See Also: www.TheDailyPhalanx.com
Questions & Answered: The Daily Phalanx’ Brandon P. Reed
JOEY G. DAUBEN
The Balch Springs Beacon
publisher@balchblog.com
DALLAS — Freedom of the Press Group’s Dallas County editor, Brandon P. Reed, sat down with The Balch Springs Beacon in our first-ever Question and Answered session. Reed is also the publisher of TheDailyPhalanx.com, a news blog that covers Dallas City Hall, the Dallas ISD and politics in Dallas County. The interview follows:
Q: When did you start The Daily Phalanx and why did you start it?
Reed: I started The Daily Phalanx around June 2005 as a joke, I noticed that it started attracting attention from public officials, so I expanded it to the whole state of Texas. My plan was to have 254 Phalanxes for the 254 counties in Texas, educating people, battling corruption, and holding public officials transparent and accountable. Also, when I first started the blog I hadn’t written since 1994, so I kind of had to re-teach myself somethings; I’m still teaching myself the industry. This is why the development of the blog moved slow.
Q: How has the traffic been since you started The DP?
At first I was the only traffic, then it slowly started picking up and around June 2010, I started getting inside stories like, corruption within the city of Dallas Municipal court, after the firing of former Municipal Judge Staci Williams. That one incident put The Daily Phalanx on the map in Dallas politics. Then around Oct. 2010, I started publishing articles about the Dallas County DA being a pedophile protector and the numbers went out the roof. Now our traffic numbers are getting even better since I started posting arrest reports/mugshots.
Q: What has the response been like to the new DP design?
A: The response to the new web design has been fantastic. It has brought our numbers up drastically and I’m very proud of what we have accomplished because I do most of the work myself, with no previous education in web design; BTW we are still under construction.
Q: Tell me, again, what “phalanx” means
Phalanx is a battle formation that the people must take on when we are enlightened on wrong doing, evil, and corruption. We must stand straight in ranks, prepared to do battle, not a physical battle but a social networking battle. We can defeat evil or wrongdoing by constantly keeping people abreast of the issues.
Q: You’re getting some interesting visits from certain government officials and elected leaders. Care to explain?
John Wiley Price seems to be very interested in the website now. I sent a thorough Public Information request over regarding every piece of property that precinct 3 owns. It has now been over 60 days and still no response but fortunately today the Dallas county commissioners court met and one of the things on the agenda was to hire a Chief Public Information Officer. So I pray that we can get some resolve soon. Also, I sent over a request for audio/video of the Arthur and Archie fiasco carried own by our mayor, Dwaine Caraway. I was one of the six requesters of that information.
Q: When did you decide to start publishing mug shots?
I decided to publish mugshots after I noticed a void on social networking sites like facebook and twitter not being utilized to fight crime. There are several print papers that sale in the local stores but none on social networking sites. Dallas has a very high crime rate that makes it undesirable for people to live, I’m trying to make it desirable again by eradicating crime and publishing those photo’s was a start. Last week was our first time publishing the photos.
Q: How does Dallas City Hall and other governmental entities now view/treat The DP?
Dallas City Hall and the other government entities respect and fear The Daily Phalanx. Like I said earlier, I have people calling me to meet up in some grocery store parking lot passing off documents showing improprieties. On top of that, I also go and give speeches at our local public institutions
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