Flathead Memo is a personal journal of observation, analysis, and opinion, that focuses on, but not solely on, the Flathead Valley and Montana.
Flathead Memo is not a front for the observations and opinions of anyone else. I’m the sole funder, sole writer, sole editor, and sole designer-webmaster. I even wrote my own mini-biography.
Equally important, Flathead Memo is not an electronic newspaper or any kind of news service, and does not compete with any of the Flathead’s newspapers, or radio and television news broadcasts. If you read a news story in, say, the Daily Interlake, you can reasonably assume that the reporter has spoken with the major parties to an event, has written an objective account of that event, and has had his story reviewed, and if necessary modified, by an editor before it appears in the newspaper. The process isn’t perfect, but usually it produces a comprehensive and reliable report.
What I publish on Flathead Memo also goes through a process to check facts, syntax, and style. What’s different is that I’m reporting the results of personal observations. If I find an intersection made dangerous by weeds that block a view, I’ll photograph the obstruction (I always carry a camera) and publish the photo, the location of the intersection, and offer some comments on the situation. I might also publish the telephone number or email address of the official to whom one should complain about such intersections. But I probably won’t — as I would were I working for a newspaper — find the property owner to ask why the weeds have not been cut down, or seek a comment from the authority charged with enforcing the laws that forbid weeds from blocking intersections, or check official records to see whether the property owner has been cited for the same offense in the past.
Flathead Memo is not a community forum. I might publish some comments from readers, or even essays from trusted colleagues, but I’m not running a website where anyone can respond to what I publish and expect to have his comments published.
Finally, Flathead Memo is not a conduit for anonymous comment. I do not shout from the shadows. On rare occasions — and I emphasize the word rare — and on a case-by-case basis, which is the only way to do it, I may withhold an author's name as there can be a case for anonymous commentary, but I think one of the worst aspects of blogging websites is the tendency of authors to hide behind pen names. Anonymous blogging lends itself to hit-and-run writing and strikes me as an attempt to escape taking responsibility — or credit — for one’s actions.