Here in the patch, we think Herald-Standard.com editor Mark O'Keefe needs to expand his plea for new tips. It clearly isn't enough that he has implored the public to please let him know what's going on in the news. He now needs to make a direct appeal to Liz Zemba, the Tribune-Review reporter who works for his chief competition.
It was Zemba who skunked Herald-Standard.com a couple of weeks ago, by reporting that during a meeting of the Fayette County Salary Board, District Attorney Jack Heneks revealed that staffing changes he asked for would facilitiate creation of a grand jury he plans to convene a in the near future. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/fayette/s_788886.html
Amazingly, Herald-Standard reporter Amy Revak, who attended the same March 28 meeting as Zemba, did not mention anything about a grand jury in her story. Nor did Revak follow up the next day, as did Zemba, who on March 29 got further explanation from Heneks in the story, "Fayette DA seeks to empanel grand jury." http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/fayette/s_789079.html
It is not every day that the district attorney seeks to put together a grand jury. (And here in the patch, even we know that one of the likely matters headed for this particular grand jury concerns voting in Bullskin Township.)
In any county, the news of an impending grand jury is certainly a newsworthy event. And by mentioning it at a public meeting, Heneks was certainly not trying to make a secret of the fact. He was pretty much opening the door and inviting any inquiring mind to ask.
After Zemba pretty much covered all the bases with her Thursday story, O'Keefe's charges finally got into the act. On Sunday, April 1 -- four days after the salary board meeting -- the Herald-Standard's Jennifer Harr finally did a story that basically mirrored what Zemba had put in print two days earlier. We have little doubt Harr was given mop-up duty on this one.
The question O'Keefe should be asking himself -- and that readers as well as upper management should be asking themselves -- is why any of his reporters could have been so asleep at the switch. Does anyone besides Amy Revak really think that the reclassification of four sheriff's deputies and the resulting pay raises of $2,500 each is more important and newsworthy than the convening of a grand jury?
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