It’s always unsettling when one has attended an event and then reads an account of it in the newspaper, only to find there is little relation between what one actually observed and what a reporter says happened. Case in point: the ceremony honoring the remarkable life of Dr. Joseph Corbin, held on Mon., May 27, in the chapel at Forest Home Cemetery.
The headline says: “Arkansas history honored in Forest Park,” when in fact it was American history that was being celebrated. That’s really an important distinction.
The article says: “Corbin died in Chicago in 1911….” when in fact the printed program says he died in Pine Bluff, Ark., in that year. That’s just sloppy.
The article repeatedly cites the event’s initiator, Dr. Gladys Turner Finney, referring to her incorrectly as Gladys Turner, also without her academic title, as shown in the printed program. That’s almost unforgivably disrespectful.
Finally, it is only in the article’s last two paragraphs that we are given a (highly truncated) version of the life and accomplishments of Dr. Corbin, bereft of all of the heroic detail and passion for living that were relayed by Dr. Finney and many others who spoke that day about him. Talk about burying the lead.
Perhaps the explanation for these many lapses lies in the fact that the article’s author was heard telling one of the ceremony’s guests that he “already had the article written.” Some people work that way and get away with it, but not forever.
Thanks for listening to my complaints about the shockingly poor quality of coverage.
Karen M. Kelly
Forest Park
