ruthholladay.com - june 2007
ruthholladay.com - june 2007
hollabird
archives for: june 2007
06/30/07
07:19:28 pm, categories: posts, 304 words
friday, dec. 8, 2006: the scratchings on the wall...
happy anniversary to me. last june 30, a year ago today, i took early "retirement" and left the star. the past 12 months have been filled with many blessings but also much sadness for what was and is. i still dream about the star. funny, it's always about unresolved issues: trying to make a deadline, usually. trying to finish up and do a good job. trying to fit in where it's no longer possible. i left a newsroom; they now call it an information center.
in cleaning out old email tonight, i ran across something that was sent to me in december of 2006, an email originally sent out by dennis ryerson to the staff. there's nothing terribly unusual in it, but it does show the downward direction the paper is going under this very odd and gutless gannett leadership.
here it is. read it, and have a drink:
"we also had a very good day yesterday in terms of postings on our
website. (we're down some today). you may think an item is a small deal.
some of our web users may think so too. the latter included some crabs who talked back to yesterday's posting of a new bakery/restaurant downtown.
"but they later were sharply scolded by a downtown worker who pointed out that she is very, very interested in lower-cost dining downtown, and that the story was important news for her.
"(money quote
"we all get press releases, and we all are tempted to think, ahhh, not much news here. but it is news to somebody.
"take a couple of moments, please, to get a couple of sentences
of the information online. the more postings, the more traffic we
generate. and remember that we are in a competitive business, requiring us
to move fast to ensure we don't get trumped by another source."
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01:22:22 pm, categories: posts, 212 words
how papers are manipulating circulation numbers
a reader emailed the following sacramento bee article, which addresses the "new ways" newspapers are adding up readership -- ways that make some of us a little uneasy. obviously indianapolis star publisher barbara henry is not the only one to emphasize readership rather than talk about actual paid subscribers.
here's the story:
"measuring readership, web visits, shared users.
"by dale kasler
"for decades, newspaper audience --- the basis for setting
advertising rates --- has been measured by paid circulation. now,
caught up in a multimedia world that is siphoning off circulation and
advertising dollars, newspaper publishers are trying to [more fully
make their readers] count.
"the industry-supported audit bureau of circulations (abc), a
nonprofit organization that verifies newspaper circulation, is about
to roll out a system for counting papers' total audience. the system
will go beyond paid circulation and include measurements of
'pass-along' print readership --- reflecting the copies that are
shared among friends or members or a household --- and the paper's
local web site traffic.
"newspaper executives admit the new system won't solve everything but
say it will blunt the notion that newspapers are doomed and help them
reverse their slide in ad revenue. they note that it has the
endorsement of the ad community, which is a partner in abc."
are newspapers really doomed?
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10:40:43 am, categories: posts, 282 words
the scoop on the star
here's what went down at 307 n. penn friday: exec ed dennis ryerson opened the meeting expounding on how hard everyone is working.
he then talked about the pressure newspapers are under and how nobody has quite figured out how to fix what ails them.
then he announced there would be 20 buyouts. as reported on taking down words, those are company-wide, not just in the newsroom. ryerson didn't say who in the newsroom is eligible. interested parties were told to send ryerson an email.
there is another part to this story, too -- and in the shadow of everything that's pretty grim, it's some good news. gannett is actually adding 50 jobs in a "regional toning center," meaning that indianapolis will be toning photos for all 85 gannett papers. (des moines also has a toning center)
jen wagner is also reporting on taking down words that --
"..those who take them (buyouts) will get two weeks of pay and benefits for every year they've worked there. (that's twice what's called for in the guild contract.)
"only a few of the buyouts will affect folks who work in the newsroom information center.
"the higher-ups officially announced that the paper will not eliminate its stand-alone business section and merge it with the metro section, as previously planned."
the latter can also be hailed as very good news.
now, can someone answer the question raised by an earlier comment on this blog -- ryerson claimed the star is making money. how can that be?
(my own opinion is that with 177 or so employee losses since gannett came in, the company has picked up a huge savings. could that be enough to offset its advertising losses? i dunno. newspaper stock analysis, anyone?)
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06/29/07
03:16:30 pm, categories: posts, 114 words
"it's official"
this just in from jen wagner's taking down words blog, under comments re: her earlier post about today's newsroom meeting at the star:
"it's official. 20 buyouts newspaper-wide, only "a handful" in the newsroom."
but a handful down there is a regular arm, leg, neck and head when one adds up how few are left.
anyhow, this is a big step for gannett and one of its "flagship" buys -- and a sure sign that there's huge slippage at 307 n. penn.
what bugs many of us is that the workers always take the hit; how about some new management? how about a buyout for the big bosses? clear the decks and let the working press in....
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01:55:49 pm, categories: posts, 27 words
layoffs, buyouts at the star?
a staff meeting is slated for 4:15 p.m. today in the star's "info center."
the word is buyouts and/or layoffs are pending.
keep watching for updates.
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06/28/07
08:52:15 am, categories: posts, 461 words
is geek a bad word?
they're out there, taking over a sizable portion of the world, silently, efficiently.
you know -- the geeks, the computer guys (and they are mostly males) who keep everything afloat in the vast network web our world has become.
for the most part, they live lives of quiet fill-in-the-blank, not so much unlike the rest of us save a penchant for buying the latest x-box and a taste for video games. then along comes one bad apple and sheds a dark new shadow on the whole culture.
the bad apple's tale is in wired magazine, told by joshua davis; it's the strange saga of hans reiser, a god in the world of linux, an obscure, to most of us, linux operating system, like windows or macintosh. but different in the sense that linux is free.
reiser is not making news for the usual geek assaults or triumphs: he's not spun off some multi-million dollar venture, or sold his own company, or piled on a big government contract, altho certainly he's had plenty of financial success. nope, he's accused of killing his wife, a beautiful, brilliant russian pediatrician he met overseas and brought back to california.
here's a tiny excerpt from the story, where writer davis explains why he's visiting a distraught reiser in jail: "i'm here because his defense lawyer thinks i will understand reiser. the accused is a 43-year-old geek — he lives in his own world of computer code, videogames, and science fiction books. he spent his early twenties developing a role-playing game to compete with dungeons & dragons while writing a novel about aliens invading earth."
what is creepy is the challenge to the non-geek heretofore widely-held assumption that all geeks are harmless, a cut above nerds, and everyone knows how innocent a nerd is.
but whether or not reiser did murder his wife -- and it looks bad -- he's got plenty of other baggage. there is his missionary's zeal for exposing his young son to violent, punitive, warrior video games; his longtime friendship with a guy into sadism and masochism, ecstacy, sex with other men's wives and ultimately a sterile sort of christianity; reiser's very own creepy mother, who attends some weird hopeandfear confab in the desert, where she asks, "what makes you glow?" and "what dangers do you delight in?"
you will, after reading this, want to "weep piss and blood," as a former friend of reiser's says. you may also feel, tho i doubt it -- we're hoosiers -- a shred of sympathy for reiser's contention: "male geeks are one of the most hated cultural minorities."
anyhow, the story is morbidly fascinating. i foresee it as a documentary film, however, and not a violent video game.
check it out:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-07/ff_hansreiser?currentpage=all#
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06/27/07
03:52:08 pm, categories: posts, 201 words
happy 1 year ezra!
ezra holladay, also known as the "chigman," and "chiggie," is celebrating his one year anniversary of his birth today. he is at his home in indianapolis, where he enjoyed a nap, buttermilk cake and breastmilk. he espcially likes blowing out the candles on the cake, so much that his mama and papa are letting him do it twice: last night, and again today.
so i took time off from blogging, mainly because it took his grandparents all the friggin' day to upload this photo of him. as said before, "this blog breaks for grandsons."
and yes, i know it is stupid, self-indulgent and in bad form to show off ezzie, like he's a prize pig at the state fair. winston churchill, the great man, addressed this when someone asked him, "have i shown you pictures of my children?"
"no, and i want you to know that fact has not gone unappreciated," the pm replied.
but this isn't winston's blog. so for one day, a break from politics, journalism, sex and whatever other fleas of life bedevil us. instead,a message for an innocent and sweet little boy: "may his light shine upon you and give you peace."
nothing wrong with that.
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06/25/07
06:55:09 pm, categories: posts, 1123 words
why republican men are better in bed
ok, slow news day, as they used to say...no plane crashes, no murders, no major cover-ups.
so for everyone's amusement, here is a hilarous article that appeared in gq magazine on why republicans do "it" better (this one's for you, walfredo)..
"the elephant in the bedroom
ten (and a half) reasons why republicans—yes, republicans—are the best party in bed by anonymous
yeah, yeah, yeah, you’d think democrats would be better in the sack, because they’re usually, well…better human beings in general. plus, they’re so em-oh-tional and sen-sitive and they genuinely care about your day. and how you feel. and how you felt yesterday. “is there anything you need?” they whimper. oh, shutthefuckup! this is sex we’re talking about! after numerous years of intensive research on both sides of the aisle—and sometimes in the aisle—i am here to report that republican men (except the closet cases) are infinitely better to have sex with. here’s why.
1. no conscience!
a republican man will never whine in the middle of the night—let alone in the middle of screwing you—about the girlfriend/wife/whatever he is “devastating” by sleeping with you. he just does it. it’s all about him—he needs to be the best you ever had, and that can be a good thing if your getting off is contingent on his. he doesn’t even stay for breakfast. (though if you do make him breakfast, he is eternally grateful and will go down on you for another several hours.) one word: pancakes!
2. no tears!
a republican man will never, ever cry. not on election night (no matter what happens). not when you’re breaking up with him (what, you think he cared?). not even when he’s having “a problem i’ve never had before, really, i’m not kidding, i swear.”
3. a sense of perspective
i’ve dated democrats whose nights have been ruined (forever!) due to some stupid-ass comment by bill frist on hardball. i’ve watched them go all mopey, argue with the tv…and then their little weenies disappear. not so with gopers. republicans, particularly when naked, do not want to sit around and talk about social security privatization. or iraq, for chrissake. or why (oh, boo hoo, get over it!) kerry lost. they don’t even want to sit around naked and talk about george w. bush. they just want you to sit on them.
4. a sense of humor
republicans are happy to watch jon stewart with you. they think he’s a riot. they don’t parse every word he says in an effort to figure out if “the huffington post” will approve. they just laugh, pour another cocktail, and decide upon which couch they will fuck your brains out after the show.
5. foreplay
democrats often need something incredibly erotic—like meet the press—to get revved up, particularly on a sunday morning (there are only so many sections of the new york times). republicans, on the other hand, don’t even need fox news to get it up. they understand that foreplay is about sex. and lots of it. democrats are too busy checking if the condoms you keep in the jar by the bed are good for the environment. and by the time they figure that out, we’ve all lost our erections.
6. size
it is absolutely, positively, 100 percent true that republicans have bigger dicks. just ask lynne cheney. (dick is the liam neeson of washington!)
7. efficiency
republicans are much more likely to whip their dicks out during the cab ride back from dinner. (this is not an urban myth.) they are also more inclined to get started in the elevator, pin you against a wall, do you on the kitchen sink, wherever. democrats bring jammies, spend at least twenty minutes prior to “sex time” doing god knows fucking what in the bathroom, and then emerge with a big grin that says: “after all i did for you supporting equal pay and abortion rights, the least you could do is make love to me.” democrats always think you owe them. republicans, because they’ve never done a goddamn thing for you, have no such delusions.
8. largesse
republicans have great taste in restaurants and will never make the wussiest of pre-date proposals: “you pick.” they understand that a woman wants a guy who knows how to pick a restaurant by himself. and who doesn’t feel the need to tell you what zagat said about it before you get there. a republican also knows how to order wine without getting all prissy about it, never dissects the bill (they don’t even look at it!), and will never, ever—ever—say, “well, yes, i think that’s fair; your half comes to $39.25, but you had one more drink than i did,” if you offer to pay. they won’t let you think about offering to pay. this is so sexy! the best part: there’s never any guilt involved; we all know they got their tax break.
