We as a parish have weathered something intense in the last two weeks.
There was the storm; the threat of escaped inmates we believed to be dangerous; the efforts to help; the venting and frustration. Times of great turmoil often bring about the best in people, and sometimes also the worst. We have seen and read of acts of bravery and kindness, of generosity and selflessness. We have also seen people take to the internet to write rumors, to tear things and people down, and to toot their own horns, an act we find just as insidious.
One thing we at the East Carroll Banner could not help but notice was the lack of consistent information regarding what was happening in real-time.
Let’s first address the obvious. We are a news organization. We pride ourselves on our integrity and take seriously our duty to provide accountability for our governing bodies and relevant information to our subscribers. This newspaper has been printed weekly for 138 years. There are two key words in that sentence: weekly and printed. While we have added an online edition, we have not prioritized a social media presence which would allow us to provide you with more real-time access to local news. We do not have the expertise or the manpower at the moment, frankly, to do so effectively, so we have not done it. Perhaps if we had that infrastructure in place, we could have provided a more complete and cool-headed picture of the on-the-ground situation, though only perhaps. We are going to consider this, weigh what we might have done to have benefited the situation, and decide if that is something we can implement for the future.
We wonder, too, about local residents without access to social media or even the internet. How did they know what was available locally to help them? How else could they receive that information? At the moment, we do not have answers. We do, however, believe it is very important to pose the questions.
Perhaps you have some answers. Also, perhaps you have some questions. And also, some stories of thanks for those who helped you personally or who you witnessed do something good that went unnoticed. Please send us those stories, no matter how small. Sure, you’ll put them on social media. But we at
would like to catalog – save for posterity – this moment in our shared history while also working to find solutions for how we, as a parish, might better handle events such as this in the future.
Reach out to us: news@eastcarrollbanner.com or call us at 318-559-2750.
