Plumb Place. A CLARIFICATION

The Emporia Gazette recently did an article about the new owner of Plumb Place.

To my surprise, I was quoted, even though I gave no interview for the article.

The article stated this:

“MacTaggart hoped someone else would win the bidding for the mansion.”

This stunned me. For, I have never written as such.

In one of my recent blog posts, I wrote:

I had spoken with one of the these final-round bidders. He impressed me with his knowledge of the house, his obvious architectural historical knowledge, his passion for preservation, his desire to live in the house, and use it as an Airbnb and events space (thus continuing a century of public access).

Sadly, the judge did not select him.

Put another way, let’s say that you have a good friend, who applied for a job, and was incredibly qualified.

But they did not get the job.

You would be sad, right? This would be a normal reaction.

But this emotional reaction is not at all the same as being upset at somebody else for getting the job. You are just sad that your friend did not get the job.

See the huge difference?

The article further stated that I seemed “concerned about how active Stanley will be, considering the status of her old store.”

What? What? I have expressed no such concern.

The writer of the article is obviously referring to my blog post where I wrote:

The new owner is Emporia resident Chris Stanley. Her and her family ran Stanley Jewelry in Emporia for 68-years. She closed the store 6 years ago, and it remains today as it was the day the business closed.

The last part (and it remains today as it was the day the business closed) is simply a statement of fact.

Put another way, let’s say that you wrote this: My friend Sue wore a blue gown to the dance.

Then a local paper quoted you as saying: My friend Sue wore a blue gown to the dance, which was ugly.

So, your factual statement was transformed into a judgment.

See the huge difference?

There is nothing I can do about the print edition but I will contact the writer to see if he will correct the online article.

 

 

12 Comments

  1. Raymond on June 29, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    He is pretty well known for butchering the facts

  2. Cindy Belanger on June 29, 2022 at 6:27 pm

    Seems the writer put his own spin on your comments, using your name. I would think he would need permission to state your name in the article he wrote. Hoping he will write a correction.

    • mlaiuppa on June 30, 2022 at 2:03 am

      Not only permission but not allowed to spin it. Hack “journalism.”

  3. Karen Spencer on June 29, 2022 at 9:50 pm

    You go Ross. Don’t accept that. He needs to write a correction. The writer is editorializing.

    There is just too much injustice going on these days. You are the master of making one thing a little better. Go for it!

    I hope the woman takes good care of Plumb Place.

  4. Leigh on June 30, 2022 at 1:04 am

    An excellent journalist provides facts, and also has the courtesy to ask permission from people before using their name (unless you are a public figure). That was taught in joirnalism school.
    Seems like you are a public figure, Ross. Am glad that you brought it to the public’s attention about the grossly erroneous interpretation of your comment. English is not my first language; yet your comments about the Plumb place after it was sold to my understanding, were not at the tone that the journalost, er… journalist translated it.

  5. mlaiuppa on June 30, 2022 at 2:02 am

    Yeah. I saw that. Thought he took some liberties but I suspect he does because he gets away with it and has never had to do a retraction or clarification. Really sloppy journalism. Even if he lifted it from your blog, he needs to contact you first for permission. You are the owner of your own blog and as such you own the copyright of anything you write. It’s probably not worth the time to try to correct the record and get any sort of correction or even retraction written up in the paper. This guy should be schooled, though.

    Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it is “free”. Permission must be attained. This is something millennials can’t seem to get their heads around. It’s why there is such a problem with plagiarism and pirating. They are clueless as to how to properly cite sources. Of course, they also don’t know how to vet sources which is why we have such a problem with misinformation on the internet.

    I know artists and creators that have simply stopped producing because people take their patterns, art or creations and spread them around for free and the artist/owner/copyright holder gets nothing. This is how they make their living. They can’t afford to give away their creation for free so they just stop selling and sharing and go back to their day jobs. People who say “but I’m not making any money from it, I’m just providing it for free” are totally clueless they are still stealing from the owner; they are breaking the law and taking bread out of the mouths of these artist’s children. Kim Guzman used to create wonderful Tunisian crochet patterns. She published through Annie’s Attic. I was in her Yahoo group. She finally just stopped because people were taking her patterns and posting them in blogs, for which she got no money at all. Some were even saying that they were the ones that created them, basically stealing her credit too. Why buy a pattern when you can get it for free? She was being robbed of revenue and credit so she simply stopped creating and publishing patterns. I’m lucky I have all of her books. The same applies to literature, art, photography, music and film.

    He’s also a hack as it should be “She and her family” not “Her and her Family”.

    You can tell him I said so. But if he’s going to quote me, use me as a source or even paraphrase me, he has to ask my permission first. Even though I posted this on your blog, I wrote it so I own the copyright.

    If he tries to counter with “fair use” he is equally ignorant as it is very narrow and tricky and doesn’t apply here. I have a Masters in Library and Information Science. To put it at a level he can understand my expertise is googling and copyright.

    • Leigh on June 30, 2022 at 8:49 am

      Hahaha mlaiuppa, git ‘im!

  6. Travis Cape on June 30, 2022 at 11:57 am

    The media is garbage

  7. Laurie L Weber on June 30, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    Wow! Unbelievable. Another annoyance you have to deal with. 🙁

  8. Mike on July 14, 2022 at 11:55 am

    We had a young man in our town who was fired from the local newspaper for such antics, and who then started a local news website with pages on all of the popular social media sites. If he was bad before, he was terrible afterwards; he took liberties with not only his personal opinions on events, but engaged in much speculation. When a local man was found dead in his home, this guy posted on his site that the man’s family was under suspicion, even though his wife was in the hospital at the time and his children were not at home.
    Since Ms. Stanley will be your new neighbor, there should be plenty of opportunity for you to clarify your feelings to her in person, and I am sure that she will see that your intentions are the best; it is highly likely that, if it were not for you and your protests over the shady attempts to railroad the first sale through, she would not have had the opportunity to purchase the Plumb Mansion. I hope that the future holds good times for you and your new neighbor, and I hope she realizes that she is a very lucky lady to have a neighbor like you!

    • Paul on June 4, 2023 at 7:33 am

      I am wondering; has Ms. Stanley done anything with this lovely property? Has she moved in? I’m curious as to what became of this.

      • Ross on June 4, 2023 at 10:18 am

        Hi, Paul!

        Chris has not moved in. She’s ton a ton of work on the exterior and it looks MUCH better than it did. She’s been working on the interior, too. The other day she posted that her cancer had returned. She no longer visits the house as she doesn’t have the energy, although interior work continues. I send her good thoughts daily. Cancer is a horrible thing.

Leave a Comment





Your email address will NEVER be made public or shared, and you may use a screen name if you wish.