9. wooing techniques
republicans will never send you group e-mails that consist of the entire text of al gore’s last speech (that was “woefully underreported” but “i knew you’d want to read it in its entirety”). or the sign-up sheet for democracy in action, or whatever the hell those weirdos from the howard dean campaign are up to now. or forms to send your congressperson because something terrible is happening to some woman you don’t know in niger. (and you’d better send it to a hundred more friends or her labia will be removed tonight!!!) nah. republicans send e-mails that say: “i can’t wait to eat your pussy.”
10. nightstand reading
you will never hear a republican say, “let’s just cuddle and read the new yorker tonight.” they understand you do not want reading materials in bed. you want a man.
10.5. the big caveat
yes, republicans are the better lay—but only the republicans you’ve never heard of. the more prominent they are, the less fuckable they are. the opposite is true of democrats. think about it. is there any woman on the face of the earth who wouldn’t fuck bill clinton? (didn’t think so.) but with a gun to your head, could you even think of doing santorum? delay? lott? yuck, yuck, yuck! okay, with a gun to our head, we might do w. and cheney. definitely cheney. as long as we’re blindfolded. (but that’s okay. republicans are into that, too.)
the author wishes to remain anonymous for fear of cutting off her supply."
source: http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_4268&pagenum=3
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06:36:13 pm, categories: posts, 89 words
fred mccarthy on reporters, political donations
fred mccarthy has been blogging ever since the star stopped printing his letters to the editor. here is his salient commentary sent in an email to me re: journalists who donate to political parties:
"it occurs to me, at least on the local basis, that financial political contributions are very insignificant compared to reporters who, either independently or by order of management, reprint mayoral press releases without question or criticism. paid ads won't do nearly the job handled by fawning front page "news."
his blog:
http://indytaxdollars.typepad.com
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05:06:27 pm, categories: posts, 322 words
the danny pearl story: a sad heart
jim romenesko's blog is carrying a discussion with asra nomani, one of the many colleagues and friends of danny pearl. nomani wrote a piece for the washington post about the movie, "a mighty heart." she suggests that the hollywood project, starring angelina jolie as marianne pearl, his widow, commercializes the life of a vibrant young man beloved by his co-workers and friends around the globe.
nomani was a wall street journal correspondent and one of the last people to see pearl alive. here is an excerpt from the ongoing dialogue:
"asra nomani: while my name is on this piece, i wrote this piece expressing the voices of so many of danny's friends who have been tortured over the last month or so, during the release of this movie. over these weeks, we have been talking, exchanging emails, sharing details of the painful dreams and nightmares we have been having. it's not that the movie stirs up our pain in losing our friend. it's that so many of us feel that danny was sacrificed at the altar of commercial enterprise. as one friend said: "it felt as if he had been killed again." we didn't respond this way to the release of the hbo documentary, the journalist and the jihadi, because we felt that it honored danny."
danny pearl was a pulliam fellow at the indianapolis star. while we worked together in the same newsroom, i did not know him well enough to comment. yet i can relate to nomani's observation about painful dreams and nightmares. after his kidnapping, i was glued to cnn and other news outlets, hoping for the best. the news of his death was excrutiating for all journalists and americans.
i doubt that i will see the film, which, according to the post, has not done well at box office.
here is the poynter link, if you want to read more comments:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45
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11:45:19 am, categories: posts, 175 words
911 calls
altho the star's database posting of city-county employee salaries seems a little redundant, the star's database site nonetheless has worthwhile options.
mark nichols runs this show, and he's as talented as they come. "all data is dirty," he says on the website, which is refreshingly honest. by that he means (i think) that you are seeing raw numbers without context, and the potential for errors is built-in.
that said, the star's 911 service is brilliant. you can call up indystar.com, go to the database portal, and see the 911 cop runs that have taken place in the last 30 minutes. it's pretty easy to note that the crime is still trending on the eastside, central city and near northside.
but what about a service that shows how long it takes for police to respond to a reported crime or a crime in progress? my buddy walfredo freitas had to wait 90 minutes for an officer to show, after he reported a burglary at his near eastside home. this is not good. maybe the star could report response times?
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09:15:05 am, categories: posts, 434 words
star's database of state employees' salaries may backfire
ok, so i just found out, by looking at the star's much-trumpeted database of public employees' salaries, that marion county clerk beth white makes $76,499.59. big deal.
the paper may be putting its proverbial tit in a wringer, as john mitchell warned katie graham of the washington post, lo these many years ago.
why? first of all, obviously, this is public information, but most of it has already been digested and chewed over ad nauseam: the mayor makes a measley $95 big ones; sheriff frank anderson is richer than god ($110,500 plus $175,000 in collections -- and we still can't find the guy); and matt gutwein, who runs wish-hard and midtown mental health, rakes in $285,210, making him top dog. edifying? of course not. there is no context, no story, just a bunch of fill-in-the-blank followed by numbers.
another g-paper, the lansing state journal in michigan, also went down this road. the result? a blast from irate readers, especially the employees whose salaries were outed. as one peon whined, realizing that everyone knew he was making a paltry sum, "great. now i'll never get laid."
these troubles are reported on the poynter institute's jim romenesko blog. among the sour side notes: a state employee who complains, correctly so, that what gannett is doing in lansing is "lazy journalism."
precisely. i read with great interest two stories in the indianapolis business journal that were the opposite of lazy -- peter schnitzler's informative story about the pending income tax hike in indy, that, assuming it passes, will take care of the burdensome police pension problems; the story also included good history (blame steve goldsmith for not paying the piper) and the perspective of the anti-bart, greg ballard, who is running for mayor as an r. that was good.
even better? chris o'malley's clever story on getting an indygo bus back and forth from fishers. besides providing facts, it had o'malley's deft touch: "the town of 53,000 (fishers) is growing like the grass out back of a fertilizer factory and has a wafer-thin unemployment rate" and "the brake-slamming ballet on the interstates and binford boulevard can itself cost motorists several hundred dollars a year in vehicle maintenance."
both examples of fine reporting. the star should be doing more of that and less with a silly data base about public employees' salaries. but then, the sort of reporting in ibj takes work and reporters; the star, with its huge loss of staff over the time since g-men came to town, has to rely on gimmicks.
oh, and for those who don't know every name of every reporter who fled gannett -- chris o'malley was one of them.
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08:33:53 am, categories: posts, 167 words
you can be replaced, like a piece of furniture
jim romenesko of poynter has posted a story about the new york times, bloomberg and other top dogs recruiting talent from the wall street journal.
but does that worry new wsj owner rupert murdoch?
doubtful, suggests ken auletta of the new yorker. murdoch believes that all talent is replaceable.
here is what auletta recalls: "to try to forestall a murdoch takeover of new york magazine thirty years ago, about forty writers and editors and art directors went on strike. i was at the magazine then, and, with delusions that i was on a diplomatic mission, led a small delegation to visit murdoch's outside counsel, howard squadron.
"i was certain that, once murdoch understood that the staff would leave, he would retreat. squadron listened politely, and replied, 'you don't understand. if you leave, rupert will replace you like he replaces furniture.'"
at least the implication is that murdoch hires when someone has left --- under the gannett flag, the death star is down 176-177 souls who will never be replaced.
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06/24/07
02:40:59 pm, categories: posts, 444 words
looking again at the numbers; when journalists contribute to campaigns, causes
an alert reader reports that the msnbc.com poll of journalists and campaign contributions is a little more damning that dennis ryerson of the star lets on in his pompous sunday column. the reader points out that 300 journalists were surveyed; 144 responded. of those, 125 contributed to dem candidates and/or left-wing causes; 16 gave to to the gop. one person gave to both.
anyhow, 144 out of 300 is a little more significant than what ryerson claims in his misleading piece. ryerson criticizes the original report on a statistical basis. he says: there are 55,000 print journalists and 30,000 in broadcasting.
"of those more than 80,000 journalists, only 144, or fewer than .0020 percent were on msnbc.com's list," he writes.
"(or, put another way, 99.9980 percent of journalists did the right thing and made no federal political contributions," he concludes.
totally absurd, misleading and illogical. here is the actual story, explaining the metodology in the msnbc poll:
"there are more who gave
"not every donor is identified
"there appear to be far more than 144 donating journalists, but msnbc.com limited its search to:
— federal candidates, pacs and parties in the records of the federal election commission, not the separate state campaign records.
— the period january 2004 through the first quarter of this year.
— donors in news jobs, not corporate executives or publishers, who are allowed by nearly every news organization to donate.
"campaigns are spotty about reporting the occupation and employer of donors. the law requires only that campaigns make a good-faith effort to request the information from donors.
"our first search of the records used job titles: "editor," "anchor" and so on. because often no job title is reported, we also searched using the names of news companies. smaller companies were not checked; for example, we checked only the company names of the 200 largest newspapers, out of more than 1,400 dailies in the nation.
"small donations may not be in the records. many candidates report only donations of $200 or more. reporting of smaller donations is optional but is becoming more common with electronic filing of campaign reports to the fec.
"then, with a list of about 300 apparent journalists, we tried to contact them all. the list published here includes only those who either confirmed that they made the donation or did not respond. many journalists who changed jobs since the donations were not contacted and are not included here."
thanks to my reader for pointing out that msnbc.com identified 300 apparent journalists as campaign contributors, and got 144 to respond to their questions.
and here is the link identifying those journalists who ponied up, including two from the fort wayne news sentinel and the rest of the usual subjects...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19113455/
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11:33:08 am, categories: posts, 221 words
channel 6 reports on the troubles at clarian
some angry employees in the clarian medical network (methodist, iu and riley hospitals) have taken their concerns about strict new health regulations to channel 6.
here's the report by rafael sanchez that aired friday. this is from the indianapolis' tv station's web site:
"workers at some of the best-known hospitals in indianapolis may soon have to pay if they don’t measure up to their employer's health standards.
"starting in january, clarian health employees who use clarian's medical insurance will pay a "health risk charge" -- $5 per paycheck -- if they smoke, call 6 for help's rafael sanchez reported friday.
"also, in 2009, clarian workers will submit to health screenings that will take weight, cholesterol and blood pressure into account. people deemed to have issues in these areas will pay higher insurance premiums, sanchez reported.
sponsor
"clarian's hospitals are methodist hospital, riley hospital for children and the indiana university medical center.
"sheriee ladd, clarian's senior vice president of human resources, said the move is being made partly because of rising costs associated with paying for employees' health care."
sanchez also talked to a labor lawyer who said what we already know: employers in this "fire-at-will" state pretty much have the upper hand to decree what they want. i still say there may be a civil rights violation here. that, obviously, is what many workers also believe.
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10:56:47 am, categories: posts, 506 words
oh, for goodness' sake; of course most journalists are dems -- putting their money where their mouth is
i am stunned -- stunned -- by all the flap over bill dedman's msnbc's report that, in a survey of broadcast, print, online, etc. journalists regarding campaign contributions, the majority acknowledged making financial donations to democrats.
here is the link followed by the lead:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19113485/
"msnbc.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the federal election commission. most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to democrats and liberal causes. only 16 gave to republicans. two gave to both parties."
the list is even better, although hardly, as the star's exec editor dennis ryerson used to like to say, revelatory. guess what? top writers/editors at the new yorker, vanity fair, the new york times and national people's radio made contributions to democratic candidates or left-wing causes. a couple of mopes at fox and forbes backed up republicans. big deal.
what does amaze me is dennis ryerson's namby pamby assertion in today's star that "vast majority of journalists stay out of politics."
he contends that the numbers in the msnbc survey are "so small as to be next to meaningless." he has the audacity to report that "99.99 percent of journalists did the right thing and made no federal political contributions" (!) although he certainly does not know this for a fact and appears to be borrowing his logic from another poynter writer, chris daly, a journalism professor who oddly arrived at the same conclusions in an online piece posted friday. ryerson does not quote this professor, but i know a stolen concept when i see one. plagarism?
he also says, incredibly, "most editors i know are sensitive to the allegation that a majority of journalists tend to be to the left of center politically, a perception strengthened by more than one survey. ..it is why many of us are concerned by such reports like the one done by msnbc.com even thought, as i noted above, the number of journalists breaching the public trust is very small."
give me a break. everyone knows that "a majority of journalists" in this country identify with the left. journalists see ourselves as crusaders, as wanting to right wrongs. because, relatively speaking, journalists are not paid well (in comparison to businessmen, stockbrokers, etc.) we tend to identify not with the rich but with the disenfranchised. hello, this is the dem mantra. or as larry duhe, a wire editor at the evansville press, said to me about 1000 years ago, in a fit of pique, furiously tearing what was no doubt a political story off the wires: "i don't see how any working person in this nation can ever be anything but a democrat."
that's refreshing candor, as are some of the comments from the outed journalists in the msnbc list of donors. "everybody is in somebody's pocket," one contributor noted. that at least is a more realistic assessment of how the world works. cynical? yes. but guess what. 99.9 percent of journalists are also cynical.
