- 'An End to the Southern Strategy, But No Post-Racial America' says David Love
- "A Question of Place": An essay on the power of community
- Just Equally Speaking….
- Eagles owe Philadelphia the 8 million it needs to keep libraries open
- who would like to see Verizon offer cable TV in Phila?
- Council Committee Passed the Freeze
- Carol Campbell Passes Away
- My first trip to the public library
- Fight digital exclusion
- What if half of Philadelphia didn't have roads?
Just sayin': We NEED a robust local media
Submitted by Dan U-A on Thu, 11/30/2006 - 1:24pm.
Bumped back up as the strike deadline looms. -Dan
"The art of printing secures us against the retrogradation of reason and information." -Thomas Jefferson, on the need for the press.
Nationally much of the print media, especially political reporters, have a great talent to piss me off. They just seem so bizarrely out of touch, and so mixed up in a weird DC, elitist world that has little basis in what is going on in the rest of the Country.
Locally, however, the story is much different. Although I certainly think the local media's focus is sometimes off, and they occasionally make plain old bad decisions (anyone remember the stupid story about how smelly homeless people are?), for the large part, our local reporters are hard working, and vitally import to a healthy Philadelphia. Further, unlike the national blogs v. the national media, there has not been any such adversarial relationship here. The papers not only have reporters who "get" blogs, they have reporters (Will Bunch, Wendy Warren, etc) who actually run them. Blogs like this one mix news and activism, and fill some gaps that newspapers leave out. But without reporters like Will, Dave Davies, Tom Fitzgerald and a long number of others- not only would this website be much worse off, but so would the City as a whole.
The idea that the Inquirer would be gutted to the point of laying off reporters in Harrisburg and City Hall makes me wince. Although not pleasant, it was one thing when they got rid of a lot of their international and national coverage, because there was still the NYTimes, the Washington Post and others. But getting rid of the only every day watchdogs we have? Just bizarre.
We need a real, robust local media. And blogs like this will in no way ever make up for that.
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News as community service
In the glory days of print media, coverage of local politics was considered a form of community service. It’s never going to be the most profitable part of a paper, but it’s a social responsibility. I hope that the new owners of the Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News start to view a strong coverage of City Hall and Harrisburg as a civic duty.
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http://benwaxman.com
Dan, maybe you are right rela
Dan, maybe you are right related to blog media, it could never hope to be the New York Times, or Daily News for that matter. But, it is an excellent resource once its full potential is realized. To me, the blog system most closely resembles the publications of the colonial period, when news, particularly political was presented with a partisian spin by groupings of people or individuals.
We should not fool ourselves into thinking that blogs will make up for poor news services. But, what political blogs are and/or could be is inheritors of publications like Common Sense. Here we are presented with a relatively new technology that is widespread and available to the many. I guess what I am saying is, political blogs but are the inheritors of the legacy of publications like Common Sense or other (and earlier) then defined seditious and/or loyalist publications of that came into being once use of the printing press became more widespread. These, on both sides only advanced the democratic cause. Maybe history will say blogs did something similar (hopefully not worse).
local tv news is terrible
Dan, I would agree with your assessment of the local print media and its vital importance.
But at the same time the local TV news coverage is an absolute DISGRACE. And unfortunately that is how an awful lot of folks get their news.
At Media Tank we are working on a media monitoring project that will hopefully provide some substantial data to back up these claims and put pressure on the TV stations to do a better job.
To echo acouch's comment, Med
To echo acouch's comment, Media Tank's Media Monitoring Project will need a ton of volunteers beginning in January and February of next year to help quantify exactly what types of stories are aired on our local TV news broadcasts and printed in our local newspapers.
Here is the link to the web page describing the project.
http://www.mediatank.org/Events/localvoices/monitoring.html
Hopefully a few of YPP's readers will help out on the project.
Calling all op-ed columnists
I've been privilaged enough to have my writing published in both the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer. I have a good relationship with several editors and I think they are ready to strike.
I think those of us who have been published should make it clear to the owners: we will not publish anything while workers are on strike and support the unions demands.
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http://benwaxman.com
Want to stop media consolidation?
The FCC is now considering weakening media ownership rules, potentially allowing big media to get bigger. If the FCC moves forward, it could mean fewer local voices, less diverse viewpoints, and a media system that is less responsive to the public. FCC is accepting comments until December 21, so if you haven't sent yours in yet, the time is now. You can visit www.pennpirg.org/mediaownership for a link to a comment form that goes straight to the FCC. And stay tuned for more details on a public hearing in Philadelphia on January 18 with FCC Commissioners Copps and Adelstein.
From The Newspaper Guild
Good points, Ben and Daniel. For those who haven't received this:
From The Newspaper Guild... IF They Were to Hire Scabs...
From Stu Bykofsky, Guild Spokesman, Newspaper Guild #10, Local 38010 of the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America
http://phillyunions.com/newsguild10
If They Did It: Here's how Philadelphia Media Holdings would hire scabs
Philadelphia Media Holdings, the company that cries poverty while demanding devastating cuts from Guild members, seems to be gearing up to spend a fortune on scabs to produce our papers and drive our trucks.
The Philadelphia Weekly reported today that an ad seeking "replacement workers" (aka scabs) was recently posted on careerbuilder.com. The mystery company seeks scabs to come to an East Coast city to work as reporters, photographers, graphic artists, news assistants and truck drivers in the event of a strike. The Weekly was told that the potential strike would be in December. The Guild's contract expires Nov. 30.
A Guild member responded to the ad and got a company calling itself Strom Engineering. Asking for more information about the jobs, he learned there is an expected strike in December.
The Guild "job applicant" was told that the undisclosed company was a newspaper operation on the East Coast that "could be in Philly," but Strom declined to be specific.
When the "job applicant" said he was interested in politics and would love to cover City Hall and government, but had no experience except for penning a few letters to the editor, he was told that may not be a problem. Send your resume along and we'll try and take care of you, he was told.
When the caller said he had a couple friends looking for work too, including one who just got out of prison and was a great fighter, he was told to also have them send their resumes along, as there are no background checks.
The company is also advertising for scabs to drive trucks, filling in for Teamsters drivers who may also be on strike. All you need is a Class B license, the caller was told. Drivers would be asked to operate "small trucks, a UPS-type truck."
If they got the job, the company is willing to pay reporters and other editorial employees an hourly rate based on a minimum 60-hour work week, with no benefits.
Doesn't this East Coast newspaper company know that you get what you pay for?
"Bringing Home the News" with scab labor is not a new great era in journalism.
Direct questions to Voices@Local-10.com
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Brian Tyrany-RatBastard or Charlie Brown?
The squeeze is coming for sure and anything you can do to show support to those involved helps. Collective Bargaining. What a concept. Now that's progressive!