Here’s the Local-o-meter for April 30th issue of the Register. What’s the Local-o-meter? It measures how many local ads appear in our town newspaper, the Whitewater Register. To be generous toward local advertising, I’ve included in the local total nostalgic columns, from local-talking politicians, who never fail to emphasize how supposedly unique Whitewater is.

There’s so much false localism in politicians who talk about the uniqueness of Whitewater while writing for a newspaper that depends on the ads of out-of-town merchants.

I’d say shop where you want. Yet, if local matters so very much, then why not live out your proud, local boosterism?

Disclaimers:

• Many out-of town ads are actually far larger than local ones, so the out-of-town impact is actually greater
• I’ve included Register ads as local ads, even though they don’t represent advertising revenue to the paper, but rather space unused for independent advertisers
• I’ve only considered the first section of the paper, that part most favorable to a local influence
• All estimates where made while drinking something with lots of alcohol in it. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.

How local was the April 30th issue of the Register by this measure?

33.3% local = 66.6% hypocritical boosterism.

Inside the Issue. There’s a story inside about the controversy at the Royal Purple over whether the football coach should have used ‘inappropriate language,’ in response to a Royal Purple story on allegedly special treatment for football players. 

I’ve not commented on the story before, but a few points are worth mentioning. 

First, this might have been a front page story in the Register, not something inside, on page 2.    

Second, virtually all the coverage of this incident has focused on the language the football coach used, and whether it was appropriate.  All this fussy , neo-Victorianism about what was ‘appropriate.’  Language is not the problem here, the prissy and squeamish worries over the football coach’s words notwithstanding.  (The university can respond to the coach, its employee, as it wants.)  

Reporters – and even bloggers — are going to go out into the world, and get cursed at.  Most of the time, they won’t be part of the same organization as the person who curses at them, so they’ll have no easy — too easy — recourse to an administrative remedy.  More to the point, no reporter should care if the coach cursed, and the administration teaches a weakling’s lesson when it focuses on whether speech — even cursing — is the problem. 

These graduates will go out into the world, and may — sadly — face far worse than profanity.  In that time, there’ll be no higher-level administrator who might intervene.  

Access — and its denial — is the issue here.  Government and organizations often threaten to deny access to reporters if they don’t get favorable coverage.  It’s the curse of small towns, especially.  Young reporters starting out here become too close to officials, and part of the story, rather than independent chroniclers, because they’re not strong enough to resists threats implicit or explicit. 

They write what they think politicians and bureaucrats want to hear — it’s a Faustian bargain, selling too much, for too little.  As with cursing, there was an administrative remedy here — the university administration could compel the football program to permit access. 

That’s a rarity — usually, one has to report even when access is denied.  The real test is when government, bureaucrats, and organization men curse, or deny access, and the reporter has no administrative remedy.  What then? 

A weak and impressionable reporter will give up his or her independence, and become what a politician wants.

The only thing that one needs to do is stick to one’s principles, holding tight to constitutional guarantees that define America.   

I don’t fault the Royal Purple in any of this.

It says something about how fussy and servile Whitewater’s town culture is, though, that the town story has been about language, instead of robust defense of independent reporting in the face of bureaucratic intimidation about access. 

One might have hoped, however faintly, that the Register might have understood this story.  

Forge on — regardless of words, undaunted even over threats to access, and other intimidation.  Integrity is tested most when there is no administrative remedy, and still one writes confidently and independently.

Whitewater’s local weekly, the Whitewater Register is now in its 153rd year.  It’s our only hometown paper, and the only publication that’s at least arguably connected to professional journalism. 

Everything else homegrown is either commentary or news without the principles of the news profession. 

(For one set of those principles, please see the permanent link on FREE WHITEWATER to the  Associated Press Managing Editors’ Statement of Ethical Principles.  There are several sets of principles like this; news without any clear code risks becoming an impressionable undertaking.)  

Above the Fold.  There are two above-the fold stories in the April 30th issue of the Register: “Taking a Good Look,” about a Common Council tour of our Wastewater Utility, and a story about a recent school board officers’ election, entitled “School board elects officers, sets budget hearing date.”  

Wastewater Utility.  This is a joke, right?  It’s actually an above-the-fold story that some Council members, the city manager, and the director of public works, all took a tour of our wastewater utility? 

Nothing says small town quite like a prominent story about something like this.  Next, perhaps, a feature on the recent advent of indoor plumbing to Whitewater, or how long-term residents can use electricity for illumination and cooking? 

(“I was skeptical at first, but when I flipped the switch, gosh darn it if the light on the other side of the room didn’t turn on!  That sure is convenient!”) 

