A reader criticizes us for posting a synopsis of the findings of an investigation by the Times Herald-Record into the record of area developer Steve Aaron. The essence of the criticism is that we should have written the piece ourselves:

the truth wrote on Jan 3, 2012 8:44 AM:

" Now the Freeman is printing news about real investigative reporting done by the Record !!!
This paper never ceases to amaze.
That was an excellent investigative piece in the Record...maybe the Freeman should take note how a newspaper should be doing investigative reporting.
Or you could just report what is in the Record everday. "

 

We’d like to be all things to all people at all times. There was a time when the local daily newspaper was something close to that, delivering most of the international, national, state and local news, sports and entertainment that residents within its area would be exposed to within an average day.

There was a time when that presumption meant that news organizations rarely recognized the work of another news organization.

Those days are long gone. News travels very quickly from a multiplicity of sources, mostly by digital means. Consumers have instant access to news from many sources.

Further, market forces have eroded the ability of nearly all news organizations to cover the ground as they once did. This applies to the former great television network news organizations, The New York Times, The Associated Press, the Washington Post, and the Daily Freeman, Poughkeepsie Journal and Times Herald-Record alike.

We are dedicated to getting the most complete news possible in front of our readers as it becomes available. If that happens to be done digitally by an area news organization, we want to bring it to the attention of our readers. We don’t think that diminishes us in any way.

To my eye this morning, the Record story took a very methodical approach to the record of Steve Aaron, in part summarizing what we had previously reported (and attributing it to us) and compiling and reporting some new information about the breadth and depth of legal actions against Aaron. That’s why I chose to post a synopsis of the Record story, with links both to the full online story and to two previous stories published by the Freeman, one on Aaron's allegations of racism and anti-Semitism against the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency and the other on his recently approved housing project in the city of Kingston.