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10:00:21 am, categories: posts, 197 words
stop the presses; gannett offers buyouts
in hawaii, anyhow. here's the report from the poynter institute regarding the honolulu advertiser, the biggest paper in hawaii. the source is pacific business news:
"the honolulu advertiser is offering enhanced retirement packages to 86 workers in an effort to reduce its staffing.
"in a letter to employees thursday, publisher mike fisch said the company wants to reduce its work force by 30 positions "to adjust our operating plans to meet the new market realities."
"fisch said the company is asking employees 55 and older with up to 20 years of service to consider the retirement offer, which is being made to both union members and non-members.
"he did not specify the details of what he described as an "attractive benefits package."
"fisch cited the changes in the newspaper industry nationwide, which is experiencing a circulation and revenue downturn as readers and advertisers move to the internet, and also cited the slowing of the local economy."
the honolulu advertiser is the state's largest daily newspaper, with about 900 full-time and part-time employees, adds pacific business news.
there is absolutely no forecast that gannett is considering this at other publications, but we all know people who would take the offer in a heartbeat.
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06/23/07
05:01:38 pm, categories: posts, 167 words
moody meats, indyrats and indiana living green
and why shouldn't indiana be known for its quality fresh foods, including its city market downtown? we're climbing on a road to wellness here, albeit it's a bit of a haul.
among the signs of the times: moody meats has arrived at the city market, and susan gillie of indyrats.com has written her weekly unfood food column about the venture. the montgomery county-based butcher is going big city. please read her article at indyrats. while you're there, please check the other fine articles, especially those by the enterprising nick hedrick, the future face of journalism.
another exciting new venture is indiana living green, which is available at some groceries and also online:
http://indianalivinggreen.com/
the magazine's focus is sustainable living. the first issue is chock full of good things, including a piece about indiana farmers' markets by gillie. congratulations to jo ellen meyers sharp, the editor of the venture and a longtime organic gardening columnist at the indianapolis star, and to lynn jenkins, the publisher.
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06/22/07
12:56:51 pm, categories: posts, 95 words
live from putnam county
a church on u.s. 40 in putnam county has posted the above sign. the quote is leviticus 18:22; that's your old testament god speaking. next week, i'm sure they'll display exodus 22:18 "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
this explains why there aren't any pride marches in the western part of the state.. why gays leave the burgs of indiana for the big cities... and why some gay men and women just might feel a tad uncomfortable and even discriminated against our in the boonies.
thanks to oink for taking this photo and posting it.
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07:51:47 am, categories: posts, 192 words
i wish my daddy was in congress....
but he's dead.
dan burton, however, is not, and the fact that he has paid $144,000 to his daughter over the past six years for her role as a campaign staffer raises valid questions about his ethics and even his "common sense."
the star is on the case, and rightly so. but as today's editorial points out, 44 other members, including some dems (!), "also employ or pay fees to their relatives."
burton, however, has also paid his brother woody for "vehicle repairs, insurance and other services" over a four-year period -- $5,600.
frankly, it makes the congressman look like a dweeb. but then he has had a long ride and he's gotten his hands dirty more than once lately -- his choosing a golf trip over voting in congress and by making his flashy, expensive trips to taiwan with a boatload of people. he begs questions.
but what is more curious is that the star is taking on danny boy with such enthusiasm. wonder if russ pulliam will leap to burton's defense over the weekend? wonder what he really thinks?
but it doesn't matter. and on this call, i say the star is right. burton, outta there.
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06/21/07
08:11:08 pm, categories: posts, 163 words
more on the star's circulation: will the real numbers please stand up?
when gannett bought central newspapers in 2000, it issued a cheery "welcome to the family" internal e-mail that august, written by senior vp for news phil currie. he included circulation figures for the indianapolis star (and other acquisitions) at that time.
according to currie, "the indianapolis star, indianapolis, ind. -- a.m., 240,309 daily, 372,600 sunday. tim franklin is executive editor/vice president."
hmmm. today the gannett website claims the indy star has 252,387 daily readers and 356,995 sunday.
i don't believe a word gannett says, of course, but the continual claim from the brass at 307 n. penn that circulation is growing seems to be challenged by their own figures. obviously, even by gannett's calculations, sunday circulation is down from 2000. understandably, since there is absolutely nothing to read in the sunday paper. it's pure fluff and feather-lite.
and by no means does the star have 300,000 daily subscribers and 500,000 sunday -- as i was told by a classified clerk during a phone conversation last week.
lies, damn lies and circulation numbers.
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12:51:38 pm, categories: posts, 98 words
no caffeine in expresso
a careful reader points out that there's been no expresso in the star since june 8.
this does not bode well for rishawn biddle, who made his bones writing short pithy pieces in the expresso format.
is there a purge? is rishawn in the gannett witness protection program, as someone suggested?
or is this just another case of the bosses creating a feature, then letting it wither and die on the vine.
at least we still have indy.paws. because we all know that's what journalism is about. and for that, a bark from the bitch to barbara henry.
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07:14:58 am, categories: posts, 155 words
another hit at the star...and freedom for one more soul
candace johnson is the latest to announce plans to leave the death star. she has labored as an assistant editor in "my life/custom content," which is what barbara henry and her gnarly crew now call the old features department. bad title, kids. you really tipped your hand on that one.
candace is, by some counts, no. 177 to depart since gannett came in. she ran several key sections: healthy living, home and garden and travel and home in indysunday.
the exodus inspired a state legislator to come up with the catchy line, "where have all the flowers gone?" he was referring to the continual loss of so many talented people, reporters he knew well -- joe gelarden etc. actually, a star employee suggested we do a "where are they now?" roundup. so look for that soon, coming to these pages.
as for candace, well done, good and faithful journalist. now go out and have a life!
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06/20/07
11:41:13 am, categories: posts, 127 words
where is rishawn biddle?
used to be, you couldn't get the star's lone black libertarian writer in the former editorial department to shut up. now, he's noticeably silent and absent. no expresso opinions since sometime in late may; no soundbites on ips and the dress code or truancy or pea shake houses or anything else.
oops, did we just say the magic word? did the duck come down? if biddle has tangled with the city's black establishment in print -- and he's been a tiny bit of a critic -- no doubt he's been muzzled. never let it be said that the paper's bosses would choose strong opinion or a lowly reporter over their perception of the city's elite.
lotsa luck rishawn. and fill us in. if you can still talk, that is.
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10:35:08 am, categories: posts, 583 words
update on the lisa coffey/james patterson lawsuit against the star; digging up the old bones
i contacted lisa coffey last week to check on the progress of the lawsuit she and james patterson filed against their former employer, gannett, alleging workplace religious discrimination and other violations. everything is progressing, she said. the star's attorneys have filed a summary judgment motion (in an effort to have the case dismissed on the basis that it is without merit). but coffey is confident the newspaper's motion will be dismissed, and the case will go to a jury trial in january.
that should make for some fascinating coverage by 307 n. penn.
in an email, coffey brought up the topic that kicked off the firestorm that resulted in her being moved from the editorial department and ultimately leaving the paper. the hot potato was a column/series she was writing about hiv transmission and sodomy -- not, as she notes, homosexuality, but the sex act of sodomy. the column never ran; an alert reporter saw it in the system before it was printed and brought it to the attention of exec editor dennis ryerson, who killed it. as i recall, his reasoning was that he didn't want to alienate gay readers, that he wanted the editorial pages to be inclusive rather than strike a discriminatory or judgmental tone. he believed that a column series looking at the science of sodomy wasn't fair-minded or appropriate.
coffey was reminded of all this, she says, when she saw a wire story in the star may 24 (page a12 of the print version),discussing the food and drug administration's continued ban on gay men donating blood.
here is what she said...
"i know it's not a pretty topic, but i hope you'll consider posting the following information on your web site, along with the fda.gov link, if you think it would be relevant and helpful to your many readers.
"late last month, the star ran an ap story about the food and drug
administration's continued ban on gay men donating blood. the story's thrust was not the hard data behind the fda's decision but the message that gays were again suffering discrimination...to ap's credit, it at least provided a link to the fda's web site page citing the agency's rationale for continuing the blood donation ban. in the story i downloaded from indystar.com last month, the star had dropped the fda.gov page link reference for some reason." (the link was also dropped from the print version, coffey reports).
"the generosity and civic-mindedness of the many gay men who want
to donate blood are admirable, and many people, not just gay men, may
dispute the idea that gay men are at special risk for various diseases. but the fda's rationale deserves to be heard," says coffey.
here is the link:
http://www.fda.gov/cber/faq/msmdonor.htm
coffey concludes, "...the main goal is to let readers know the fda's reasoning behind the ban and why its revocation would seriously jeopardize the integrity of the nation's blood supply. the star has failed miserably in its obligation to present the fda's rationale on the subject;i consider its conduct in this case, and others, inexcusable."
i agree with coffey; the paper was negligent in not including the fda link. but am i surprised? no.
oh, and on another note re: the case: barbara henry and dennis ryerson both recently filed statements with the court asserting that they are christians. that clarifies things. now we know this is just another dispute within the feisty christian family. thank god.
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09:29:45 am, categories: posts, 223 words
some comments from cops on dobkins
here are some of the comments showing up on indyundecover regarding the busting down of bettye dobkins, a cop's cop. none of the writers here -- i am presuming they are all police officers -- raises questions about dobkins' sexuality but they tell it like it is when it comes to politics:
"what is going on with a department that takes an officer like maj. dobkins and rat holes her?"
more:
"she really pissed them off. they put her where she has no contact with anyone. enjoy the vacation, because we respect you. tell spears and cliff to take the blackberry and shove it where the sun don't shine.
and on a final note:
"bettye made the mistake of saying what she meant, even though it was true. how dare she bad mouth such a fine administration and point out the incredible mismanagement this administration is involved in. how dare she speak the truth!!
"wake up people....slowly all major and important positions are being filled by county officers. spears and cliffy better watch out. we should start a pool to see which one will be first to go and when...
"bettye, thanks for the years of dedication and service, enjoyed working with you."
here's the line to the always spirited indyundercover, if you want to check it out yourself:
http://www.indyundercover.blogspot.com/
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09:09:05 am, categories: posts, 322 words
karen celestino horesman on dobkins: did her lesbianism affect her demotion?
former city-county council member karen celestino horseman has written a good piece about the demotion of bettye dobkins in the new indianapolis metropolitan police department for american values alliance blog.
here is the link:
http://www.valuesalliance.org/
the same subject has come up on indyundercover. now when these two very-different-in-tone blogs are in agreement that an injustice has taken place, somebody in the front office better pay attention.
horseman, an attorney and a democrat, outlines dobkins' success as deputy chief of the downtown district; she talks about the decline in crime under her watch while the district actually grew following consolidation of the sheriff's department and the indianapolis police. she speaks to the indication of rank sexism that dobkins' demotion seems to indicate -- and takes it a step further, wondering if dobkins' sexuality had any bearing:
"in the eyes of many in the community, bettye dobkins had come to represent more than just an accomplished and successful public safety officer. she was among the highest ranking women in the male-dominated, testosterone charged impd. dobkins was the highest ranking woman working outside of impd headquarters. the fact that dobkins could succeed in the impd offered inspiration and hope to other women.
