Listen To The Fort Worth Voice Of The Pulte Wall Of Shame

I think the first time I blogged about the Pulte Wall of Shame was back on September 29 in a blogging titled Why Is Fort Worth's Best Public Servant Ignoring The Pulte Wall Of Shame?

Then on December 4 I blogged about the Pulte Wall of Shame again in a blogging titled Arlington Pit & Fort Worth Wall Of Shame Examples Of Civic Irresponsibility.

On that same day, December 4, I heard from one of the primary Fort Worth victims of the Pulte Wall of Shame, via a text message on Facebook. However, due to a snafu with Facebook Messenger, I did not see that text message til yesterday.

The text message is worth repeating in its entirety for your enlightenment as to what it is like to live in a town with a corrupt city government and no newspapers practicing journalism of the sort practiced in more democratic locations in America and the world....

Durango,

Thank you so much for shining a light on our situation. Nearly 9 months later; most have simply walked away because it's not their wall and not their problem.

Please feel free to share my message here & the information I share with you in the comments section of your blog or a separate post or email or any medium you deem necessary.

You are 100% correct that The Star Telegram has essentially refused to cover our story despite my continued efforts to elicit their cooperation in running a story. I think I reached out to 4 various employees including editors AND reporters.

What's MORE interesting is how we were approached at City Hall by a reporter, Caty Hirst, to cover our story but who, after ONE conversation, which I'm sure was followed by her digging into the various sources and fact checking what I provided her, never interviewed me or wrote anything. We never truly spoke again. It appeared for weeks as if we were playing phone tag but in actuality, Caty may have been dodging me all together & never followed up on our story nor did anyone else at the Telegram. Coincidence? I think not. And I also think it absurd for any professional journalist to insinuate this isn't a good story...tragic as it is because it's MY real LIFE...this is good news that would draw in readers/viewers. So, suddenly dropping a story that you found so intriguing is suspicious to me.

As far as the Fort Worth Weekly...they reached out to us and I took the time (a lot of time, actually) to gather up all the documentation I could give them that THEY requested even when I told them that there was a LOT of information and documentation but that I was happy to walk them through it. And I did walk one reporter through it over the phone at length and he told me that he wanted to get something together quickly to run in the next couple of days in the public opinions section and that he'd then work on a big, full story. So, I even summarized for him the grabbing highlights he could use for the smaller section. All he had to do was print it. He contacted me two days later saying that their paper felt our story was "too complicated" for them and they wouldn't be covering it. 

Too complicated?!? Isn't that a journalists JOB...to "uncomplicate" and summarize/provide an overview of a situation and tell a story that the reader/viewer can grasp? Are journalists simply not capable of this anymore? I mean, I had even done the heavy lifting for him so navigating through it wouldn't have been so difficult. No, journalists are completely capable of this but in Fort Worth loose lips sink ships and the media here is more concerned with politics and staying in the old boy's club than actually doing what they're here for...to TELL THE STORIES of the people who live within the city; to SHINE A LIGHT on corruption or problems or public causes or needs.

If I've learned ANYthing over the last several months it's that journalism is NOT what it used to be. For someone, who as a young girl, idolized journalism and has the heart of a writer; this discovery was heartbreaking. Our media is bought, plain and simple. And you and I don't have pockets deep enough to buy any of it.

As far as Betsy...no, she still is yet to return a call, email or come out to see the catastrophe for herself. Heck, would've been nice if her office had even just reached out during these terrible floods to ask if we needed sandbags!! Councilman Moon paid nice lip service as well that he would help and outside of one completely useless email that took THREE WEEKS to get; he did nothing.

Even if our arrogant city refuses to own up to their part in this devastation; the very least they could do is pretend to CARE about my family. To think that we sat in a meeting with EVERY SINGLE department in this city and they looked in our eyes and those of my two little children and not only didn't fulfill what they promised but haven't even bothered to have an intern shoot off an email to inquire as to how we are after the terrible weather?!? That's purely disgusting. That's the best, most polite word I have for it. Disgusting.

Sorry for the length of this but I wanted to answer some of your questions.

Thank you again for continuing to call out responsible parties and shine a light that the city keeps trying to cover.

-Krissy Irizarry-