Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Lights out at Chase Bank in Bethesda after complaints

The blue light special has ended at Chase Bank at 7901 Wisconsin Avenue. After receiving complaints about controversial blue LED lighting that projected far beyond their property since they were activated one week ago, the branch has temporarily deactivated them. While I think the lights were clearly turned up too high to comply with light pollution regulations, it will be disappointing if they cannot have some color at a lower intensity. For now, the area around the bank has returned to the funereal grey darkness now found on most Bethesda streets after dark in the post-nightlife era. 
How it looked for the last week
It was also wild to see the story I broke last Thursday go viral, with no attribution to my original scoop. The blue lights story even made it to WJLA-7 News, among others, but the source who discovered it was not cited in any of them.

26 comments:

My Antifa Persona said...

This was reported elsewhere yesterday.

Robert Dyer said...

5:01: You mean it was plagiarized without attribution yesterday, old sport. My readers knew about it six days ago.

Anonymous said...

"It was also wild to see the story I broke last Thursday go viral, with no attribution to my original scoop. The blue lights story even made it to WJLA-7 News, among others, but the source who discovered it was not cited in any of them."

You were the only one who saw the lights? Really?

Anonymous said...

Sinclair News is now part of the MoCo Cartel. LOL

Anonymous said...

How can one "plagiarise" an article that was written 21 hours later?

Anonymous said...

The people that live in the area saw it and did something about it. Attribution should go to them.

Robert Dyer said...

5:04: I not only "saw" the lights last Wednesday night, but I published a news story about them the next morning.

5:16: You just wrecked the hot tub time machine by claiming last Thursday morning was this morning.

Robert Dyer said...

5:17: I not only "did something about it" by publicizing it, but you seem to have confused the difference between a personal communication and the standard convention of citing sources when aggregating interesting news from other outlets. Journalism is a separate field from complaining neighbors.

Anonymous said...

It will be interesting to see how this is resolved. They obviously spent quite a bit on that lighting. Maybe the LED diodes can be dimmed, or a tinted lens can be added to the front of the channel that houses the LED tube. Perhaps limiting the illumination to business hours would also help.

Anonymous said...

The people who want utter silence and darkness should move to more rural parts of the county.

Anonymous said...

The residents of the under construction building will be most impacted (the houses in East Bethesda are not impacted at all).

So, if the lights aren't stopped now, I'm sure the new apartment occupants will complain.

Woodmont said...

Will the guy who said, anonymously, that this was a non story last week please stand up?

Anonymous said...

This site also broke the news that parking rates were raised from $1.25 and hour to $1.00

Anonymous said...

"Blue light special." Nice.
Never let it be said that this blog doesn't provide illuminating news!

Anna said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anna said...

Oh look, an "anonymous" person is upset with me.

6:11AM, let me suggest you just not read my posts. I'm sure you'll be much happier.

Robert Dyer said...

6:16: People are not only tired of you, but you have been banned from commenting here after repeated violations and warnings. You are only here to disrupt my website.

Anonymous said...

Wonder if Dyers KFC review will exceed 500 views?

Anonymous said...

Actually east Bethesda residents saw it in person and contacted the news who came out and did a report. Nothing to do with your site. It was a good timely post though.

Anonymous said...

Kramer.

Anonymous said...

7:03 AM Cool story. LOL.

Anonymous said...

Why do people move into neighborhoods directly adjacent to a vibrant downtown and then ask all building owners to turn off their lights?

Robert Dyer said...

7:03: Wrong. I saw it in person. That's kind of how I, you know, got pictures of it last Wednesday night. "The news" includes me, and my report on the lights last Thursday morning. Other "news who came out and did a report" did no such thing until nearly a week later. Hence, they must cite me as the source.

Journalists can't be like Obi Wan Kenobi, suddenly grimace and say, "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror," and then file a report as if it was conceived via ESP.

Boyce Bowles said...

Pro-tip: If a blogger or legacy media person, reporting on MoCo news, says "We're hearing" or "according to a report" or "a rumor", 9 times out of 10 they're referencing one of Robert Dyer's original reports but don't want to attribute to him.

You don't even have to go to Journalism school to learn how to source correctly. The most basic blogger knows this.

Boyce Bowles said...

Pro-Tip #2: If you're going to plagiarize Robert Dyer, do it with some style and gusto: Always use the royal "We". Because you are special and MoCo royalty and why the heck not?

Robert Dyer said...

We've got a troll who's been banned for life from this site still trying to post defamatory statements about me under *two* different personalities. The abuse I have to take for exposing the truth about what's going on in Montgomery County is unreal.

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