Seymour mayor-elect Craig Luedeman was still being interviewed by staff writer January Wetzel on Thursday afternoon as the first criticisms of his appointments came streaming in to TribTown.com.

While January was interviewing Luedeman, community editor Joanne Persinger had posted a breaking news item online, reporting that Luedeman has named Bill Abbott as his police chief and Rodney Farrow as the city attorney while retaining Seymour Fire Chief Fred Hines.

It took little time for the boobirds to start chirping.

That’s one of the nice things about the reader comments online at TribTown.com. They’re pretty instantaneous. It’s also one of the problems with the with reader comments. They’re pretty instantaneous. And, uinfortuantely, anonymous.

If I had by druthers, real names would accompany reader comments online just as we require that real names accompany letters to the editor in the print version of The Tribune. To me it adds credibility, and some civility.

I continue to be amazed, though no longer surprised at what people will post when their names aren’t attached. It takes a lot of courage to attack someone anonymously.

But back to the boobirds. Luedeman was quickly being taken to task on his selections, including those of Abbott and Farrow.

January’s story on Friday offered more information and insight than Thursday’s breaking news bulletin, with Luedeman explaining his selections and the process that resulted in those selections.

Let’s face it, regardless of who Luedeman — or any mayer-elect — would appoint, he was going to catch it from someone.

I say give him  — and his appointees — a chance.

That’s also what a number of folks posting to the reader comments said. Give him a chance.

I stand corrected

Luedeman’s announcement of his appointments, of course, meant I owed readers a “mea culpa” for a recent column in which I said I’d been hearing that chances were good that Luedeman would appoint an outsider as police chief and that that appointee could be a retired federal police officer.

Luedeman confirmed in his interview with January that he had indeed sought applicants from outside the police department, but he received little interest, he added.

And about that federal retiree? Luedeman said he didn’t know the man and had not interviewed him.

By any other name

It also didn’t take long for online users to compolain about my headline in Friday’s paper and at TribTown.com in which Luedeman was referred to by his nickname, “Luedy.” Unprofessional and disrespectful were among comments posted by readers.

That certainly wasn’t the intention, and we’ll not use it again.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.
————
Dan Davis is editor of The Tribune. You may reach him by phone at 523-7051 or by e-mail at ddavis@tribtown.com.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.