Consider this a disclaimer, because it only seems fair to be upfront. I've criticized the Athens Messenger ('Mess) and Athens News (A-News) from time to time, and it's no secret our paper messes up too, but there won't be any snide remarks about The Post on these pages.
As per Post policy, I can't critique the paper. That distinction/responsibility is solely given to Ashley Lutz, our editor in chief. It's a rule that I'm okay with, as the ability to comment on a daily paper with more than 100 employees shouldn't be granted to everyone. If the rules say only the editor can do so, that makes sense to me.
So perhaps unfairly to them, Athens media criticism will be directed mainly toward the Mess and A-News. Then again, A-News editor Terry Smith is a fan of the Silver Jews and Pavement. Your move, 'Mess.
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I don't think this Web site is a high priority
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
For the stats junkies out there, here are a few more numbers about how brutal times are for j-school graduates.
Not much commentary necessary here. Just barely a majority of graduates are finding jobs in print after spending thousands of dollars on a degree, and few actually enjoy where they end up. It's almost enough to make a kid look back longingly at going for a real degree and meet this journalism thing down the road. Almost.
Thank God there are options other than law school. It's just a shame those options are getting more competitive, if they soon exist at all.
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Class of 2008 suffers
Not much commentary necessary here. Just barely a majority of graduates are finding jobs in print after spending thousands of dollars on a degree, and few actually enjoy where they end up. It's almost enough to make a kid look back longingly at going for a real degree and meet this journalism thing down the road. Almost.
Thank God there are options other than law school. It's just a shame those options are getting more competitive, if they soon exist at all.
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Class of 2008 suffers
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Handshake Drugs
One of the things about working for a small town newspaper is that you have to be versatile. There are few defined beats, often general things that a reporter covers quite a bit. This includes editors contributing content, often in the form of columns.
That's what Athens News Editor Terry Smith (full disclosure: my former news writing teacher and a man with great taste in music) does every week in his newspaper. Normally these op/ed pieces are on basic topics, one running topic is his neighbor's bothersome "devil cat" by the name of Diego. True story: That cat once wrote a letter to the A-News calling Smith out.
But for the first time since he heavily criticized Athens Police Chief Richard Mayer for not providing enough details on the death of two students at a nearby apartment complex (it turned out to be overdose), Smith surprised me with his assertiveness of an important local topic.
Long story short, an Ohio University student took illegal mushrooms and fatally jumped off of a balcony a few months back. Recently, the county prosecutor, a man who is essentially a rock star going after drugs in a very rural and addicted county, charged that student's dealer with involuntary manslaughter. Obviously, that's a pretty controversial and bold move done by someone who likes grandstanding a bit and I believe is genuinely sick of all the drugs in his county.
Smith clearly disagreed with that move, and wrote an extensive column claiming the manslaughter charge was too much. But it raises a big question, should the person who decides the direction of a region's major newspaper weigh in on a very controversial local topic?
In this specific case, I don't think it was the right thing to do. That paper, as well as ours, writes a lot of stories on the prosecutor's office. The most obvious factor is that, much as it pains me to acknowledge, source relations are so hugely important. When Smith writes that "(County Prosecutor C. David) Warren appears intent on destroying a second young life," I don't understand the purpose of weighing in so strongly on such a gray area. If the goal is to right a wrong in Smith's eyes, that's quite noble, but I don't think this topic is nearly cut and dry enough to do so.
It's also important the person who edits the stories and ultimately lays out the newspaper stays objective publicly. Smith claiming that one of the most powerful men in the county has gone too far while his newspaper covers this very newsworthy event is far from staying objective. Keeping that distance from the top is what gives a newspaper credibility, and without that, it's got nothing.
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Terry Smith weighs in on the indictment
That's what Athens News Editor Terry Smith (full disclosure: my former news writing teacher and a man with great taste in music) does every week in his newspaper. Normally these op/ed pieces are on basic topics, one running topic is his neighbor's bothersome "devil cat" by the name of Diego. True story: That cat once wrote a letter to the A-News calling Smith out.
