I’m too burned out to make those
decisions and I need a break to regain my perspective.
We came to the mountains two years ago to rediscover my love of
photography and visual communications, work on a too-often delayed
documentary project, and spend more time on community service. That’s
what I’m going to do.
I’ve also returned to newspapers, always my first love, by working as
a photographer for the local paper as well as covering county
government and local courts. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than
writing about the shenanigans in Washington.
I may return to write commentary for Capitol Hill Blue from time to
time but it won’t be on a regular basis and whatever I write will
have to meet the standards set by Bill and his editors. But I will
never return to the task of trying to run this web site. It is long
past time to move on.
I ask readers of Blue to give Bill and his staff a chance to show
what they can do with the oldest political news site on the Internet.
You will, I think, be pleased at the result.
In the meantime, you can visit me at Blue Ridge Muse or drop by and
say hello if you’re in the area.
Thank you for the memories and your support of this web site over the
years. It means far more than you can ever know. I’m sorry I let you
down.