Over here at turfgrrl world headquarters, things are beginning to look more and more like a newsroom. Tips are flooding in on all sorts of interesting and intriguing stories. The thing is, as a fake fake-journalist, with a day job, it’s increasingly difficult to hunt down details and conduct investigations on where things fall on the truth meter.
Some of the things that cross the action news desk are pretty scintillating. A certain public school employee whiling the afternoon at mermaids, for example. Sort of Norwalk’s version of the “Elliot Spitzer” story.
Then there’s the series of conspiracy theories or cover-ups, dastardly deals and strange events. For everything that happens in Norwalk, there’s someone out there saying that all is not what it seems. Most of the time, things are exactly what they are because most of the time people are just trying to do the best job they can with the information at hand. It’s no easy task to weed out good info from bad info.
Sometimes you have to keep on asking questions, because the answers you get aren’t responses to the question you asked. A yes or no answer makes it seem simple. Except when you don’t want a yes or no answer. Sometimes there’s lots of hidden pressure attached to a question. Like getting a court summons.
When questions are attached to matters of public record, the truth will eventually come out. Which is why, the common saying remains, “it’s the cover up that will get you.” That series of questions usually starts with who knew what when. It’s always unfortunate that someone who should know better fails to realize that time lines will set whatever actions, honorable or not, in a different context, once they’ve been assembled.
Of course the luxury of hindsight, or armchair quarterbacking, is the ability to see things once they’ve all happened. Things always look different in real time. But armchair quarterbacking is what journalism is about. The 5 Ws, answered each day.
Which brings us to this court case: 07-5003580-S.
Like the new X-Files movie soon to come out, The truth is out there. There are many investigations out there too. And the story will be told.