But for the first time since he heavily criticized Athens Police Chief Richard Mayer for not providing enough details on the death of two students at a nearby apartment complex (it turned out to be overdose), Smith surprised me with his assertiveness of an important local topic.
Long story short, an Ohio University student took illegal mushrooms and fatally jumped off of a balcony a few months back. Recently, the county prosecutor, a man who is essentially a rock star going after drugs in a very rural and addicted county, charged that student's dealer with involuntary manslaughter. Obviously, that's a pretty controversial and bold move done by someone who likes grandstanding a bit and I believe is genuinely sick of all the drugs in his county.
Smith clearly disagreed with that move, and wrote an extensive column claiming the manslaughter charge was too much. But it raises a big question, should the person who decides the direction of a region's major newspaper weigh in on a very controversial local topic?
In this specific case, I don't think it was the right thing to do. That paper, as well as ours, writes a lot of stories on the prosecutor's office. The most obvious factor is that, much as it pains me to acknowledge, source relations are so hugely important. When Smith writes that "(County Prosecutor C. David) Warren appears intent on destroying a second young life," I don't understand the purpose of weighing in so strongly on such a gray area. If the goal is to right a wrong in Smith's eyes, that's quite noble, but I don't think this topic is nearly cut and dry enough to do so.
It's also important the person who edits the stories and ultimately lays out the newspaper stays objective publicly. Smith claiming that one of the most powerful men in the county has gone too far while his newspaper covers this very newsworthy event is far from staying objective. Keeping that distance from the top is what gives a newspaper credibility, and without that, it's got nothing.
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Terry Smith weighs in on the indictment
Friday, August 7, 2009
What I Learned From Television
Just finished up my eight weeks in local television news, interning for WGAL-TV, our region's number one station. My internship had its good and bad moments, but it was mostly nice to be on the inside of a completely different medium. The station was definitely a well-oiled machine that had blanket coverage of a large viewing area. On to the bullet points:
-A photographer loses his knees and back first.
-Every story should try to hit the heart, health or wallet. If you get all three, you're on to something big.
-Don't speed in the news team van.
-That camera tripod is ridiculously heavy to lug around, something like 40 pounds.
-A car crash is rarely newsworthy unless it closes a major road, then it is.
-A lot of work goes into that minute long clip on television.
-Going live is difficult, especially if it's breaking news.
-Journalism is about to get much better or much worse.
-The good news is that paid overtime actually exists in journalism.
-Photographers do very impressive work getting those shots that go along with a story when it's read on air.
-A bad interview's better than none.
-Great journalists can't predict the future, just report the past very quickly.
In all, learned quite a bit. If anyone there happens to be reading this (quite unlikely), thanks for having me.
-30-
WGAL, News 8, Coverage You Can Count On, Susquehanna Valley
-A photographer loses his knees and back first.
-Every story should try to hit the heart, health or wallet. If you get all three, you're on to something big.
-Don't speed in the news team van.
-That camera tripod is ridiculously heavy to lug around, something like 40 pounds.
-A car crash is rarely newsworthy unless it closes a major road, then it is.
-A lot of work goes into that minute long clip on television.
-Going live is difficult, especially if it's breaking news.
-Journalism is about to get much better or much worse.
-The good news is that paid overtime actually exists in journalism.
-Photographers do very impressive work getting those shots that go along with a story when it's read on air.
-A bad interview's better than none.
-Great journalists can't predict the future, just report the past very quickly.
In all, learned quite a bit. If anyone there happens to be reading this (quite unlikely), thanks for having me.
-30-
WGAL, News 8, Coverage You Can Count On, Susquehanna Valley
The Wall
Two big newspapers both announced this week (odd...) that they will begin charging for access to their Web sites.
