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The one where an old veteran tells the world he’s met Mary Fallin several times…

9:06 AM EST on January 17, 2011

As you probably know by now, last Tuesday we published a post about the possibility that Mary Fallin swiped information from a local KOSU report for her inauguration address.  In it, we pointed out the similarities between Fallin’s address and a recent KOSU story about a World War II veteran.  We also made a Zorba Paster reference and told this tidbit:

We have learned through the Ogle Mole Network that Mr. Vezey claims that the only time he’s ever spoken about some of the specifics of his story – specifics that Mary Fallin specifically recalled in “vivid detail” from her speech – occurred when he was interviewed by KOSU…a few weeks ago…by reporter Gail Banzet.

Well, according to this and this and this it looks like either the Ogle Mole Network was wrong or Mr. Vezey has a bad memory.   I'm not sure which one.  Regardless, one thing we do know is that Mr. Vezey has told just about every media outlet available the he and Fallin have met several times, that she has had several opportunities to hear his story, and that they made-out underneath the bleachers at the Muskogee high school football field.

Just kidding about that last one.

Obviously, Mr. Vezey's statements contradict what our Ogle Mole told us, so we are going to go ahead and retract that part of our post about him.  Please note, we haven’t been asked to do this by anyone.  We are doing it because it seems like the right thing to do.

That being said, we'd still like to thank the Mole for alerting us to Mary's blatant use of the KOSU story for her speech.  If it weren't for that, nobody would know that Mary was a public radio fan.  She also would have gotten away with stealing "being inspired" by the KOSU report without giving the station its proper credit in a statement.

Also, the fact that our Ogle Mole was wrong has led some people to call us “irresponsible journalists.”  Here’s what one commenter wrote on Friday:

Not saying I’m a Fallin fan…but the guy does say he’s spoken with Fallin many times…so there’s plenty of reason to think she has personally heard his story. Personally doesn’t have to mean she and Vezey met one-on-one for lunch or something…hearing him speak “in person”…pretty much the same thing. Sounds like this guy has given his story many times in many places.

Ogle jump of the gun? Assumptive journalism?

Or, will it just now die and not be brought up again?

Makes it hard to make fun of other media outlets irresponsible journalism doesn’t it?

What ever happened to this site being a site that mostly dealt with/poked fun at…the media?

Here’s the deal.  It’s hard for us to practice "assumptive" or "irresponsible journalism," because we’re not – and have never claimed to be – journalists.  Sure, we occasionally break a story or three, but that's probably more of an indictment of our local media than it is of our journalistic credibility.

You see, we’re obscure local social bloggers who basically write about whatever we want to write about. In this case, we brought attention to an issue, provided the stuff that we knew, gave our take on it, and then let the "real media" (a.k.a. people who do it for a living) do their job.  It’s a formula we’ve practiced many times, whether we write about a celebrity plastering shark posters on a building, a lobbyist sleeping with a State Senator or a profile on Oklahoma City's newest porn star.

Who knows, maybe someday we'll commit to this site full-time and our role and identity will change.  Maybe we'll become journalists and be allowed to practice "irresponsible" journalism like other media outlets.  Until that day happens, we're going to continue to do what we do.  We hope you enjoy it.

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