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Snow-Day Caller Tells Media to Get Back to Reporting Real News

Snow-Day Caller Tells Media to Get Back to Reporting Real News
You may remember a little story we posted the other day about a Fairfax County High School student named Devraj Kori, who called a school administrator's home to question the decision not to close the area's schools for snow. Dean Tistadt's wife, Candy, returned Kori's call and left the boy a minute long rant chastising him for calling their home number with some harsh words, including the phrase "snotty-nosed little brats."

Well it turns out Kori isn't exactly enjoying the media attention either. Following the coverage from the Washington Post and CNN Kori has been inundated with phone calls from media outlets who he says have better things to cover. "I think there are issues like Darfur, I mean there are presidential primaries going on. There's so many other things that could have this media attention."

We're apt to agree with Kori on this one. We may be reporting it, but as an outlet that purely covers technology it's perfectly reasonable that we would pay attention. Outlets like CNN have probably dedicated more time to Kori's snow day phone call in the last three days than it has to Darfur in the last three months. And speaking of Darfur when was the last time you heard anything about it? Don't even remember do you, so we'll do CNN's job and give you a quick update - It's not getting better. Government forces in Sudan recently opened fire on a convoy of peace keepers from the United Nations and the African Union, though denied the attack was intentional. And to make matters worse, the government appointed Musa Hilal, who is accused of being a leader in the Janjaweed militia and being directly involved in the atrocities in the Darfur region, to a senior position.

Now that we've got the ball rolling maybe CNN can pick up where we left off and take Kori's advice -- start reporting on issues of true consequence and leave the quirky stories of internet phenomena to the tech blogs.

From CNN

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Audio/Video, Cell Phones, MySpace, YouTube

Student's Snow-Day Question Causes Internet Brouhaha

Dean Tistadt, Chief Operating Officer for the Fairfax County, Virginia school system, and his wife, Candy, learned a tough lesson in the power of the Internet after an angry voicemail left on a student's cell phone became an Internet phenomenon.

The ordeal started when Devraj "Dave" S. Kori, a senior at Lake Braddock Secondary School, called Dean at his listed home phone number to find out why he had not closed the schools after three inches of snow fell in the area. Kori left his name and number on the Tistadts' answering machine. Later that day, Candy returned the call and left a furious minute-long tirade on the boy's cell phone.

"How dare you call us at home! If you have a problem with going to school, you do not call somebody's house and complain about it," she yelled. At some point, Candy refers to students in general as "snotty-nosed little brats," and towards the end of her outburst shouts, "Get over it, kid, and go to school!"

Kori was taken aback by the anger and combative tone taken by Mrs. Tisradt and decided to share it with the Internet public by posting the audio of the message -- along with Dean Tistadt's home and work numbers -- on Facebook and YouTube.

The posting has touched off all sorts of debates over whether Kori's actions constituted harassment, if Candy Tistadt overstepped her bounds, and what is considered a polite and reasonable request for information. Within a day, the clip had received hundreds of hits online. It then made its way onto the local nightly news, and, as of today, had gotten over 20,000 listeners on YouTube.

Kori, a member of his school's debate team, said he was not intending to harass. He says that he had attempted to reach Dean Tistadt at his work number and thought he had a basic right to petition a public official for more information about an issue that affected him and his fellow students. He says the disagreement probably stems from a generation gap "People in my generation view privacy differently. We are the cell phone generation. We are used to being reached at all times," said Kori. Paul Regnier, Fairfax County Schools' spokesman, retorted that the conflict was more likely the result of a "civility gap."

Needless to say, the incident has resulted in countless prank phone calls to the Tistadts and much embarrassment for Candy.

Our take -- Kori probably shouldn't have called the Tistadts' home line, but Candy's minute -long rant was certainly unwarranted. Perhaps next time she'll think twice before leaving a hostile message and try to explain to the student that calling Dean Tistadt at home is unacceptable in a calm, level-headed manner.

From Washington Post

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