The Boston Globe and New York Post have both opted for a pay wall restricting their previously completely free online content. Considering the only other major newspaper I can think of that does this, The Wall Street Journal, also owned by Rupert Murdoch, mostly covers financial matters and is more likely to draw people who want to pay for better analysis, it's pretty big news.
Neither paper's decision is much of a surprise. Murdoch probably saw the success of The Journal's Web site and is now instituting this policy at his foreign publications as well. The Globe, God bless it, has spend months in an awkward back and forth with its owner, The New York Times Company, in extensive arguments about pay cuts that have made the paper a lot more difficult to sell. For a few months, the Times even threatened to simply shut it down if the union didn't comply to steep demands. Neither side looked good.
The next question is how much to charge. Let's focus on the Globe, as its losses (projected to total $85 billion this year, although top execs are now saying the deficit has fallen) are much worse and it isn't owned by a crazy billionaire who cares for it.
Comparing media markets, the Post covers a much smaller region (the New York metropolitan area vs. all of New England) and faces much stiffer competition for it. The Globe is the main broadsheet publication of New England and has a daily circulation of about 200,000 more than its rival, the Boston Herald.
So the Globe, save for a powerful union, steep losses and a looming sense of closure any day, is doing alright. The paper costs $6 per week to deliver every day, for the first twelve weeks, to the Boston area. At about $25 per month, and that includes costs the Web site wouldn't require like printing press, drivers, trucks, gasoline, wouldn't $50 or so per year for Web access be a reasonable amount? It'd begin to make up the huge deficit and actually fuel good journalism.
-30-
Things are looking a bit different these days
The Boston Globe and New York Post have both opted for a pay wall restricting their previously completely free online content. Considering the only other major newspaper I can think of that does this, The Wall Street Journal, also owned by Rupert Murdoch, mostly covers financial matters and is more likely to draw people who want to pay for better analysis, it's pretty big news.
Neither paper's decision is much of a surprise. Murdoch probably saw the success of The Journal's Web site and is now instituting this policy at his foreign publications as well. The Globe, God bless it, has spend months in an awkward back and forth with its owner, The New York Times Company, in extensive arguments about pay cuts that have made the paper a lot more difficult to sell. For a few months, the Times even threatened to simply shut it down if the union didn't comply to steep demands. Neither side looked good.
The next question is how much to charge. Let's focus on the Globe, as its losses (projected to total $85 billion this year, although top execs are now saying the deficit has fallen) are much worse and it isn't owned by a crazy billionaire who cares for it.
Comparing media markets, the Post covers a much smaller region (the New York metropolitan area vs. all of New England) and faces much stiffer competition for it. The Globe is the main broadsheet publication of New England and has a daily circulation of about 200,000 more than its rival, the Boston Herald.
So the Globe, save for a powerful union, steep losses and a looming sense of closure any day, is doing alright. The paper costs $6 per week to deliver every day, for the first twelve weeks, to the Boston area. At about $25 per month, and that includes costs the Web site wouldn't require like printing press, drivers, trucks, gasoline, wouldn't $50 or so per year for Web access be a reasonable amount? It'd begin to make up the huge deficit and actually fuel good journalism.
-30-
Things are looking a bit different these days
Sunday, August 2, 2009
I Might be Wrong
Today, only a week or so after the blogs, the New York Times public editor took one of his paper's writers out behind the woodshed.
The obituary the Times ran on Walter Cronkite a few weeks back has been corrected a staggering eight times. Considering these things are usually written months ahead of time, I mean, Cronkite was 92, it's surprising that so many mistakes could slip through. And not just dumb errors, but the dates of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and the moon landing. As one would hope, the paper's ombudsman cracked his knuckles and went to work.
In a rather smug way (as is his style), Clark Hoyt outlined how this cannot happen at the paper of record. He makes a few excuses, most notably that word didn't come in until 8 p.m., but that's not really legitimate here. I remember the Cronkite family announcing a week or two beforehand that he was very sick.
Here's the telling 'graph in his assessment.