"so there you have it – a competent, accomplished and qualified officer was demoted. the stated reason was poor performance but given dobkins’ track record, one has to ask what was the real reason for her demotion?
"while i have not heard this spurred her demotion, dobkins is a lesbian, something she did not attempt to hide given her long-time relationship with her partner. this probably did not enhance her status among those at the top (particularly as one of those fellows has been heard to make disparaging remarks questioning another male’s sexuality when they thought a telephone connection had been broken). what a very discouraging event so soon after the city enacted the human rights ordinance."
i couldn't agree more.
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06:09:26 am, categories: posts, 190 words
joey dayan takes city market
city market is a diamond in the rough, but not everyone in indianapolis, including former managers, has understood its potential.
now along comes joseph dayan to take over as executive director, reports tom spalding at the star.
dayan knows the restaurant business; he's run various operations, including his own catering concern. he's a fine cook. at one point in his career, he prepared meals for evan bayh and the family when bayh was governor. he's also run restaurants on the northside and in union station.
he has the world vision to make city market the class act it should be. he also comes from a family that appreciates the market's historical significance in the city. "city market was a destination spot," said his mom, my good friend marcia dayan, recalling the days she was "schlepped there" as a child by her mother. "there was one man who made fresh horseradish. there was an italian stand, and libby's deli. it was great."
the star reports that dayan graduated from brebeuf preparatory school and depauw university, where, his mom says, he studied finance.
congrats to dayan, who started his new job monday.
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06/19/07
01:16:21 pm, categories: posts, 362 words
slow month? axe the interns
the maynard institute of journal-isms reports that a gannett newspaper in montgomery, ala., abruptly let go three summer interns for -- what else? -- financial reasons. talk about a kick in the head for the kids.
according to the web site, the montgomery advertiser newspaper "was forced to make quick and drastic budget cuts last week...leaving three interns suddenly without summer jobs. similar cuts could be coming at other gannett properties."
no kidding. the story quotes ap, which monday reported that revenue for gannett overall was down 6 percent for may, the result of weak classified ad spending and broadcasting declines.
editor wanda lloyd, says journal-isms, "didn't want to disappoint" the new summer hires, but she got her marching orders from her publisher. it was either a case of letting a full-time staff person go, or axing the interns.
there is a shred of good news, with an indiana angle -- "the displaced interns were instantly picked up by schurz communications,a south bend, ind., media company that owns 15 dailies and five weeklies. charles v. pittman, the company's senior vice president-newspapers, had just addressed the interns friday at the freedom forum's diversity institute in nashville, and said he could not let 'these young people have their internship pulled out from under them.'
so, "the three students will be going to the herald times in bloomington, ind. schurz is taking a total of 13 interns, all of them trained in a joint multimedia program of black college wire and the diversity institute."
as for gannett, cuts could be coming to a paper near you. here's more from journal-isms:
" '(gannett) publishers have been told when there's pressure on revenue'" to bring spending in line, gannett spokeswoman tara connell told journal-isms. 'the messages go out that you're going to need to be strategic and you need to cut. it becomes a very local decision,' she said. however, connell pointed out that gannett just accepted 32 recent college graduates into its new talent development program. "
the not-so-gentle reader who sent this noted that the incident calls for commentary. but once again, the actions of gannett speak louder than any words.
btw, here is the link for maynard:
http://www.maynardije.org
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09:53:16 am, categories: posts, 365 words
bettye dobkins demoted; more grief at impd
this just in: bettye dobkins, a career cop, was busted down and out of her job as deputy chief of the downtown impd district, a position she's held for years.
she also lost rank, being demoted from major to lieutenant.
taking her place at the downtown hq is darryl pierce, the former deputy chief of the east district. so how come she gets busted and he gets her job?
generally, the downtown district, along with the south, are known for having the lowest crime rates; next is north and then east. dobkins must have been doing her job well enough. and as a former reporter at the star, i can attest that she always returned phone calls, always shared pertinent information and always had a sense of humor. she was great to work with. i've met pierce and found him personable on the street, but the guy hardly ever returned my calls. and he was never around when i did call. maybe the cop reporters have a different story; i'm just talking as an occasional caller. but if a guy won't call a reporter back, what about mr. and ms. public?
here's the other beef: thirteen officers are major and above. of those, only three were women: bettye dobkins, eva talley sanders (human
resources) and deputy chief pat holman.
also troubling -- dobkins' spot as major was given to a man, larry jahnke -- a sheriff's department member who apparently lost his rank as a result of the merger. he was formerly the spokesman for the department on weekends and on a fill-in basis.
worse is the appearance of sexism, if not the reality. under the merged system, of 13 people major and above, only two are women, and they both work in administration, not in the districts.
this news brings renewed gripes about sheriff frank anderson, who remains -- where are you, sheriff?
this is no way to run a police department. women make up half the city of indy and there is a good presence of women working on the force. why aren't they represented in top jobs? this is another example of the good old boys taking care of each other.
how passe. and how wrong.
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08:34:14 am, categories: posts, 496 words
clarian to eliminate fat people
the almighty clarian health care corporation is going after its fat, supposedly unhealthy employees. that means if you're a chubette working at methodist, riley or in the indiana university medical complex, you are gonna pay.
well, what is a hospital to do? money, money, money, money. after all, clarian already has physicians under contract; they have to bring in a certain number of new patients each year, or they're out.
so why not squeeze some extra bucks out of its entire employee base?
here's the history: clarian introduced its health risk assessment plan last year -- it encouraged all employees to participate in order to get breaks on benefits. basically clarian asked if you smoked (people lied, naturally); then it asked you to take its hra quiz. if you admitted to your nicotine addiction, you paid an extra $5 on your crummy deductible; the hra was also used to either provide a break or lay on extra fees.
for 2009, clarian is going all out, in a way that some lawyers might construe as trampling on people's right to privacy. if hippa makes health care confidential, how can clarian get in its workers' faces? and i'm sure they are not the only ones...
they're requiring employees be screened for blood sugar, blood pressure, ldl cholesterol and bmi (body mass index).
according to the official clarian newsletter, employees in 2009:
"must complete an hra to enroll or re-enroll
"must be screened for blood sugar, blood pressure, ldl cholesterol and bmi health risks.
"unhealthy measurements found in the above screens will result in additional health risk premium charges.
"tobacco users pay more per paycheck for health coverage."
and how can this possibly work? one employee reports taking the hra last fall and being assessed as at risk "with an unhealthy lifestyle."
the problem? this person was deemed underweight and was told a minimum weight of 220 lbs. was necessary.
a computer error, obviously. but when the worker called to correct the mistake, the word was that the program was shut down and nothing could be altered. the result? the employee was labeled with an unhealthy lifestyle.
it is cliche to point out that smokers were the first target of the health police; we all knew fat people were next. but this across-the-board approach to health care is senseless and doomed to create a mess of problems, as well as an invasive data base that may well be illegal; some people who are "fat" are also healthy. the bmi -- body/mass index -- is not necessarily a fair or accurate reading.
the bottom line is that this is about money. perhaps it would be admirable if it was about health, if there was some mention in this announcement of a fitness plan, healthy food being provided in the cafeterias, etc. but it's not; it's about invading a worker's private health status and assessing a penalty if that worker does not meet clarian's arbitrary standards.
no wonder the health care system is such a train wreck.
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07:54:17 am, categories: posts, 110 words
is anybody reading this blog?
since i've started a bitch campaign about the star's inflated circulation figures, and after talking to a fellow traveler (journalist) yesterday who also left the star and asked about traffic on this blog, here's the word today from my administrator (also known as my son):
"the past month you've had 55,507 visits. that number is a little inflated, because it counts indexing bots and some other shit. the real number of hits this past month is 40,879.
"that's pretty good."
he never compliments me. so maybe it really is pretty good.
anyhow, we know what our mission is here, at least. and "thanks for reading...." in this case, maybe people really are....
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07:42:43 am, categories: posts, 273 words
indyundercover: special deputy is canned after blogging
here's the latest from indyundercover:
http://www.indyundercover.blogspot.com/
the pro-police blog has been writing about a special deputy with the indianapolis metropolitan police department, who lost his job after speaking out about officer shortages in a posting on the pro-police blog. the deputy was on abdul's talk radio show today, 1430-am, to tell his side of it. here's what indyundercover wrote:
"rick skirvin, the former special deputy who was fired for posting on this blog on his own time and his own computer. he told abdul that he was investigated by internal affairs and (impd deputy chief) kerry forestal told him he was being fired. this guy was only paid $5 a year and spoke fluent spanish. he was dedicated and the type of officer we need. these bastards in charge of us can't catch an arsonist or carjacker, but they can spend time and valuable resources chasing after part-time employees."
indyundercover's words are harsh, but they are right on -- the administration seems incapable of putting forth the effort to genuinely fight growing crime in the city, but, in typical. thin-skinned, paranoid fashion, it goes after a critic who no doubt made a valuable contribution.
for some time now, some of us in the incestuous blogworld have speculated about the true identity of indyundercover. i've pretty much decided that abdul has a hand in it; the voice is his. but maybe not. at any rate, when the city retaliates like this after an employee simply speaks his mind, one understands why indyundercover is undercover.
good luck to skirvin and the force of fine officers on our streets. god bless them every one.
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06/18/07
03:12:54 pm, categories: posts, 329 words
more politics: why people didn't vote for gore, kerry
peter miesel of boulder has the following to say regarding the two most recent elections, why some of us voted for bush, etc. his insights are worth sharing:
"probably one of the reasons gore lost wasn't the boasting thing (he did
after all claim to be the inspiration for the novel 'love story'), it was
that gore ran a horrifically counterintuitive campaign. who exactly told
gore that the key to capitalizing on clinton's superb economic record
was to run a populist campaign vilifying the very people who benefited
from the 90's boom? not to mention running a "people vs. the powerful"
mantra, when he was, in fact, the powerful. that was the opening that bush
needed to get his campaign back on track. gore's probably lucky he lost;
after 9/11 he wouldn't have been able to avoid the 'just what were you
guys doing about al qaida?' questions, and would have been massacred in
the off-year elections. without 9/11 being hooked on him, gore can now
freely wear the mantle as our new earth god.
"kerry always struck me as a dole type, wanting to be president because he felt that he was owed the office. he ran a very mushy campaign that lacked a real unifying theme.
"truthfully, i think obama is the only way to go, because is it really
healthy to have a democracy where a bush or a clinton is in the white
house for 32 consecutive years? not to mention electing hillary because
of nostalgia for bill (like electing w because of nostalgia for reagan)
is a recipe for complete disaster.
"what's amusing me right now is a group called recreate 68 is making a
lot of noise about the upcoming democratic convention in denver in 08.
considering chicago 68 arguably got nixon elected, just who would be
nixon in this dynamic? and does that mean hillary is hubert humphrey (a
coldish, ultra-serious liberal who equivocates on the war)?"
for the curios, here is the recreate 68 website:
http://recreate68.org/
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01:28:43 pm, categories: posts, 439 words
more bullshit on newspapers and circulation....
with thanks to former indy resident pete miesel, who sends the following story from the june 15, 2005, npr website:
"an ongoing newspaper industry scandal in which some well-known dailies falsified circulation figures broadened on wednesday with the unveiling of criminal charges against three former employees of the tribune company.
"the federal government arrested three former mid-level circulation executives for newsday, a daily newspaper based in long island, n.y., and the spanish-language daily hoy for conspiring to commit fraud, and other crimes.
"newsday is a pulitzer-winning tabloid that, before the circulation scandal, had been among the nation's 10 largest newspapers. it has long staked a claim as a quality daily in the shadow of the new york times. hoy, tribune's foray into the latino market, is based in queens, n.y., and published daily editions in new york, los angeles and chicago.
