To quote the article “White: Politics led to daughter’s new charge” that appeared in The Daily Dispatch on Sunday, July 13, 2008:
“Sheriff White labeled as ‘Home in Henderson mess’ the widespread, but unofficial, reports his daughter had damÂaged a portable alcohol sensor during the traffic stop.”
We know that it is very easy, if not always entirely fair and accurate, to dismiss information gleaned on the Internet as garbage, especially information that comes from anonymous comment posters. There were indeed early reports by anonymous comment posters that something of the nature of what was stated in the above paragraph did occur. However, those are not the only reports that appeared on Home in Henderson. Also, Home in Henderson is not the only place the reports appeared.
First of all, the “widespread, but unofficial reports” do not chiefly concern the fate of the field sobriety test itself, but they rather point mainly to the assertion that Shahita White struck Officer Karen Daniels of the Vance County Sheriff’s Office when she attempted to administer the test. We’re not sure anyone knows or cares about the fate of the implement itself.
Further, it wasn’t Home in Henderson that reported this. The reports came from memos written by Henderson Police Department Officers H.L. Williams and B.R. Hobgood. These documents were obtained by Home in Henderson under the Freedom of Information Act.
We published the documents in their unadulterated form, and we provided a transcript of the documents because the originals were hard to read as electronic files. Home in Henderson did not “report” on the documents, nor did we make any accusations or draw any conclusions in the article in which they were published.
In fact, in the last article we published on the Shahita White case, we stated:
“Although Peter White was contacted by Vance County Emergency 911 at the time of his daughter’s traffic stop, there is no evidence to indicate that the sheriff’s conduct in the matter was in any way improper.”
The Daily Dispatch and WRAL also obtained the same documents. WRAL reported on the documents on April 9, 2008, and made the documents available on-line as well. The Daily Dispatch reported on the documents on April 10, 2008.
Why isn’t the field sobriety test issue a Daily Dispatch “mess” or a WRAL “mess” as well? We’re guessing it is because Home in Henderson is published on the Internet only. Although both The Daily Dispatch and WRAL both publish on the Internet, and have clearly taken steps to improve their presence on the Internet, they emerge from the traditional media of print and television, so they are presumed to be more credible.
To be fair to Home in Henderson, we must note that WRAL has a news blog on their site that allows users to comment anonymously as well.
We don’t know if they are more or less credible. We do know that their overhead is quite a bit more than ours for the privilege of publishing on paper and over the air.
Even if the future is the Internet, as we all know deep down inside.
The lesson of this situation seems to be that if you wish to discredit information in this town, simply tell people it came from Home in Henderson. But that’s probably the wrong conclusion. After all, you just read it on Home in Henderson.