Journalists working in a healthy news ecosystem would have jumped on events that played out in one Northern Kentucky city in late February. That’s when news broke that the City of Covington had removed its public works director. Instead of firing the agency head, municipal officials created a new position in city government, one that doesn’t involve supervising a large staff.

Two Northern Kentucky newsrooms covered the staff shuffle. And, both published corrections after the city mistakenly released a draft memorandum reprimanding the former public works director. In the three months since the episode, neither newsroom investigated the circumstances surrounding the mistaken memo release and there have been no follow-up stories about the public works department.

I had a front row seat to the episode as a reporter for one of the newsrooms. My freelance gig with the online news site ended days after the public works story broke. Within weeks, the publication had erased all 32 stories I had written since January, including the public works story. I’m reprinting the story here, along with additional details about the mistakenly released memo.