"last year, the chicago-based tribune co. acknowledged that circulation levels had been inflated by as much as 20 percent at newsday, and as much as 50 percent for daily sales of hoy. circulation for the two papers relied on many of the same people -- including two of the defendants.
"now, for the first time, the federal government says the business models for newsday and hoy were based on criminal fraud from 2002 through 2004.
"similar circulation scandals recently enveloped the dallas morning news, the flagship of belo co., and the chicago sun-times. those papers were not involved in the arrests made wednesday.
"the charges announced against the former tribune employees -- ed smith, richard czark and robert garcia -- stemmed from their alleged involvement in inflating circulation numbers for the new york newspapers. smith and garcia were arrested in new york on wednesday. czark was arrested in south carolina.
an affidavit unsealed in federal court sketched out an elaborate scheme involving phony accounting, kickbacks and the creation of sham corporations.
"according to the affidavit -- filed by the u.s. postal inspection service in federal court in new york city -- confidential informants told agents that newsday distributors and delivery agents were also convinced to take part in a sophisticated deception of the audit bureau of circulation, or abc, an independent group that verifies newspaper figures by spot-checking sales. distributors were coached by two of the defendants -- both circulation managers -- on how to lie to tribune auditors about hoy's circulations."
here is the link to the rest of the npr story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyid=4704566
i'd say the star's claim of a half mil circulation and 300,000 daily is big trouble for moose and squirrel (that would be babs and den-den).
as well as others at the paper that is fudging its numbers....
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01:18:51 pm, categories: posts, 275 words
"the taint of journalism"
reader and commentator and friend l.r. dixon has sent the following observation about the star's circulation -- after acknowledging that he "signed up" for their special offer of $1 (!!!!) for thursday-sunday delivery. his wife, he said, wanted to read the paper. i sympathize; i do, too. like him, i wish there was more of substance to read.
here is his astute comment about the games being played:
"i believe that the thursday/sunday give away price (for 26 weeks) is to bolster to their grocery advertisers that those advertising dollars are not being as wasted as they may think. i didn't want the thursday paper at all but i was tired of driving over to the gas station to get the sunday edition for the wife. of course, it too is mostly ads and without many of the sections that she used to enjoy reading. so, giving away the thursday paper does obtain for them some cred with marsh, kroger, lo bill's, meier, o'malia's and any other grocery advertising their wares for the friday payday. i suppose it counts for circulation numbers (about which most newspapers seem to lie)."
i told dixon about the gannett company's infatuation with readership vs. circulation. that inspired him to quote oswald spengler, author of "the decline of the west":
"....the few sciences that have kept the old fineness, depth, and energy of conclusion and deduction and have not been tainted with journalism-and few indeed they are, for theoretical physics, mathematics, catholic dogma, and perhaps jurisprudence exhaust the list-address themselves to a very narrow and chosen band of experts."
"we all need to seek to avoid the taint of journalism." says dixon.
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11:28:37 am, categories: posts, 562 words
what is the star's circ?
in preparing for the possibility of selling our home, i called the star's marketing/advertisting/circ department to see about placing an ad. in the course of my chat with an anonymous woman -- a clerk (frankie? nicci? no matter) -- i asked her a question a lot of us have tossed around:
what is your sunday circulation? what is daily?
without skipping a beat to take a breath to blurt out a bald and dangerous lie, she said, "sunday? half a million. daily is 300,000."
beware, gentle reader: the paper that purports to bring you fair, accurate and truthful reporting has instructed its circulation people to lie about its circulation.
how do i know? common sense and reserach. the star reported a hike." some of the biggest increases for metros, up 2.4% to 261,405," for daily, the editor and publisher printed in april. i frankly do not believe that figure, either -- at least not in the sense that anything the paper reports is a genuine number.
a few years ago, when i was still working for the paper and prepping for a talk, i called barbara henry to get ciruclation figures; it was a fact i had always shared in the past with newspaper readers, who typically made up the audience. instead of getting them over the phone, i was asked to stop by, where i was told that ciruclation was no longer relevant as a number; instead the paper relied on "readersrhip" figures. i forget the number she quoted -- it was something inflated as well -- but she explained that readership was the number of times a paper is touched on a daily basis.
the star, like other gannett publications, fudges its numbers by including all the freebies it gives away to schools and universities -- for which it is paid grant money. we all know the papers given to iupui, depauw, etc., sit in stacks for the most part, only to be recycled; we've seen it, or i have and so have readers of this blog.
anyhow, what are the true numbers for the star? who knows. when i was there during the pulliam/frank caperton era, i recall we were always trying to beat 400,000 for sunday and sometimes did. daily was in the 200,000 range, probably the high end.
here is what a former colleague recalls: "...they were something like 240,000 daily and 325,000 sunday in 2001." (the year this person left).
anyhow, in "the chain gang: one newspaper versus the gannett empire,"
newspaperman richard mccord reports that gannett got into big trouble for falsifying the sale of its hartford times to a new buyer. the paper under gannett lost its socks to the hartford courant; in typical gannett style, papers that are ruined by its draconian practices are dumped and sold. but when the paper claimed a 113,000 circulation instead of the accurate 105,000, and the new buyer realized he'd been had, the case when to court. gannett was found guilty of fraud. the lies went all the way to the top: robert neuharth, founder and then prez, and legal counsel and former head dougie mccokingdale, were both cited as being in on the scam.
why is this relevant? who knows when the star may find itself in court on legal matters...
lying about circulation is not just bad form; it's a crime. and that employee who told me the star had a half mil sunday and 300,000 daily committed fraud.
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10:29:34 am, categories: posts, 42 words
breaking news: star to eliminate its purdue coverage
of course, nobody is surprised. the star will here after rely on the lafayette journal and courier, which gannett owns, to provide purdue boilermaker news.
another notch in the belt for gannett, another day in the life for the star's sports reporters.
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10:22:49 am, categories: posts, 368 words
more important than the 2000, 2004 elections
seneca published this very fine piece on indyrats, which i try to promote as often as i can. with gratitude to indyrats and its writers, and with thanks for the freedom to re-publish here what seneca had to say about net neutrality -- and with a special nod to tim berners-lee, the brit who concocted the world wide web and is our hero:
"does anyone else out there care anything about 'net neutrality'?
"stripped of its verbiage, net neutrality is about who controls the 'pipes,' the conduit for the internet.
"as it is now, no one controls the pipes; anyone can find anything (and put anything) on the internet.
"thanks to tim berners-lee, the internet is free to anyone who has a computer and modem.
"berners-lee designed and built the world wide web (www) and designed and built the first web browser and editor and also the first web server. forerunner to the internet was arpanet, built by the united states government. arpanet was used by academia, the military and the government.
"berners-lee could have patented his innovations and made a fortune; however, he chose not to. he wanted the internet to be free and available to everyone. because of his selflessness, the internet is open and free to all.
"opponents of net neutrality (corporations, government regulators, etc.) want to regulate the internet. should that happen, the internet will be as bland, boring and predictable as the local propaganda poop sheet published on pennsylvania street. and you can bet there will be costs involved.
"speaking of poop sheets, in thursday's edition there is a piece opposing net neutrality. the usual reasons are given.
"in my opinion, it is essential to keep the internet 'neutral.' if it isn't, the only thing the public will be allowed to access will be corporate and government propaganda, all of it promoting their respective interests and viewpoints.
"if you've never heard about 'net neutrality' before, please inform (and arm) yourselves. find out about what net neutrality is and the ramifications of not keeping it neutral.
"and please call and write your senators and representatives. tell them you want the internet to be free and available to everyone.
"let's keep the internet 'neutral.'
"thank you."
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09:02:24 am, categories: posts, 729 words
why did you vote for bush?
the question came up at a lunch saturday, where i was the only one present who acknowledged that i voted for bush twice -- and no doubt the only one who actually did. my friends, all doctrinaire democrats, were on a hysterical blitz: "we have a mormon running for president, but we already have a moron in office," hee hee hee; "your daughter outed you -- we know you voted for bush," (in fact, as another friend noted, i "outed" myself some time ago). how could i have done it? only dumb hicks from red states would vote for dubya, just as only uneducated people join the military. the world is going to hell in an expensive purse, and someone must pay -- all those idiots who voted bush in are holding the check. the therapist in the group took me aside and asked me, quietly, "tell me, if you could do it over again today, would you vote differently?"
altho i remained mostly speechless, as any leper would, the answer to her was a tentative no; i'm not convinced that one man, certainly not john kerry, could have saved the west from what i and others see as a global jihad. and when later on i read a book put out by the editors of newsweek, in the aftermath of bush's victory over kerry, "election 2004: how bush-cheney won," i was convinced that i had voted wisely if not well. kerry was exposed as dithering, grim and highly changeable, with policies that altered depending on whom he spoke to that day (his second-guessing got so bad his staff hid his cell phone); bush and his people were focused, humorous and solid. at least you knew where they were coming from.
although i did not say so there, i realize i voted for bush the first round because al gore was not an attractive alternative. he was tainted with clinton policies, including partial-birth abortion, and he seemed to stand for little more than his claim that he invented the internet and that he was a green warrior.
i say all this knowing that bush is far from perfect, that he is equally pompous at times, and that war is terrible; i am well aware that both popes have spoken out against it. i am not a politics wonk who lives-eats-breathes the views of one party; in that sense, i may be like the majority of voters in the u.s., middle of the road, trying to do the right thing, but turned off by in-your-face judgments and fear-mongering. oh, wait, that's the republicans who do that -- right?
bush bought into a war scenario that those of who who are idealists thought was winnable; ok, he didn't do his global homework or understand the history of the region; he relied on a tough group of neo-cons with an agenda. but the fleeting idea -- brief and shining -- that we could establish a democracy in iraq, another outpost in the middle east besides israel, was and is attractive, even as it appears to be impossible for now.
but enough. in searching on the internet, i saw that the bbc did an online piece in november 2004 asking american readers/viewers who voted for bush to explain themselves. the reasons sound pretty much like what i have already described.
still, maybe i'm missing something. if you voted for bush either time, please weigh in. if you voted for gore or kerry, please weigh in. i hope this will be done in a spirit of "we're all adults here; let's be civilized." maybe we can learn something.
what concerns me about the next election is a hardened lack of tolerance for each other's views -- a point made by a liberal democrat writing for the san francisco chronicle recently. she bristled, she said, at a dinner-party suggestion that bush knew about 9/11 in advance. but her fellow diner implied, with a smug look, that she was duped.
rather than assume that those who voted for bush are stupid or evil, or those who voted for gore or kerry are wimps and not good americans, maybe we could actually talk. golden rule style.
after all, three american women -- a jew, a christian and a muslim -- have done so and written a book about their experiences, dialouging about their beliefs and friendship. surely politics is not as divisive as faith. or is it?
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08:14:45 am, categories: posts, 144 words
bloomington alternative in crothersville
doing the job that once upon a time the star or tv would have taken up, the bloomington alternative's denise travers is reporting from crothersville on the beating murder of aaron hall.
http://bloomingtonalternative.com/content/8413
from what i've read, travers is doing a credible job getting inside the head of the small town: its dejected young people, its dying-on-the-vine atmosphere. she is talking, she says, to friends and family of aaron hall's in an effort to give us an impression of what happened, why he was killed.
it's worth a read. i always liked and supported the bloomington alternative; as a reporter, i was always grateful for its oft-grating voice. in that sense, nothing has changed.
but in the old days, the star also would have covered this story, which may be the case that forces the state to adopt hate crimes legislation.
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07:49:37 am, categories: posts, 32 words
this blog breaks for grandchildren
apologies -- the blog has been quiet due to time spent in indy, with sticky-fingered noisy little boys and therefore away from the computer.
thanks for your patience.
several things in the works.
