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Press
Local Government, Press
About the Administrator’s Equal Time…
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a story at the Gazette from 1.5.13 about how Walworth County Administrator David Bretl’s columns started. The story’s odd, but the title’s odder: ‘Bretl writes columns as a self-check on county government.’ That’s funny, as the true check on government isn’t a so-called self-check from an administrator, but a check from the newspaper itself,…
New Media, New Whitewater, Press
Horses and Automobiles, Contemporaneously
by JOHN ADAMS •
For thousands of years humanity used horses as a major means of travel and transport. There were other kinds of locomotion during that long span, but until the automobile horses were a dominant part of rural and urban travel throughout much of the world. The first automobiles, considered from the perspective of horses (that is,…
43rd Assembly District, Politics, Press
Gazette Endorses Rep. Andy Jorgensen in 43rd Assembly Race
by JOHN ADAMS •
In today’s Janesville Gazette, one finds that the paper endorses Andy Jorgensen for the 43rd Assembly District. That’s a change from the 2010 election, when Wynn received the paper’s endorsement. The endorsement is in the print edition; I’d encourage readers to purchase a copy to read the full text. Here’s just a part, that describes…
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Press
Ceaseless Press Errors About the So-Called ‘Innovation Express’
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a recent story over at the Daily Union that repeats a prior distortion about thousands in public funds for a bus to cart a few private workers of multi-billion-dollar Generac to their homes far outside Whitewater after work. The whole proposal is an exercise in crony capitalism. I’ve written about the mistaken use of…
Freedom of Speech, New Media, Press
Sign of the (New Media) Times: From the Daily Planet to Blogging
by JOHN ADAMS •
Looks like Clark Kent’s had enough of working at the dead-tree Daily Planet. Metropolis is about to get a new blogger: In the new issue of DC Comics’ Superman series, out tomorrow [that is, 10.23.12], Clark will stand up in front of staff in a “Jerry Maguire-type moment” which will see him resign from the…
City, Press
The Local Press as a Bad Habit
by JOHN ADAMS •
If local officials (whether elected or appointed) want to be successful, they’ll have to set higher standards for themselves than our local press sets for them. Successful leaders have been, are, and will always be those who set a better standard for themselves. There’s no partisan ideology in this – the same applies to those…
City, Politics, Press
What Bill Clinton Correctly Teaches (and What Local Leaders Can Learn from It)
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’m not a Democrat, but I have always admired and respected Bill Clinton’s rhetorical power, a power on display again last night in Charlotte. In a time when few politicians are persuasive, Clinton stands out even more. James Fallows, writing in the Atlantic, in a post entitled, Why Bill Clinton’s Speeches Work,” posits that it’s…
Press
The Best Editorials are Online
by JOHN ADAMS •
No publisher is required to go online; those who wish to stick with newsprint may do so. Yet, of all publishers, there are few who don’t have, at least, a rudimentary online offering. Here’s one distinction, however, between major and minor newspapers: most major papers will put their editorials online without charge, but smaller papers…
CDA, City, Green Energy Holdings, Open Government, Press
What Whitewater’s Officials Don’t Know (or Don’t Want You to Know) about that “Green Energy” Deal
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’m not sure what would be worse – (1) an airy proposal for an energy deal for the City of Whitewater in which city officials don’t even know simple implications of the proposal, or (2) a deal in which city officials actually know how this proposal has been received elsewhere, but don’t want the residents…
City, Green Energy Holdings, Open Government, Press
Part 2: Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS •
This post follows a recent story (from 7.17.12) about a waste digester proposed for Whitewater, Wisconsin (see, Waste-to-energy project coming to Whitewater“). For an earlier post along these lines, see Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings. 1. Does anyone think, as the 7.17.12 story states, that the City of Whitewater…
Press
McClatchy’s Washington Bureau establishes no-alter quote policy
by JOHN ADAMS •
The right decision, yet in our times sadly a hard decision for many, from a major newspaper chain: To our staff and to our readers: As you are aware, reporters from The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg and others are agreeing to give government sources the right to clear and alter quotes as a…
Local Government, New Media, Open Government, Press
The Collapse of Serious Local News
by JOHN ADAMS •
When even a news outsourcing firm’s criticism of local journalism has a sad ring of truth, one can see how far newspapers have fallen. It’s also why bloggers and other citizen journalists now fill a role that some newspapers have abandoned. Journatic is a company that provides supposedly local stories to the American media, and…
City, Development, Government Spending, Green Energy Holdings, Local Government, Open Government, Press
Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS •
This week, I’ve posted a series of general questions about a proposed deal with Green Energy Holdings for a waste digester. See, Preliminary & General Questions about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings and Questions for the CDA about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings. (For a comprehensive list of all posts about this proposal,…