--
Until the Cronkite errors, she was not even in the top 20 among reporters and editors most responsible for corrections this year. Now, she has jumped to No. 4 and will again get special editing attention.
--
Consider me the naive one, but I never thought the times had a known ranking of the the most corrected journalists. Makes sense, of course, but it's quite the beating.
Still, I love public editors. They rip the paper when need be and represent it better than most. Having someone on the inside who reads the letters and acts as a liaison, if I may adopt some corporate speak, between the readers and writers is very important. Ironic as it is, journalists have a bad habit of growing more cynical and distant from the audience they essentially work for, something they desperately need to stop.
When you write a fairly straightforward obit, even under a very near deadline, and cause eight corrections in the country's best newspaper, it's best to count your blessings that you still have a job.
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You know when it's called "How Did This Happen?" that someone is in trouble
The obituary the Times ran on Walter Cronkite a few weeks back has been corrected a staggering eight times. Considering these things are usually written months ahead of time, I mean, Cronkite was 92, it's surprising that so many mistakes could slip through. And not just dumb errors, but the dates of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and the moon landing. As one would hope, the paper's ombudsman cracked his knuckles and went to work.
In a rather smug way (as is his style), Clark Hoyt outlined how this cannot happen at the paper of record. He makes a few excuses, most notably that word didn't come in until 8 p.m., but that's not really legitimate here. I remember the Cronkite family announcing a week or two beforehand that he was very sick.
Here's the telling 'graph in his assessment.
--
Until the Cronkite errors, she was not even in the top 20 among reporters and editors most responsible for corrections this year. Now, she has jumped to No. 4 and will again get special editing attention.
--
Consider me the naive one, but I never thought the times had a known ranking of the the most corrected journalists. Makes sense, of course, but it's quite the beating.
Still, I love public editors. They rip the paper when need be and represent it better than most. Having someone on the inside who reads the letters and acts as a liaison, if I may adopt some corporate speak, between the readers and writers is very important. Ironic as it is, journalists have a bad habit of growing more cynical and distant from the audience they essentially work for, something they desperately need to stop.
When you write a fairly straightforward obit, even under a very near deadline, and cause eight corrections in the country's best newspaper, it's best to count your blessings that you still have a job.
-30-
You know when it's called "How Did This Happen?" that someone is in trouble
Zero
If the Athens Messenger were to cease publication, Athens would technically be without a daily newspaper. It's a strange thought, since the town is also served by The Post, The Athens News, an NPR affiliate, and a few student run magazines. The town of 6,000 residents and 20,000 students is blanketed with coverage, often with a limited amount of interesting news.
Last week, Ann Arbor lost its only daily paper. The Ann Arbor News, which published for 174 years and had 60 editorial employees in the spring (now half that), will continue to update its Web site. Counting college students, there are about 75,000 more people who live in that Michigan city than Athens. It's always a shame to see a paper fold, especially when it's the only one in a large town. Trenton, San Francisco and Miami are just three cities that could see that same fate.
The difference is none of those are college towns, like Athens and Ann Arbor. So maybe this is another example of my half-full outlook toward newspapers, but it might not be so bad. If Ann Arbor is anything like Athens, and with the huge population difference, it might not be, the students can handle covering a town that relies on students for most everything else. I know from looking at college papers before enrolling at OU that they have a fine student newspaper.
The 'Mess, "Athens' eyes and ears for over 180 years" (despite the lack of AP style on over/more than), has a circulation of about 15,000 and doesn't break a lot of news these days. Should Athens ever became a zero daily paper town, I think it'd be more symbolic than anything else.
-30-
Rest in Peace, Ann Arbor News
Last week, Ann Arbor lost its only daily paper. The Ann Arbor News, which published for 174 years and had 60 editorial employees in the spring (now half that), will continue to update its Web site. Counting college students, there are about 75,000 more people who live in that Michigan city than Athens. It's always a shame to see a paper fold, especially when it's the only one in a large town. Trenton, San Francisco and Miami are just three cities that could see that same fate.