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06/13/07
07:21:41 am, categories: posts, 371 words
andrea neal on crime in indy
andrea neal has a thoughtful editorial column in today's star, talking about the increase in crime in indianapolis and making a veiled pitch for gop mayoral candidate greg ballard.
she counters the argument typically expressed by dems --- that crime is up nation-wide, so why should indianapolis be spared? in other words, what the capital city is experiencing is simply part of a u.s. trend.
but neal says: "what's surprising is that indy's 8 percent crime increase has landed us in the company of much bigger cities like new york, chicago and philadelphia."
south bend, she says, is the only other indiana city to experience a rise in crime.
underlying the figures is the structure of the new indianapolis police force -- the mayor is not in charge of public safety anymore, the sheriff is. she quotes ballard as urging the mayor to go the the state legislature and get a new law, stating that the mayor of indianapolis runs the public safety show.
neal notes that peterson was not available for comment for her column.
she also quotes indiana unversity criminal justice professor, harold pepinsky, who says he's a skeptic about reported crime hikes and instead wants politicians to focus on "issues" that affect everyone. "four people out of 800,000?" he tells neal. "it's still virtually certain you wouldn't have been killed in indianapolis this week."
this is where liberal logic falls to pieces for me -- as well as liberal values. if libs are the compassionate half of the country, why wouldn't they have empathy for crime victims? where is their "for whom the bell tolls" and "there but for the grace of god, go i"?
the callous attitude that the majority of folks are not affected, so who cares, makes no sense whatsoever. but then neither does the fact that the star's "new" editorial policies are so wishy-washy and misguided that one day you have uber-lib/oldtime dem ken bode on the far column of the left side of the page, and the next week the conservative ms. neal is in the same slot.
too bad the star sees all this as just filling space, because the issues neal raises are significant and deserve an even stronger editorial stand by the paper.
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06/12/07
03:02:46 pm, categories: posts, 281 words
daily kos is on the case
fedup hoosier is one of the street prophet/bloggers writing for the daily kos, and today raises an excellent question about the brutal beating death of aaron hall of crothersville.
why no mainstream media coverage of this case?
here's the windup from fedup:
"two young men in jackson county indiana said they were so freaked out when 'propositioned' by aaron hall on april 12th, that they proceeded to beat the 100 pound, 5'4 man for hours, using their fists, boots, dragging him down a staircase while his head slammed into each step, and then throwing him in a ditch and leaving. aaron managed to crawl out of the ditch and out into a nearby field, where he died, alone and naked.
"sound familiar? a bit like the story of matthew shephard? then why no coverage outside of jackson county, indiana?"
fedup notes that so far only bloggers have been on the bandwagon, outside of the jackson county paper. the little local press has done a credible job.
blogger/attorney gary welsh of advance indiana has been pushing hard for widespread attention about this case, which is notable for its sheer brutality. welsh argues that indiana is one of only five states in the nation without hate-crime legislation, and that aaron hall's vicious and prolonged beating has all the hallmarks of a hate crime.
this is an important story at several levels, but not enough people know about it. so why is it that some traumatic events capture the imagination of the public, and others do not? the word is reporters. if the state's largest paper wasn't run as a business to fatten stockholders' accounts, it might have enough reporters to get the news.
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02:18:01 pm, categories: posts, 247 words
jack trudeau scores
robert annis of the star is reporting that jack trudeau has denied serving alcohol to teen-age guests at the recent park tudor graduation party he and his wife hosted at their zionsville home.
and i believe him. based, of course, on my own experience.
here is what trudeau said in a statement:
"'my wife and i would like to say thanks to all our supporters,'' he said. " ... contrary to characterizations of the events, we were not hosting an underage drinking party. we were cooperative and helpful in every matter.'''
"he added that the party had been intended as nothing more than a 'fun get-together' for graduating students at park tudor." the police report, according to the star, confirms that trudeau said at the time he had provided no alcohol.
so the little angels sneaked the booze in themselves. as i said before, punish the kids, not mr. t. but is it really that big a deal? the kids were not driving; nobody was even taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning, for godsake. this was a non-event, and shame on zealous boone county law authorities for being all over it. the media also gets a black eye for sensationalizing it at every step of the way.
as for trudeau, he also gets a touchdown for integrity. he refused to turn a list of guests over to the cops.
now, let's drop the charges and get on with what is really important in life. it ain't this matter.
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09:49:15 am, categories: posts, 158 words
indiana men to go metrosexual, hoosier style
the indianapolis business journal is reporting that a fishers couple will be opening the equivalent of man spas in indiana.
here's the link as well as the story:
http://www.ibj.com/html/detail_page.asp?content=02421
"a fishers couple has bought the franchise rights to open boxing-themed men-only hair salons in indiana. the texas-based franchise chain, called knockouts haircuts for men, provides haircuts, message therapy, manicures and hair waxing by female stylists wearing boxing uniforms.
"the couple, alan and marena boyton, are expected to open their first stores late this year."
ok, hoosiers don't want the sort of manhattan salons that cater to true urban metrosexuals, with gay music and piercings and everyone wearing those funky tiny eyeglasses etc.
but a hooters-style setup where real guys can get their locks shorn and their goatees waxed, all the while looking at women in boxing shorts, sounds, well, like it just might appeal to a certain sort of hoosiersexual.
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06:51:00 am, categories: posts, 356 words
strange priorities? not really....
gary welsh of advance indiana takes note this morning that the indianapolis star buried its story on the city-county council's consideration of a proposed income tax hike. star reporter brendan o'shaughnessy wrote a short piece about it, said welsh, but it was not in my state edition, nor did i see it online this morning.
yet, as welsh notes, others have certainly been talking about the increase. he mentions abdul hakim shabazz first reported the news over the weekend, and at least one of the indy tv stations had it on their newscast last night.
welsh ponders over this omission, while at the same time wondering why crime in butler-tarkington got such a big play in today's star and in recent stories.
now, i'm all for writing about the crime wave in the city, and the fact that butler's staid old neighborhood has seen vicious, predatory attacks on the elderly is certainly news. but i know for a fact that a woman was robbed at gunpoint in irvington a few weeks ago as she walked her son home from kindergarten; bil browning of bilerico told me about cars in irvington having their windows smashed out; the eastside for years has had a buildup of vandalism, theft and more serious crimes. why isn't the star focusing its meager resources on crime there? or the westside, for that matter?
i'll tell you why. here are a few of the key star employees/big bosses who live either in butler tarkington or nearby meridian-kessler (for as butler goes, so goes m-k): social columnist susan guyett, political talking head matt tully, exec editor dennis ryerson, m.e. pam fine, and a-1 editor jenny green and her husband ted, a sports editor. that's part of the paper's brain trust, and you can bet those folks are all concerned, as i am -- but could this possibly be a case of an editor's proximity to the scene of the disaster influencing his decision? could it be that all that prattle about listening to readers' ideas just evaporates when it's your own hood that's under the gun?
oh, well, they're all transitional neighborhoods anyhow....
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06/11/07
02:11:31 pm, categories: posts, 413 words
polis politics asking the hard questions
it's great to see the post on polis politics today about the fouled-up marion county primary. the info shows that not all is forgiven and forgotten. check it out:
http://www.polispolitics.com/
mr. or ms. polis politics -- a mystery blogger, at least to me -- reports that marion county clerk beth white's own website is littered with errors regarding elected officials, an indication that she may not be running the tightest ship.
first, as already has been reported, white could not provide news media with a list of inspectors who failed to show up at the may primary. but why should that surprise, when the clerk's own website is sloppy?
says the blogger: "a polis politics review of clerk white's website found that her list of elected officials in marion county was wrought with inaccuracies, including officials no longer in office and officials listed in the wrong district, and that the list was generally unfriendly for citizens trying to get information about officials."
pp goes on to list 16 (!) pretty incredible errors from white's web page -- here are three:
"# on the first page of white's list, connie nass is listed as indiana state auditor. her successor, tim berry, is also listed as state auditor, but nass has not been removed from the list.
"# former indiana state senator billie j. breaux was elected as marion county auditor in november 2006. her daughter, jean d. breaux, was appointed to her senate seat, but billie j. breaux is still listed as holding both positions.
"# james bradford is listed as district 3 city-county councilor. he has not served since late 2006, when ryan vaughn succeeded him in district 3."
i am told there is an employee in white's office who, more than anyone, bears the responsibility for the fracas that was the primary. i am also told that person is still working there, despite obviously demonstrating incompetence.
c'mon, ds, just because you're in power doesn't mean you get a free pass on screwing up. this has upset a lot of the party faithful; keep the pressure on to get to the bottom of the mess.
also, polis politics gets a red, white and blue star for continuing to pursue this story. why aren't matt tully and mary beth schneider at the star digging deeper? brendan o'shaughnessy at the star, so far, has been the only one to provide any real information.
but i forget: reporters are stretched thin. and knowing star management, they probably want to give the d's a pass, too.
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10:20:11 am, categories: posts, 248 words
gag me with the morning coffee
the prolific jen wagner of taking down words takes note of the star's latest journalism scam: a new feature called coffee break, which is yet another lame effort to engage readers and let them do the work. because as everyone knows, they're not hiring at the star.
tim swarens, former editorial page big cheese, and editorial writer/organizer jane lichtenberg, have been sluffed off to handle this fluff. i had a hard time myself wading thru all the verbiage and spin put forth by swarens in this new feature, called talkindy, which actually made its way into the print version the star sends out to putnam. i felt a pang, tho, when i read these words from swarens: "because we're not experts on everything (some would say anything) journalists have always relied on sources...to provide pertinent information."
the star wants to use those sources to do the work that reporters once did. kinda breaks your heart, doesn't it?
here's what taking down words says:
" sourcing the crowd, or whatever you want to call it, is fine. so are blogs, photo galleries and other shiny, flashy gimmicks. but you can't trade in core values for fluff.
" reader-driven tips are good, but they're only as good as the people checking them out. which means you have to have people checking them out. those people are reporters."
yep, the good old days...i remember reporters. too bad babs henry and no-nuts lap poodle dennis ryerson have totally forgotten about them....
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10:07:11 am, categories: posts, 291 words
butler tarkington's crime spree
the star reports that a 62-year-old woman was beaten in her home in the 3900 block of illinois sunday. the attack was all the more astonishing in that it took place at around 11:30 a.m. the lady had been watering her flowers, came in to answer her phone, and was assaulted while she chatted with a friend.
here's the link:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?aid=/20070611/local/706110406
thurman lee, 43, is accused of the crime. he wanted money and took the woman's purse, but not before smashing her on her face, arms and shoulders.
could the uptick in crime in the b-t area be related to the pea shake at 38th and capital? no matter that those high on the power food chain dismiss pea shakes as harmless, the truth is these are illegal numbers rackets being run in the city.
i know the counter-argument: the pea shake house has been there for years. but in truth, butler-tarkington neighbors more than two years ago called for it to be closed; then councilman jim bradford took up the cause and was labored a racist for his trouble.
in a city struggling to get back on its feet, why would the administration tolerate illegal rackets? the answer can only be money.
another thought: those of us concerned about crime, including the fact that the southside is burning, should be on the horn and in the face of every elected official. do not write this off, as some wimps do, to the trickledown of social issues, poverty, drugs, etc. sure, those are all factors, as the illegal numbers games are. but fighting crime takes a will, as well as an adequately staffed and respected police force.
and that is what indianapolis is lacking....
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08:29:38 am, categories: posts, 150 words
super sexy geek in the star?
the word is that geeky sexpot david colby, ousted by wellpoint because of his complicated big love life, was featured with girlfriend no. 3 in the star's engagements a while back.
i'm going to dig thru some old papers, but i have to say, it sounds right. this tidbit may explain why the star got the jump on the story, altho that in no way shortchanges the fine reporting skills of star writers jeff swiatek and david lee, who broke the story.
a theory posited: the best execs and most successful and relentless businessmen are those who were rejected by girls during their formative years, largely because they were perceived as socially awkward losers. they got turned down by so many young women that something hardened in their male psyches and they became determined, as adults, to "make it." so they did.
steve hilbert? david colby? anybody else come to mind?