School Board.  The Whitewater School Board elected its officers Monday, and that’s a less prominent story than the Whitewater utility feature, lacking pictures to capture the organizational moment.  The story reports that all officers were elected unanimously. 

The story quotes the re-elected board president declaring that “It’s going to be an interesting year….There’s a lot of work to do.”  What work awaits?  What will be interesting about the year?  Budget cuts, curricular changes, policy changes, growth or contraction, and in what fashion? 

I have no idea; following the selection of officers, there might have been a published question and follow up on these points.   

There’s more in the Register story, though, that may prove to be a story for another day — “During special reports at the meeting, board members heard a presentation on Other Post-Employment Benefits….” 

What did the presentation reveal (the story notes that it was the third of its kind)?  The story doesn’t say —  but we’ll hear more on it, I wouldn’t wonder. 

Here’s the Local-o-meter for April 23rd issue of the Register. What’s the Local-o-meter? It measures how many local ads appear in our town newspaper, the Whitewater Register. To be generous toward local advertising, I’ve included in the local total nostalgic columns, from local-talking politicians, who never fail to emphasize how supposedly unique Whitewater is.

There’s so much false localism in politicians who talk about the uniqueness of Whitewater while writing for a newspaper that depends on the ads of out-of-town merchants.

I’d say shop where you want. Yet, if local matters so very much, then why not live out your proud, local boosterism?

Disclaimers:

• Many out-of town ads are actually far larger than local ones, so the out-of-town impact is actually greater
• I’ve included Register ads as local ads, even though they don’t represent advertising revenue to the paper, but rather space unused for independent advertisers
• I’ve only considered the first section of the paper, that part most favorable to a local influence
• All estimates where made while drinking a particularly smooth brandy. I got the idea from reading about accounting practices and financial management at Bear Stearns.

How local was the April 23rd issue of the Register by this measure?

I’d say only 30.6% local’s not very local.

A bit of catching up — Register Watch™ for the April 23rd issue of the paper.  

The Register lede is a story entitled, “Local business owners give input to state job taskforce.”  More input’s better than less, and local’s better than distant, I’d suppose. 

Too bad, though, that the whole story seems to be written from a local view of Elkhorn, not Whitewater.  A more cosmopolitan outlook is preferable; I’m not sure those seeking that outlook have Elkhorn in mind.    

A better story, one that’s truly local, but has greater implications, is the story on Topper’s Pizza — “Toppers eyes national growth from new Whitewater locale.”   The story continues onto the backpage of the first section of the paper, with a view inside the new location, at 325 West Center Street. 

Toppers is a success story, and one that’s a business success story. In the end, Toppers will suceeed or fail through free exchange — will you voluntarily and freely patronize Toppers?  Success like that is the best kind — success through persuasion, through good products, alone.  

Below the fold, a story on a different kind of transaction — our Common Council appoints new board and commission members from among its ranks.  It’s common in Whitewater, and other communities, for Council members to sit on citizen boards and commissions.   It was a more orderly distribution than normal, as representative Lynn Binnie had suggested a different method of considering available spots. 

(Whitewater has traditionally had the unseemly habit of assigning posts in an awkward way, in which there’s a figurative rush to a favored spot along the trough.)  

In the end, one should be careful of what one wants, and gets  — positions on Police and Fire, and the Community Development Authority, aren’t beanbag.  We’re a community that had above-average poverty before the recession; one wonders where we’ll find ourselves six months’ time from now. 

I’m not sure if this community needs ‘development,’ but it does need growth.  Being part of a successful Community Development Authority — and success is hard when one tries to develop for others rather than oneself — is no easy accomplishment.  

It was, I think, Cliff Robertson in Spiderman who observed that “with great power comes great responsibility.”  True enough.  One hears that some are the voice of the people, or tribunes of the downtrodden, defenders of the town faith, etc.  So be it — now let’s see if your participation on the CDA does anything for Whitewater. 

Will we be better off a year from now, for these selections to the Community Development Authority, or Police and Fire Commission?   I have no idea; I’ll be sure to write along the way, though.      

I also see that on the agenda for tonight’s [May 5] Common Council meeting, there’s an item (R1) adopting the Whitewater Register as the city’s official newspaper.  Each time the matter arises, the practical value of the designation mocks its legal significance — the Register‘s fading away.  

I’ll keep Register Watch™,  but a broader review of local papers and their websites is probably overdue.  There was a time when I heard that the Register would be around forever; no one sober and rational says that anymore.      

Next up — the Local-o-meter for April 23rd issue of the Register.