Times Gives City All the Credit (Opinion)

The Northwest Arkansas Times listed the Milken Institute’s rating of the “Fayetteville Metropolitan Statistical Area” as No. 10 in a list of Top 10 local stories in 2003 but gave the city nearly all the credit. The Dec. 26 article quoted Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody, and Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bill Ramsey. Although Ramsey’s title as listed in the article doesn’t say with which chamber he’s associated, the readers are left to assume it’s Fayetteville, because it’s the only city credited with the honor.

One sentence six paragraphs into the story, mentions that Bentonville, Rogers and Springdale are part of the metro area included in the Milken index, but little else would lead readers to understand the significance of the honor for the entire region.

Milken started the confusion, since it abbreviated the area entity’s formal distinction as the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers MSA — a name that’s in as dire need of an update as the annual Rand McNally state maps show a detailed inset of Pine Bluff but not Northwest Arkansas.