February 15, 2008

Long Term Care Update

Tennessean reporter Theo Emery reports on the governor's "me too!" proposal on restructuring TennCare to offer more long-term care options than just nursing home care.

Also, the AP ran a story on it, but the only place I could find it, on the website of the Memphis Daily News, was a truncated version of the much longer - and better - story that the AP actually put on the state wire.

The truncated version did not include the comments from Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Robin Smith responding to the governor's proposal:

State Republican Party Chairwoman Robin Smith offered unexpected praise for Bredesen's comments.

"Governor Bredesen spoke very eloquently today about long-term care, and I want to congratulate him because that's been something that's been a priority on the Republican side for years," she said. "He's doing the right thing."

(I also can't figure out why newspaper website stories don't link to press releases and other documents that they mention - so that readers can decide for themselves if the newspaper story's summary is enough information or if they want to read the whole press release or document for themselves. Essentially, structure the online version of a story as if it were a blog post.

Sure, I'd like it if they linked to the press releases I issue for the clients and organizations I represent, but, as a news consumer, I'd like it if they linked to such documents even from clients and organizations I don't work for.

A newspaper that routinely did that would, in my estimation, become a much more valuable and popular resource for its readers by serving as both news summarizer and information guide.)