Thursday, November 17, 2011

An interesting question: So, what DO I want in a newspaper?

The following comment was received today, and it bears some examination:


Blogger Blogging around the Pacific Northwest said...
Ok, Kelly. You've ranted near 4 or 5 years about the local paper. What kind of paper DO you want to see? I don't think I have ever read you speak of examples of what you might want to see.....
4:06 PM
Delete
I'm sorry, I could have sworn I'd made that clear, but it is a question worth looking at.

My own personal philosophy precludes bitching about something without having viable alternatives available... and I do for every item I write about.

I want a newspaper that is honest.

I want a newspaper that reflects the public it purports to serve, instead of attempting to shape or mold that public.

I want a newspaper that exhibits the same civility they have whined so long and loudly about others exhibiting towards them, while hypocritically engaging... for years... in the same activity they decry.

I want a newspaper that NEVER fears the will of the people, even when that will conflicts with their agenda... an agenda they should not have no matter what it contains since that agenda, regardless of its contents, by definition means that the unvarnished truth will never be made available when it touches on that agenda... the downtown-centric, special interest, don't listen to the people no matter how much it costs them agenda... for the CTrans scam, the ballpark ripoff and loot rail/I-5 bridge issues coming immediately to mind, where well informed and available opposition has been routinely ignored as the rag does a series of one-sided puff pieces.

I want a newspaper that treats everyone the same instead of giving their friends a pass... like Jim Jacks and their essentially criminal failure to report the facts of his alcohol fueled misconduct with female staffers... not because the information isn't out there, I had it all within an hour.

But because they didn't... and don't want to.

I want a newspaper with the guy running it is held accountable by the guy owning it.

And I want a newspaper that would rather blow itself to pieces then lie, cheat, exaggerate or engage in a double standard... or work to silence the voice of those, like me, who oppose them.

We don't have that, or anything like that, in any daily published in Clark County.

There may be more elements... but these are certainly a start.

Thanks for asking.
at

3 comments:

Martin Hash said...

Newspapers can be biased if it makes business sense, like Fox News and MSNBC. Unfortunately for The Columbian, most people who read their news on a piece of paper tend to be Conservative.

However, I suspect even you would give The Columbian a "pass" if it had at least ONE page in the Editorial section that had an unfettered Conservative bias, (even if every other page was Liberal).

What people find so irritating is that The Columbian pretends to be unbiased. In fact, I think they actually think they ARE unbiased. No one there has enough wisdom to recognize another person's pov.

1:32 AM
K.J. Hinton said...

I would be much happier with them if they had a balance... if their positions, observations and conclusions could be addressed on the spot as a part of the publishing process.

You know me too well...

1:41 AM
Blogging around the Pacific Northwest said...

@kelly - Thank you for stating it so clearly that even Lou and John can understand it with their crayola crayons writing up their weekly masterpieces.

Nice job and way of putting it.

To Martin, what galls me more than any thing is that I have read the newspaper for some time near 25 years starting from a young lad to a much older one.

And since Lou took over the assistant editor job in 1996 or so, I've seen the paper go from a decent bias to the shrill mcDonalds paperhat that it is now. It attacks people without conscience, it borrows, begs and steal lines and ideas from local blogs without ANY attribution to the source where they have gotten material facts from that might have contributed to their articles that I noticed before Don Hamilton got nailed and fired for running posing as a reporter..

Then the executive editor goes piping around the community taking out political enemies of the elite class as though they are chewing gum. And those Press Talk article are a joke?!?!?!

I too have been a target of their invisible wrath because I was able to make them look even dumber than some of the local bloggers do.

Though some say we should just wait until the final shoe drops on their checkbooking ability to buy favors and spreading money around to local charities and other places to make them look "good" in the eyes of the community.

Now they have the Vancouver Voice dead or neutered to the point, its just as splat stick website with a few online posts about gigs of local artists and nonsensical bs...

I wish there another option. Any one have any ideas? And no, I know of the local blogs, they cater to the political side but I sure would love to see some thing come out that was better than what we treated daily too..

4:49 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)