Interview with Kent Fischer about his readers helping him uncover a major story

Kent Fischer, an education blogger for The Dallas Morning News, has scored multiple A1 stories and hundreds of blog comments because some of his readers alerted him to new grading policies for the Dallas Independent School District.

At first, Fischer didn’t think the new policies were a big story, but then some of his readers provided him with documents that persuaded Fischer to think otherwise. Fischer published those documents on his blog and a firestorm ensued. He has received hundreds of comments from teachers, parents and the general public about the situation.

Most of the comments are negative towards the new policies. The story has now even garnered national attention.

Fischer’s credibility was called into question before his readers once again stepped up and provided him with documents to prove his accusers wrong. The school district tried to claim that the documents were just drafts and that Fischer jumped the gun by publishing them. Fischer’s readers provided documents that proved that the district had been referring to them as finalized.

Fischer has been blogging for a little more than half a year, and he is beginning to find new sources through his beat blog. His new sources and blog were the main reasons why Fischer was able to break this story.

Listen as Fischer recounts how his blog readers have handed him a major story and how they have acted as a truth squad to dispel the district’s FUD.

Click here to stream the interview. Or download the MP3.

Blog readers acting as a truth squad

Kent Fischer’s blog posts about the Dallas Independent School District relaxing its grading policies were called into question by a district spokesman on another blog.

Fischer’s blog posts and A1 stories about DISD lowering its standards has caused an outcry among teachers, parents and the general public. It has even begun to garner national attention in such publication as The Wall Street Journal. Clearly, DISD has a public relations nightmare on its hands.

Fischer’s reporting was called into question by another blogger who
said the whole situation was overblown. DISD had begun to disseminate
its spin to bloggers and media outlets.

DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander claimed that what Fischer and The Dallas Morning News had published was in fact a draft copy of the new grading policy. FrontBurner blogger Tim Rogers called on the Morning News to print a clarification, and scolded Fischer and the Morning News for making a big deal out of a draft policy.

Just as Fischer’s blog readers helped break this story open, they also helped slap down district spin. For back story, here is a good primer on the first scoop that Fischer’s blog readers gave him about the school district.

This is where the story gets interesting. Normally, Fischer would have no way to prove that the documents were not drafts but rather finalized documents. Again one of his blog readers stepped up and provided him with critical information:

In case you’d rather not click the link and read it for yourself, I’ll cite the pertinent passage here:

Attached please find the finalized EIA regulation,
powerpoint and parent letters (English and Spanish) that will help to
clarify the regulation grading changes for both parents and teachers.

It was the DISD that first used the term “finalized.” One of Fischer’s readers provided him with the smoking gun. This is the first time Fischer’s readers have acted as a truth squad to dispel FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt).

Without Fischer’s beat blog, DISD’s new grading policies might have gone unnoticed. Instead, teachers, parents and others were able to see the new policies and have open debate about them on Fischer’s blog.