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08:20:13 am, categories: posts, 189 words
gay pride, way to go
bloggers at bilerico, advance indiana and taking down words have commented on the success of the gay pride parade in indy on saturday. some crowd estimates were at 30,000 -- a healthy turnout.
with all the doom and gloom spreading over indy -- fires, crime, raising taxes -- it's really great to know that the pride event remains a big and growing hit.
older son andrew has vowed to take his little boys gabriel and ezzie to the parade one of these years, because he believes gay rights are the fight of his generation; son zera and wife parn have attended and enjoyed seeing friends. i am intrigued by a comment heard a couple weeks ago on npr; a young gay man commented that as society continues to become more supportive of gay men and women -- as they are permitted to marry and have children -- he felt that he personally was becoming normal, "that guy," the one who mows the lawn on the weekend and takes the kids to the church picnic. i hope so, but i also am grateful that gays continue to be "out there" blazing the trails for social justice.
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06/10/07
08:59:29 pm, categories: posts, 463 words
so what was that cat doing in the sopranos?
if you're a fan of "the sopranos," you already know writer/producer david chase has warned us that his art imitates life: ya don't always get what ya want, and sometimes, there is no closure -- no matter how often your humorless therapist tells you, "you need closure."
still, i'll take my expresso dark and with a stiff shot of anisette. i personally think tony soprano got whacked -- why else the excruciating tension building in that final dinner scene, the bland mixed with a heavy sense of doom as rough-looking men, including usa cap guy, invade the perimeter and one guy marches menacingly to the john? and why the sound of a coin dropping (harking back to the jingle of the pay phones phil was using?) just before tony turns his big moony mean face upward and everything goes black? how many seconds did that blackout last? is that not death?
i know, i know: it was deliberately ambiguous; the popular suggestion is that maybe chase can make a movie someday, so why close doors on the star?
then there's what the optimists saw, what some friends reported: tony can't die; he's larger than life. the family's last supper is almost ridiculously corny and upbeat -- in a burger joint, ordering onion rings, with syrupy bad dated rock music in the backdrop. a.j.'s gonna have a club, meadow is headed towards a career as a top earner, all is sweet. carm and tony are practically in love again, or at least sharing a point of view: onion rings rock.
macaroni and cheese. from my less charitable chair, i saw that a.j. is still yammering about nonsense and the pathetic shallow dream of a club; meadow can't park a car and is getting birth control because she's in bed with a 2nd gen mob boy; tony and carmella have a veiled truce over a meal, with the best onion rings in the universe as the only thing the family can agree on. this is ultimately a mob story, which means blood and guts, and it is a relentlessly depressing one, from the get-go, with livia the killer mom, and yes, with streaks of hilarity, the ducks.
but as mob stories go, there are no happy endings. hence the fbi agent jubilantly forecasting, upon hearing of phil's death, that maybe the government has scored a win.
if tony wasn't killed, his head turned into ketchup like phil's, then he almost certainly will go to prison. there are no happy endings for tony and the gang. even if tony isn't physically dead, the moral emptiness of his life makes him a goner.
and what about that cat?
but enough of my views. if anyone else watched this, please weigh in.
and somebody, explain that cat.
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08:16:17 am, categories: posts, 281 words
the dog thing
i remain opposed to any sort of ban on pit bull dogs or any efforts by the city and/or mayor of indy to round 'em up.
it's been said by bigger brains than mine, those who are students of canine and animal behavior: it's not the dog, it's the human. dogs are pack animals; they will take their cues from the alpha "dog," which is often a person. and plenty of dogs besides pits will attack and/or bite or nip a person. witness the stats compiled by animal care and control, printed in the star friday: by the end of may, indy had 450 dog bites, 51 cat bites, 5 bat bites, 5 mice bites and 4 squirrel bites.
so if we're fair and we are going to ban dogs that bite people, then we have to look at the sad story of a toddler who was attacked and bitten by a rottweiler-shepherd mix on the southside this week. that's the story that included the latest animal-bite stats. i didn't see an editorial calling for a ban on rottwiler mixes or any other mutts.
then there's that farm dog who bit the guv. should we start a dragnet for every farm dog in the state, because they might bite a politco?
or should we flood the streets with farm dogs?
mayor peterson is, as always well-intentioned, but his efforts to put a clamp on pit bulls is misguided and reminds me of his against violent video games. the problems lie deeper than a surface fix. educate people about dogs; arrest bad guys who breed or own dogs, usually pits, for fighting. punish the behavior of the people responsible for the dog, not the animal.
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06/09/07
09:53:24 am, categories: posts, 482 words
a cautionary tale about teen drinking
thanks to the reader with a keen interest in the law who sent the following story from today's washington post, about a virginia mom and her husband who each will serve 27 months in jail. their crime? they provided alcohol to her son and his friends at his 16th birthday party.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/08/ar20070608027
95.html
the story is illustrative of the vigor with which some law enforcement agencies are pursuing adults who supply booze to kids. the news hook for us in indiana is the party hosted by former colts qb jack trudeau for graduates of park tudor. the party was held at trudeau's zionsville home; when police arrived, they found teens drinking beer, wine, etc. trudeau faces felony charges.
here are some excerpts from the washington post story that are telling:
"in this season of senior proms and graduation parties, the story of the couple is a cautionary tale for parents if they plan to serve alcohol -- or look the other way. it comes at a time of increased concern about the effects of drinking and driving and underage binge drinking, which is on the rise. although 27-month sentences are rare, parents are increasingly being held criminally responsible for underage drinking under their roofs, even if they are not aware that it is going on."
based on the washington post story, the virginia mom and her husband were as conscientious as parents could be in this setting. they bought the alcohol, they provided a safe setting for the kids, and they collected car keys. nobody was hurt. but the law came down hard on the couple, which has created a huge emotional hardship for the woman's son, now 20 years old. he tearfully told the post that he wished he could serve the sentence for his mother.
another aspect of this story is that the mother had no criminal record, not even a parking ticket. she and the boy's stepfather were originally sentenced to 8 years in prison after being charged with nine misdemeanor counts of serving alcohol to minors.
zero tolerance is today's mantra -- a far cry from the past. when my children were young, our pediatrician, dr. michael hogan, mentioned that one of his sons learned to drink beer with the jesuits when they came to the family home for dinner. he saw nothimg wrong with it, either.
that attitude won't fly anymore. and by the way, trudeau is being made an example of now, but when my daughter was at brebeuf jesuit prep school, a daughter of former vice president dan quayle was among kids busted at a beer/etc party at a zionsville horse barn. that story was pretty much hushed up, at least in terms of who the well-off attendees were (parents were also present).
no more. trudeau may have to pay the price for a long history of law-breaking. but is it right?
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06/08/07
11:53:07 am, categories: posts, 453 words
teens and booze...
the star has fallen all over itself to point out the obvious: it's a bad idea for adults to host parties where teen-agers are drinking alcohol. bad, as in there may be legal and moral consequences. a kid could die.
in what seems like a "get jack trudeau" (and steven hilbert) marathon, the paper has continued to play off the unfortunate events of last weekend, when trudeau's zionsville home was the site of a park tudor graduation party. the big news? the kids were drinking, outside. the cops came. big bust. now trudeau is charged with a felony and faces actual prison time.
i find this absurd, given that he and his wife lisa attempted to be responsible: they took keys, they kept a list of kids who were there. could it be that they didn't know the kids were drinking?
this is the voice of experience speaking. for my daughter's 18th birthday, my good friend kathee pizzi and her daughter manuela agreed to host a party in their spacious northside home. the girls who planned the party swore to kathee and me and my husband, et al, that there would be no alcohol whatsoever. i attended the party for a short time; everything was great. i left after an hour or so. within 5 minutes of arriving home, kathee called me --- the kids had lied, she said. she went out back and discovered alcohol stashed in the woods, including a keg. she threatened to call the police. many of the kids split, literally pealing out of her driveway, leaving behind purses and backpacks.
thank god nobody died. but if someone had, would it have been the fault of the adults? why isn't there more emphasis on the kids and their bad behavior? or those who provided the alcohol -- probably not trudeau, just as it wasn't the adults at my daughter's shindig.
some of this, i also believe, reflects the old american puritanical ethic when it comes to booze. children in europe are exposed to wine and beer early on; there's not some magic age where one transitions to being able to handle it. there also is more emphasis on safe driving. here we crack down on alcohol, making it the forbidden fruit, and put less emphasis on teaching every child road and driving safety.
maybe the story isn't so much about trudeau and a rich kids' party. maybe it's about our schizophrenic culture. and speaking of that, i'll bet at least some of the booze at the park tudor event came from parental alcohol cabinets, or was supplied by older siblings or friends who could legally buy it.
everyone is so hung up on hanging trudeau rather than looking at the real issue.
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09:53:50 am, categories: posts, 600 words
striking a blow for blogs
jay rosen, who gave credence to the term "citizen journalism" long before there were blogs, has written a great piece about the first amendment prowess of blogs today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/a-blog-is-a-little-first-_b_50164.html
thanks to reader jim burns for sending it my way.
rosen tells five stories of how bloggers made a difference -- (take that dennis ryerson, who dismisses bloggers as "that noise.")
rosen's examples include chris allbritton, a former ap and newspaper reporter who asked readers of his blog to send him to iraq; in return, he promised them straight and honest reporting, no hype. with $14,500 in donations, he took off for iraq in 2003. his site drew as many as 23,000 readers.
says rosen: "this is journalism without the media. i leave you to contemplate the implications of that. but it was one of the events that caused me to start my own blog."
no. 2 is the flap kicked off when sen. trent lott of mississippi praised strom thurmond at his 100th birthday.
said lott, a powerhouse in the gop:
"'i want to say this about my state,' he said. 'when strom thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. we're proud of it. and if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either." he was referring to thurmond's 1948 third-party campaign for president, which was an explicitly racist campaign. so what was trent lott saying in 2002? that a segregationist president would have been good for america in 1948? "
reporters were present, but only one tiny story emerged on abc, which was then picked up by the bloggers. what the straight press ignored, the bloggers had a field day with.
notes rosen:
"here's the part of the story i want you to focus on: the chances of a television producer from cbs or a style reporter from the washington post not knowing enough history to see any import in trent lott's comments were pretty high. but the chances of the interconnected blogosphere not knowing this background were zero. to this day professional journalists do not understand this fact, even though it was one of the things that helped sink dan rather when his badly flawed report on president bush's national guard service was attacked (and sunk) by bloggers and their readers."
his other examples include the blog firedoglake, which totally owned coverage of the lewis libby trial; an investigative blog tpm muckracker which asked its readers to wade thru 3,000 pages of justice department findings in the case of the seven fired federal prosecutors -- and got great results -- and finally, ending on a sour note, the story of john markoff, the new york times tech reporter, who demonstrated he simply does not get blogging. he compared it to cb radio noise.
here is rosen's wonderful conclusion:
"the most famous words ever written about freedom of the press are in the u.s. constitution: "congress shall make no law..." but the second most famous words come from the critic a.j. liebling: "freedom of the press belongs to those who own one." well, freedom of the press still belongs to those who own one, and blogging means practically anyone can own one. that is the number one reason why blogs--and this discussion--matter.
"with blogging, an awkward term, we designate a fairly beautiful thing: the extension to many more people of a free press franchise, the right to publish your thoughts to the world.
wherever blogging spreads the dramas of free expression follow. a blog, you see, is a little first amendment machine."
thanks jay and jim.
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08:50:47 am, categories: posts, 150 words
hats off to the english teachers of the world
surely every reporter has gotten a call from a retired english teacher, correcting a grammatical faux pas that made its way into a story.
"sleepytime editor" was the new york times reference to such errors.
but the star seems to be piling up an especially big hit list these days, and it appears the retired english teachers have given up.
here is the teaser that ran all day yesterday in an on-line story about indiana's schools:
"are indiana schools passing or failing? it depends on who you ask
critics say wide gap in federal and state test scores reflects states'
low expectations."
even i know that the correct usage is whom you ask. apparently nobody in the overburdened online services took note, and english teachers obviously have moved on....
thanks to the alert reader who sent this my way. 'tis a small thiing, but the devil is in the details.
