One reads that the Daily Union, a local paper chasing alleged embezzlement first reported in the Janesville Gazette, has decided to grab the story and add a supposedly clever headline: Honest to goodness, how does editor Chris Spangler expect ordinary people to keep up with a subtle headline like that? One needs to take a…
Newspapers
Babbittry, Blogging, City, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Newspapers, Open Government, Press
Sunshine Week 2019
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s Sunshine Week in America: a seven-day focus from the American Society of News Editors and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on “access to public information and what it means for you and your community.” One doesn’t have to be a reporter (and bloggers, for example, are not reporters) to understand the importance…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, Newspapers, Press, Press Release, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way
The Middle Lane is a Dirt Road to Decay, Pt. 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last month, this site linked to media critic Margaret Sullivan’s observation that The media feel safest in the middle lane. Just ask Jeff Flake, John Kasich and Howard Schultz: Who is the media’s middle-lane approach actually good for? Not the public, certainly, since readers and viewers would benefit from strong viewpoints across the full spectrum…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Mendacity, Newspapers, That Which Paved the Way
Quality Rests on Quality
by JOHN ADAMS •
Never Trump conservative Tom Nichols, on Twitter, writes sensibly in reply to a question about which news sources one should read. He advises Start with a national newspaper every morning. Any of them. NYT, WaPo, WSJ, LAT, whatever. If you just read one newspaper a day, you’re light years ahead of anyone who’s staring at…
Babbittry, Mendacity, Newspapers, That Which Paved the Way
Roundup on Jefferson, Wisconsin’s ‘Warriors & Wizards’ Festival
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are four recent developments in the debacle that has been the October Warriors and Wizards (formerly Harry Potter) Festival in Jefferson, Wisconsin. Despite problems during its two years in Edgerton, Jefferson picked up the festival, and the Daily Jefferson County Union touted the shabby festival even as residents were screaming about the low quality…
Babbittry, Newspapers, Press, That Which Paved the Way
Hedge Funds Have No Table Manners Whatever
by JOHN ADAMS •
Brian Stelter writes Gannett journalists anxious amid report that Digital First Media is circling the company: Cara Lombardo’s unsettling Sunday night scoop for the WSJ: “A hedge-fund-backed media group known for buying up struggling local papers and cutting costs is planning to make an offer for USA Today publisher Gannett, according to people familiar with the…
City, Local Government, Newspapers, School District
The Not-So-Daily Union
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that local Daily Union will begin delivery by mail, and that this will push forward the publication deadline by twelve hours. While the change of delivery matters to subscribers, the change in publication deadline will matter more. The Daily Union will no longer be able to get a story on an evening meeting or…
Newspapers, Press, Television, Trump
Press Coverage of Trump Isn’t Too Hard, It’s Too Soft
by JOHN ADAMS •
David Frum’s right — Relative to the truth, the prestige press in this country has a pro-Trump bias. Relative to the truth, Trump gets easier coverage than he deserves.
Crime, Culture, Newspapers
Weak Underneath
by JOHN ADAMS •
The was an armed robbery in Whitewater this week. Robbery is wrong and armed robbery especially so. There’s neither justification nor excuse for the crime. Radio station WFAW reported the crime in a straightforward way, but the Daily Union on Facebook crudely described the suspects not as black males (as would be conventional) but rather as male blacks. …
Babbittry, Blogging, New Media, Newspapers, Politics
The New Version of Old
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that the Daily Union has a new publisher. Stories about that chain publisher show that (so far) it has changed little at its papers. A sale of some kind, to someone, is no surprise. The new publisher has a string of small-town papers, and no sign of a strategy for better reasoning or…
Newspapers
Print’s Decline (and the Limits of a Digital Lifeboat)
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Journal Sentinel has experienced astonishing declines in subscribers, truly large numbers that show serious trouble for the paper (and for smaller papers nearby). Looking at the best available circulation data for public companies – those found in their regulated financial statements – the Milwaukee Business Journal reports Journal Sentinel owner Gannett sets new round of early retirements, Journal Sentinel print…
Crime, Mendacity, Misconduct, Newspapers
Daily Union‘s Story on Teacher Dragging Student Through Halls: Weak and Weaker
by JOHN ADAMS •
For years the Daily Union has failed readers by misleading residents about events in their own area, and today their supposed crime reporter Ryan Whisner and his editor (Chris Spangler) blow another story, this time about a teacher in Waterloo who allegedly dragged a small child down the hall of the child’s school (there is…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Government Spending, Mendacity, Newspapers
Predictable: From Boosterism to Bad Checks
by JOHN ADAMS •
Anyone wanting to see how bad boosterism – the desire to push a local project regardless of sound arguments and actual experience to the contrary – can get should look to the 2018 ‘Warriors and Wizards’ festival in Jefferson, Wisconsin. Formerly a Harry Potter Festival, it was rebranded after Warner Bros. clamped down on obvious…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Government Spending, Mendacity, Newspapers
New Developments About Jefferson, Wisconsin’s ‘Warriors & Wizards’ Festival
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are new, troubling developments concerning Jefferson, Wisconsin’s ‘Warriors & Wizards’ festival, an event about which this website has been consistently critical (for many sound reasons). One can wait a day or so to see what this new reporting shows (and how accurate and honest the reporting is, considering how wobbly it’s been). In the…