The difference is none of those are college towns, like Athens and Ann Arbor. So maybe this is another example of my half-full outlook toward newspapers, but it might not be so bad. If Ann Arbor is anything like Athens, and with the huge population difference, it might not be, the students can handle covering a town that relies on students for most everything else. I know from looking at college papers before enrolling at OU that they have a fine student newspaper.
The 'Mess, "Athens' eyes and ears for over 180 years" (despite the lack of AP style on over/more than), has a circulation of about 15,000 and doesn't break a lot of news these days. Should Athens ever became a zero daily paper town, I think it'd be more symbolic than anything else.
-30-
Rest in Peace, Ann Arbor News
Saturday, August 1, 2009
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
It wasn't long ago liberals hailed Keith Olbermann as a funnier and smarter Bill O'Reilly of their own. His "Special Comments" were legendary and instant YouTube hits, nine minutes of focused outrage often focused at someone in the Bush administration. Above all, he caught Bill O'Reilly using false arguments and that creepy flirting he does with female guests. Before Olbermann went off the deep end and Rachel Maddow started doing her best to fill in the gaps, he must have been a thorn in the side of Fox News and News Corp.
Now, as the New York Times is reporting, that run could be over. The two networks seem to have a handshake agreement where they will no longer take shots at each other while CNN sits idly by. Perhaps General Electric's chairman, Jeff Immelt, despite running one of the biggest companies in American history, was a little annoyed when O'Reilly told his millions of viewers, "If my child were killed in Iraq, I would blame the likes of Jeffrey Immelt."
Olbermann, in surprisingly terse style, suggested he will not be censored on what he says, and I'm inclined to believe him. The rivalry with Bill O' has done wonders for Countdown's ratings. It's made Olbermann a villain of the right, something I'm sure the notoriously arrogant host loves. O'Reilly never mentions Olbermann by name (hardly unusual, he still calls Sen. Al Franken "Stuart Smalley" after his Saturday Night Live character 15 years ago), and will probably continue that too.
Assuming everything stays pretty much the same on Fox News' end, it'll be interesting to see how Olbermann works around this new obstacle. If he can't name O'Reilly the "Worst Person in the World," then his show will have a big hole to fill five nights a week.
-30-
Rivalries normally bring out the best in everyone, and this one turned out something like that.
Ben Affleck's been pretty awful since co-writing Good Will Hunting, but this was pretty awesome.
Now, as the New York Times is reporting, that run could be over. The two networks seem to have a handshake agreement where they will no longer take shots at each other while CNN sits idly by. Perhaps General Electric's chairman, Jeff Immelt, despite running one of the biggest companies in American history, was a little annoyed when O'Reilly told his millions of viewers, "If my child were killed in Iraq, I would blame the likes of Jeffrey Immelt."
Olbermann, in surprisingly terse style, suggested he will not be censored on what he says, and I'm inclined to believe him. The rivalry with Bill O' has done wonders for Countdown's ratings. It's made Olbermann a villain of the right, something I'm sure the notoriously arrogant host loves. O'Reilly never mentions Olbermann by name (hardly unusual, he still calls Sen. Al Franken "Stuart Smalley" after his Saturday Night Live character 15 years ago), and will probably continue that too.
Assuming everything stays pretty much the same on Fox News' end, it'll be interesting to see how Olbermann works around this new obstacle. If he can't name O'Reilly the "Worst Person in the World," then his show will have a big hole to fill five nights a week.
-30-
Rivalries normally bring out the best in everyone, and this one turned out something like that.
Ben Affleck's been pretty awful since co-writing Good Will Hunting, but this was pretty awesome.
Punks in the Beerlight
With some stories, you can't help but get the impression it's just the journalist showing off his or her contact list. I guess even the New York Times likes to localize national stories.
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I really don't know what to make of this
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I really don't know what to make of this
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