City communications nicknames reporters, or, why this cat was ...

I?ve been called many things in my ?journalism career, but this is the first time I?ve been compared to a meme.

Going through a stack of emails released through a freedom of information request, I noticed the city?s corporate communications branch has a nickname for me: ?Grumpy Cat.?

?Please see below. He doesn?t need an interview. Possible to get him written response tomorrow?? wrote Nikki Eaton, in response to a particularly grumpy email from me, to Donna Casey, Carly Wolff and Andrea Ruttan.

?Grumpy Cat,? replied Ruttan, another front-line comms officer.

?Lol yeah. I was thinking the same thing though when I sent him that question ? I didn?t think he wanted an interview initially ? anyway. Sigh,? Eaton wrote back.

Now, I?m not upset about the nickname. I guess I just always pictured myself as more of a Fry kind of guy.

But usually, my day-to-day interaction with the city goes a little more like this.

Sometimes, as an Ottawa City Hall reporter, you have to ask yourself some seriously deep questions.

But the good days, the good days make it a little bit easier.

Anyway, so here?s why I was grumpy: OC Transpo sent their 2012 Customer Satisfaction survey to the city?s transit commission on April 17. When I saw the report was coming, I requested the data used to compile the report.

No dice. The report came and was received by commission, with no discussion and, to my knowledge, without the commissioners having access to the actual numbers. I kept asking.

About a week later, OC Transpo scheduled a ?technical briefing? on the data used to compile the report. Dan Barill, the head of the polling company responsible for the report, was there. The actual data was not. Keep in mind, this was weeks after the commission had already approved the report with no debate.

Weeks later, OC Transpo finally relented and turned over the data. And I found ? well, not much. There doesn?t seem to be any scandal, here. Maybe sample sizes that border on irrelevant, but nothing that would justify the stonewalling I was getting. If you want the searchable .xls file, let me know. Maybe you can find something I missed.

Oh, and Corp Comms? Keep in mind your emails are accessible through freedom of information. I?ll be encouraging my colleagues to find out what you?re calling them.

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Source: http://metronews.ca/voices/one-ten-laurier/695989/city-communications-nicknames-reporters-or-why-this-cat-was-grumpy/

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