Bruno Tedeschi's personal web site

Redbankgreen.com has come under fire for posting unedited audio interviews of Red Bank council candidates after telling them only written transcripts would appear on the site.

"Are you kidding me Red Bank Green? This feels so sleazy to listen to," one reader wrote. "At least edit these audio files. It doesn't seem like these people know that they will have their every sound posted on the internet. This is ridiculous and really feels sleazy." 

In one interview with John Tyler Jr., the candidate is heard yelling "Down, down," at his Golden Retriever and talking about how the pet was "something else." During the interview, Tyler is relaxed, informal and says he wants to "be himself."

"This is exactly why NO ONE should deal with Red Bank Green," wrote Richard M. "I personally will not be voting for Mr. Tyler, but this action by Red Bank Green is completely sleazy and unprofessional on every known level of journalistic integrity."  

John T. Ward, the publisher of the popular hyperlocal news site, said he initially told the four council candidates that a transcript of their interview would appear as part of the site's Election 2008 coverage. The candidates knew the interviews were being taped.

At the time, Ward said he had no plans to post audio of the interviews.

"I’m embarrassed to say that at the time I recorded the interviews, I did not know how to post audio because I’d never taken the time to learn how," Ward said.

But when he was faced with the daunting task of transcribing a 90-minute candidate's forum, Ward said he decided to learn how to post audio.

"I poked around a bit in TypePad and found the instructions for posting audio," Ward said. "After that, I thought to do the same with the interviews."

Ward said he does not think the decision to post the interviews was unfair to the candidates.

"All it revealed was themselves being themselves in addition to being candidates," Ward said.

But he acknowledges he should have told the candidates the interviews were going to be posted.

"That‘s where I blew it," he said. "I can rationalize that I had told each of them that there would be a verbatim transcript posted, but the plain fact is that I should have told them in advance of publication that it would be audio instead simply because I’d told them something different."

Still, Ward said he stands by the decision to post the audio.

"They are more revealing than a transcript could ever be," he said.

Ward, who was a newspaper reporter for many years, said one of the big differences between print and online is the instant feedback.

"It is humbling and sometimes painful and yet absolutely fair that journalists should get a taste of what other people have to endure every day as a result of their interactions with the business end of the media Taser," Ward said. "If that doesn’t make you more sensitive to the concerns of people you write about, you have no humanity."

In the future, Ward said he plans to either video tape or record candidates and tell them that everything, including them yelling at their pets, is fair game for publication. He will also have them acknowledge "on camera or tape that I told them so."

If there's any lesson for other hyperlocal journalists, it's that criticism of your work is part of the game.

"If you haven’t been assailed yet by a reader, you haven’t been at it very long," Ward said. "Get ready to grow some rhinoceros skin."

Another lesson, Ward said, is to resist the urge to defend yourself.

"Other than to post a simple assertion of fact, I stayed out of this one, just as I’ve stayed on the sidelines for 2,000+ posts," Ward said.

"Defending yourself will only trigger more disputation...and getting into arguments with people who will say absolutely anything knowing they can’t be held accountable is always going to be a losing proposition," Ward said. "So however strong the pull, stay the hell out of it."

For his part, Tyler seemed to take the interview in stride. In a comment he posted to the site, Tyler said the he knew Ward "wanted to do something different but the results didn't come out looking to good."

He then apologized for yelling at his dog.

Said Tyler, "We were playing and sometimes she gets a little carried away."

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