Comments on: NBC Washington Mocks WV, Shows Enormous Ignorance

By: Captain Obvious

Captain Obvious — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:02:18 +0000

Mac, I believe West Virginians do have thick skin, and if Mr. Needham had taken the time to write a truly satirical blog, I doubt he would have angered so many people.

By: Mac G

Mac G — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:05:51 +0000

Chris Needham has a great sarcastic voice and ran an awesome blog for years. He Fd up on this post and admitted it. I thought West Virginians had thicker skin.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:44:13 +0000

NBC a reputable news outlet? Why does everyone keep saying that their reputable? Once again, NBC shows its true elite, better than you bias!

By: The Enlightened Redneck » Chris Needham Is A Bigot

The Enlightened Redneck » Chris Needham Is A Bigot — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:44:55 +0000

[...] Karl Johnson, a West Virginia native who blogs at We Love DC (yes, many of us West Virginia natives practice journalism in the nation’s capital): “It is so ridiculous that a supposedly reputable news network in one of the largest and most important media markets in the country would publish something like this.” [...]

By: NBC Washington Not the First to Bash West Virginia | a Better West Virginia Blog - Culture | Arts | Economy

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:22:16 +0000

[...] blogger and West Virginia expatriate Karl Johnson offered the first objection to Needham’s writing, and word of the episode quickly spread online. Subsequently, many [...]

By: Chris Needham

Chris Needham — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:56:30 +0000

What I wrote was stupid and hurtful. I’m not going to make excuses for what I wrote, and they appropriately pulled it down. But I never should have written it in the first place, and for that I do apologize.

girlofwords.com wrote a solid post that rightfully takes me to task. I commented and apologized to that post the other day, and everything I wrote there applies here as well.

http://www.girlofwords.com/?p=3001&cpage=1#comment-10535

As I said there, I don’t expect everyone to accept my apology, but they should understand that it is a sincere one. I really do feel terrible for those who were genuinely hurt by what I wrote.

By: Morgana Leslie

Morgana Leslie — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:27:35 +0000

Dude….I am going to take this man to Carbide Camp and LET THE MUTANTS GET HIM

BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA!!!

By: Brandon Parrish

Brandon Parrish — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:54:21 +0000

This article is so absurd! I don’t know what the author or editor was trying to accomplish, but this is NOT journalism, nor is it news. A retraction and apology is most certainly in order. Furthermore, I’m not sure where Chris Needham did his research, but I’ve lived in WV my entire life, and I remember we had broadband internet available at my house 2 years before some relatives did who live half an hour from Baltimore. By the way, for anyone that wishes to view the article, it’s still cached on Google.

By: Drew Nettles

Drew Nettles — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:06:15 +0000

Deleting then pretending the piece never existed is a pitifully inadequate response. A formal apology is in order. And NBC4 should recognize that this twit is not someone they can trust to exercise sound judgment and end any association between their organization and him.

I doubt we will see an apology or termination since there is no National Association for the Advancement of Hill People. Hillbillies are the last free shot, the only unprotected minority.

Maybe we should form an NGO.

By: Phoenix

Phoenix — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:22:55 +0000

Thanks for this post, Karl. The trash post about WV was over the top even for an opinion piece. I’m wondering if the same tolerance would be given for a site that allowed discrimination applied to race, sexual orientation, etc., because the garbage I read was nothing short of that. I don’t care if something like that “slips through” once, it’s still unacceptable and has no place in real journalism.

By: Tiffany Bridge

Tiffany Bridge — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:54:47 +0000

To be fair to NBC4, they’ve been really working hard at making their online operation a destination in itself, and have been trying to take lessons from the success of blogs, which have generally been more personality and opinion driven. As such, they’ve added a lot of user-interaction, hired bloggers with strong personalities and voices, and have given those writers a great deal of leeway with their pieces. And most of the time, it’s worked for them. I read their site quite a bit and generally find that the combination of newsroom resources with blogging-style commentary to work for me for local news.

So it’s inevitable that occasionally, someone will say something they shouldn’t have said, so I applaud them for both taking the chance on the format AND for pulling the post down when it became clear that it was inappropriate.

I just don’t want to throw stones, since here at We Love DC we’ve had one memorable incident where a writer said something so beyond the pale we’ve had to pull it down, and multiple incidents where a writer said something that enough people have found inflammatory that the writer has had to sit there and take the onslaught of angry comments and decide for themselves whether to retract, clarify, or defend. This is the kind of risk that gets taken with opinion-driven coverage, and sometimes it blows up in your face. That’s how it goes.

By: STR1KER

STR1KER — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:44:37 +0000

Thank you so much, Karl :)

Thank you NBC for retracting it as requested. :)

Racist Rhetoric Reporting has no place in “news”.

By: John Small Berries

John Small Berries — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:54:30 +0000

@Jerry Sparks: He’s not identified as a blogger; there was no mention anywhere on the page disclaiming the piece as anything but “news”.

@goldthimble: Wow, I thought it would be hard to top Needham’s article for stupidity. You proved me wrong.

By: Willis Nowell

Willis Nowell — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:25:50 +0000

I’m with Karl all the way in a bassackward way. I’m a WV resident since 1963 and native Washingtonian (5th Gen). Over the years I’ve laughed at many good natured WV jokes, “where the sun shines on the roof and the moonshine’s in the basement” or “the WV home listing, 3 bedrooms, 1 path”. Needham’s comments were just plain mean spirited. What prompted his hateful blather is beyond my ken.

By: Nigel Carruthers

Nigel Carruthers — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:38:01 +0000

I’m sorry – is this supposed to be humorous? Cause if it is, you should really take some lessons on being funny. I’m not from West Virginia, but I happen to know that it is nothing like what you have described in what I can easily say is the most pathetic excuse for journalism I have ever read.
So thank YOU, Mr. Needham for making this both my first and LAST visit to NBC Washington. If they let smarmy douchebags commentate without editing their content, I won’t waste my time here when I could be reading real news. And yes, Mr. Needham, you ARE a smarmy douchbag. Fact: If you look up “smarmy douchebag” in the dictionary, a photograph of Mr. Needham appears right next to the definition.

By: ha!

ha! — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:07:29 +0000

well, it’s not like it’s false or anything… I mean, you’re not denying it and we all know that’s the way they roll in the WV… I’d suggest taking another swig of moonshine if you want to clear up the outrage…

By: Bob Coffield

Bob Coffield — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:45:06 +0000

I would ask that anyone reading the article by Mr. Needham and disagreeing with his commentary publicly support a boycott of Washington NBC Channel 4 until the article is retracted and a public apology is issued.

To show Mr. Needham the power of the Internet (that he believes does not exist in West Virginia) I would ask that you please forward a message out to your DC/MD/VA/WV contacts via your social networks, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Please feel free to RT the following messages on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/bobcoffield/status/6878131664
http://twitter.com/bobcoffield/status/6878149731

By: Kate Moore

Kate Moore — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:06:42 +0000

NBC Washington is as guilty as Chris Needham for publishing such an article. Employee or not. This country might be in a better shape today if people showed as much compassion as the people of the great state of West Virginia have. It sounds like the ignorant soul has ever visited this beautiful state.

By: Tom Bridge

Tom Bridge — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:26:30 +0000

@Goldthimble pleeeeeease tell me you’re not serious about the agenda here…

@DarkAudit That’s a bit much.

By: Jerry Sparks

Jerry Sparks — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:51:43 +0000

I don’t think Chris Needham is an employee of NBC Washington. I’m pretty sure that he is basically just a blogger on that site.