Here's a strange twist of fate.  Tonight I found an e-mail in my inbox from a reporter at the Sentinel & Enterprise...

It turned out, she wanted to interview me about Geocaching because I had hidden caches in Fitchburg.  Talk about mixed feelings!  Given that the S&E has blacklisted me--and at least two other people I know of (link)--from posting comments on their blog because we are not conservative enough, the idea of helping them out pretty much turns my stomach.  But then a well-done article about Geocaching would be good for the sport, so maybe I should just turn the other cheek and give this nice lady some good source material for her article.

I pondered it for about an hour.  As near as I could tell the reporter was a very nice person.  She probably has nothing to do with the Twin Cities Blog.  But in the end, I decided to refuse.  Yes I know, that's not exactly high-minded of me.  But I'm sure that not everybody at that paper is a politcal hack, and since my e-mail to the paper (like my comments) disappeared into a black hole from which there was no response, I couldn't think of any other way to communicate with the people there that insulting their readership and abandoning journalistic principles isn't a great way to do business.  Will they get the message?  Probably not.  Am I just rationalizing, because they hurt my feelings, and I saw this as a way to "get back at them"?  Well, maybe.

I'm as human as the next guy, and that's the truth.  After refusing, I felt... a little ashamed.  But that's the choice I made, for what it's worth.  I told the reporter that she could probably find a lot of people in the area who would discuss the sport with her.

This was my letter (with minor edits):

Hello XXXXXXXXXX,

Ordinarily I would be pleased to do so, but having been recently snubbed by the Sentinel & Enterprise in what appears to be baldfaced conservative bias at the expense of the journalistic integrity of your paper, I have no interest in helping the Sentinel & Enterprise in any way.

http://unbecominglevity.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/9/14/2326213.html

Geocaching is a wonderful sport, and I'm sure if you check around you should be able to track down someone from this area who can help you, there's a cache up at Flat Rock which was not placed by me, that's probably by someone local.

I'm very sorry that I can't help you. If you worked for any other paper I'd jump at the opportunity to talk about geocaching. In the interest of your own paper's reputation, I strongly suggest that someone over there cast a stern managerial eye on whoever is managing the Twin Cities Blog.

-- Chuck S.
Fitchburg, MA