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06/06/07
04:17:41 pm, categories: posts, 291 words
dennis, you're killing me....
so the star's newspaper guild says the paper is down to 202 employees, and dennis "can't count" ryerson has the gall to claim:
"and by the way, our staffing level is at around 260, about the same as it was when i came here four years ago.'"
that's from the indianapolis business journal's online edition, which had the following update today:
http://cms.ibj.com/aspxpages/6iframes/frontendarticlesdetailpage.aspx?articleid=02300&noframe=1
there's no disputing the math. ryerson is counting every warm body he can claim, including part-timers, correspondents, free-lancers, or whatever else the slave-drivers are calling the hard-working men and women hired on contract to do the jobs left vacant by a parade of reporters' departures. is he counting the sentimental slobs who send in pix of their cats and dogs as well? or all those flaks whose press releases are rewritten?
today's online ibj also quoted longtime star staff writer abe aamidor, a guild representative, discussing the paper's decision this week to rid itself of a business section:
"aamidor said the union doesn’t officially have a position on the move (to kill the free-standing biz section), but is concerned over personnel decreases due to staff departures.
"aamidor called the decision a 'risky move', because the business-news consumer is a 'more sophisticated' reader who will notice the difference in presentation."
i must say, the star's jeff swiatek and daniel lee have had a great ongoing biz/scandal story about ex-wellpoint cfo david colby's tangled love life -- 3 women, and 2 of them are fighting over his assets.
the talent is at the star. what will be the death of the newspaper is its dull leadership.
but what do you expect from a guy who can't count?
thanks for reading...(and doing your math)
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01:59:18 pm, categories: posts, 99 words
when you're hot...
you're hot. and lt. gov. becky skillman is hot enough to have a brand-new two-seater mercedes sports car.
at first, some simple hoosiers were perplexed at spotting the new vehicle in skillman's assigned slot in the statehouse parking lot -- what, a frugal hoosier in the blade's administration driving one of them-there european motorcars? ok, a harley, maybe...
but her star-2 license plate gave her away. the word is that the black, state-provided ethanol-burning chevy tahoe wasn't classy enough.
but what will daddy say? probably zilch. that's what's great about republicans, even in indiana. they're not ashamed of being rich.
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06/05/07
04:34:49 pm, categories: posts, 237 words
bean counters arise
bully for jen wagner of taking down words, who broke the news yesterday that the star is deep-sixing its biz section. biz news will be folded into the "rest" of the paper. here's the link:
http://takingdownwords.com
plenty of speculation ensued on taking down words about the reasons, the history, and the fate of biz coverage at the paper, with lots of voices urging indianapolis business journal and other publications to step up their already heroic efforts.
but no truer words were spoken than this observation from taking down words comments section:
"the bottom line is that some bean counter on the star operating committee figured the total newsprint and ink savings by eliminating 2 pages a day and convinced the other members of the oc that it was the best thing for the bottom line.
"it should have been obvious long ago that the star does not care about in-depth business reporting. barb henry didn't just wake up one day and realize the star couldn't compete with ibj. someone showed her the bottom line savings that this move would mean and she signed off on it - because in this situation it's much easier to cut the costs of printing the business section than it is to try to increase revenue it produces.
"if you believe anything else then you are absolutely delusional."
i agree with these comments. at gannett, news is business and business is dead.
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11:47:07 am, categories: posts, 249 words
bury my heart at wounded star....
this just in from the latest newsletter from the guild at the indianapolis star:
"we're fortunate to have had no enforced layoffs. however, between the
last pay period of 2003 and the last pay period of 2006, the guild
lost 51 covered positions. the hard numbers: 253 vs. 202, according
to our own analysis. just in the newsroom, the star dropped from 215
full-time in '03 to 175 full-time staffers in '06 covered by the
contract – one reason you now see so many correspondents and editors'
(!) bylines in the star. true, there are 14 ledger/topics staffers
who were added to the star media group, but in '07 we have seen at
least 9 departures (staci hupp, paul bird, kimiko martinez, terre
dawson, skip berry, kevin corcoran, lisa renze-rhodes, rich miller
and now ted kim). with no replacements in sight (neither
journalismjobs.com or gannett.com's careers site lists any
info-center openings for indy.) the guild is not requesting
additional jobs, just that gannett do the right thing and -- at
minimum -- fill openings in the star left vacant by '07 departures.
the indy star readers will be better served and, bottom line, isn't
that what's at stake?"
oh, woe. as someone who loves the paper noted, the staff still is also expected to do so much more with less -- blog, write and edit more publications, get stories online as soon as possible, take pix, do videos.
my favorite line in this newsletter: "the guild is (requesting) just that gannett do the right thing." that's like asking hitler to turn off the ovens.
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11:37:30 am, categories: posts, 219 words
there goes the neighborhood....
now that he's back home again after ordering one too many pizza pies in washington, d.c., randall "i never had sex with that woman" tobias and his wife marianne are building a new residence in carmel.
what, the huge refurbished brick manse at 7100 n. meridian isn't big enough for the empty nesters, what with its indoor swimming pool, elegant music room and two-story fish tank? obviously not. tobias, who was prez bush's pharm-go guy on aids, admitted to using the services of a prostitution ring in d.c., but insists he never got anything more than a massage job -- "it was just like ordering a pizza," he told the press. now that that scandal has more or less blown over, he and marianne are heading to west 106th street, just a hop-skip-and-a-jump down from the exclusive laurelwood gated community. they're building new digs there.
they'll have plenty of richie carmel neighbors, of course. laurelwood is home to steve and tomisue hilbert, indianapolis monthly editor/queen deb paul and her attorney husband and -- very soon --- the guv and mrs. daniels.
by and by, susan guyett reported in the star today that tobias has been named a living legend by the indiana historical society.
but then all rich people are living legends. which is why they make such good press.
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06/02/07
07:38:57 pm, categories: posts, 533 words
the numbahs game...
a friend who's been around the block more than once posed an interesting question: why doesn't anybody in indy focus on the large, illegal, lucrative numbers games that operate in the black community? everything in the media is focused on pea shake, he says, but the numbers operation in indy is historic, thriving and the source of all the action.
so what is the numbers game, i asked?
"i thought you might say that," he said. so he filled me in. the godfather of numbers in indy is the late issac "tuffy" mitchell, who counted among his friends monroe "sweet pea" gray, now the city-county council prez, and indiana sen. glenn howard.
to play the game, which he says is hugely popular with workers at plants in indy, you choose four numbers. if your numbers are picked, you can win $22.50 for every penny wagered. "it's basically a lottery," he explained, adding some of the finer points.
"you can play it straight (with four numbers or digits) or you can play it straight and drop, or you can box it." stock market numbers are utilized to determine the lottery winner. numbers are written on what are called bank clearing slips. a neighborhood runner picks up the slips; everybody gets a piece of the action, in a sense.
in 1996-97, he said, after a major vice investigation by the indy police, federal indictments were handed down on some of the bigger players. they pleaded guilty. but the bigger guys -- men like mitchell and a fellow named claude cardwell who had a business at 16th and college -- went untouched.
my source says today's young police officers don't really know about the numbers games. but it is still alive and well.
so big deal. lots of people gamble, and lots of people gamble illegally. is there any connection between the numbers racket and crime in indy, i asked.
indeed. some of the money generated gets kicked back into seed money for narcotics dealers, he explained. "that's where it goes sour."
in the old days, he added, cops were so wired into the rackets that if they had a major crime they were investigating, the first guys they'd hit up were the numbers men. "they'd go to these guys and say, 'you've got 3 days to give us a name.' those guys had friends everywhere. next thing you know, they'd have their bad guy." the police also had the luxury of leverage: if they didn't get the help they needed from the kingpins, they'd threaten to shut the numbers operation down. "and if things got really bad, they would shut it down."
that, my source says, is how things worked in indy, and work to this day -- because, he says, indy has one of the largest untouched numbers rackets anywhere. in fact, he said, the numbers guys were and are so powerful that they helped richard lugar get elected mayor. "it was the black gamblers who backed him," he says.
that's it for today's history lesson -- all news to me. and probably news to most people in indy, who right now are consumed by the city's rising crime rate.
you won't, my friend added, read this story in the star.
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06/01/07
02:27:38 pm, categories: posts, 313 words
more trouble at 307 ....
here is another excerpt from the editor and publisher piece about newspapers trying to do more with less, published may 31 and written by joe strupp:
"judy wolf, a copy editor and guild treasurer at the indianapolis star, says it's just a matter of time before some major mistake gets through at her paper, with the increased demand on front-line editors who are dwindling in number. 'they are trying to make everyone think about filing for the web first, trying to increase the number of new filings each day,' she says. 'we have to cut back on time to read things in the way they should be read. it is only for the grace of god that we haven't been snake-bitten.'"
then there are those of us who remember the irwin mueller error in the paper a few weeks ago. that would be j. irwin miller.
here is what a reader wrote me about that one:
"did you happen to see the 5/15 editorial applauding the virtues of
indiana millionaires and their giving, expecially bill cook and his west
baden work. a real typical pooh-pooh piece, slap on the back kind of
thing. quoting from the last graph:
'. . . above all, he has treated reinvestment in the community as a
natural and universally beneficial process rather than as calculated
nobleesse oblige for which accolades and future political considerations
must be exacted. those may come; but they are earned. so are the
public's thanks; though the bill cooks, like the irwin muelleres and the
eli lillys and the rest of their exclusive tribe would insist they're
doing fine anyway."
as the reader noted, "irwin mueller????
"out-of-town-editors may not know the difference between
irwin muellers and j. irwin miller (of cummins/columbus fame), but they
sure as heck should. that is a 100 percent embarrassment."
or a snake-bite, to use wolf's choice phrase...(in fairness, the error was corrected).
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01:43:31 pm, categories: posts, 342 words
oh , i love it when he opens his mouth....
pal peter miesel, formerly of indy and now in colorado, sends the following disturbing excerpt from the may 31 editor and publisher. pete unearthed this nugget on the ever-vigilant taking down words today; little miss wagner just seems to have a thing about the press.
here's the excerpt from an article in e&p about gannett's new information center, or the area formerly known as the newsroom:
"star editor dennis ryerson admits that the increased web approach means some things are not covered anymore, or at least not as heavily.
" 'there are some sectors we are not covering as well as we'd like to," he says. 'accountability reporting, city and county government. right now, our editors are so busy feeding the daily elephant, they do not have the time to think of those deeper stories that we would like.'"
here is pete's commentary on the above, sent to dennis the menace:
"gee, yet you burbled on and on in print about indypaws. guess that means fido and fluffy are more important than monroe gray, the murder rate, and the city sewer system. sure, sure, sure you'll cite your circulation as evidence that nothing is wrong. but if i want to know the full story about marion county government, i want to see it in the star. if i want fluffy celebrity reporting or incoherent blogger ramblings, i'll read people magazine and log on to myspace. priorities, dennis, priorities."
all i can add is that i've seen editors' bylines on stories recently -- blair claflin and allen greenberg have both been presssed into the reporting ranks. these are some hard times...and all for the sake of money. there was a day when journalism used to mean something. not at gannett.
on another note, already sounded: if the star was the paper ryerson likes to pretend it is, there would have been a major story about the primary election foul-up. there are talented reporters there who could dig and get the story. but as pete says, everyone is too busy promoing fido and fluffy....
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ruthholladay.com
profile: thirty-seven years in the old, tired, dull and greedy media have not killed my love of news. the only difference is, i no longer drink.
this blog is devoted to commentary, story-telling, reviews and news. it is an open forum.
as curzon205 said after a first reading, "you're much more interesting to read now that you left the star. liberating, isn't it?"
yes it is.
send your thoughts, suggestions and dirty laundry to ruth@ruthholladay.com
links
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