With less than a week to go before releasing their findings, The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission is catching some more heat for their methodology… I think.

Margaret Moffett Banks, News & Record
TRC mum on report

“Private meetings. Undisclosed sources. “No comments” to the media.

The group investigating the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings has cloaked itself in secrecy. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has said little about its two-year fact-gathering process, other than promising fairness, balance and completeness.

This week, members of the commission will lift the veil — and the public can decide whether those promises have come true.

The commission’s long-awaited report will be released during a somber, quasi-religious ceremony Thursday night at Bennett College. Jill Williams, the commission’s executive director, said CD-ROM versions of the report will be “distributed like Communion.”

[...]

I’d rather not respond with an accusation of good old fashioned sensationalism, but nowhere else in the article does Banks expand on her lead-in:

• “No comments to the media” — Is she referring to the TRC these last few weeks as they attempt to wrap-up two-years worth of work? Or is she charging that the TRC hasn’t spoken to the media over the past two years? If the latter, what exactly is the TRC supposed to talk to the media about? I’d like some examples of their stonewalling.

• “Undisclosed sources” — Has the TRC reported something profound, attributing their reporting to an undisclosed source? I hopped over to the TRC site today and found the entire public statement archives within one click. What’s the context of this complaint?

• “Private meetings” — I could be mistaken, but wasn’t the methodology of the TRC presented to the community from jumpstart? What “private meetings” is Banks referring to other than the TRC meetings to discuss their findings and work on their report?

Ed Cone thinks that the TRC had made a PR mistake by running things as Banks charges, suggesting blogging and media availability as smarter approaches, but from what I can tell, the TRC does have a blog (it’s been active for the past 15 months) with a tagline that reads, “A space for open community dialogue about the work of the Commission.”

A brief check of the comments over the past few months shows very random participation from the community. It’s possible that participation dropped off for particular reasons, but Ed’s suggestion seems to be covered.

This all leads into to my question for Greensboro residents:

Is the community truly attempting to use all available avenues for participating in this process or are we constructing a strawman argument to challenge the integrity of the TRC, a week prior to the release of their report?