March 22nd, 2009 
joel Everyone has an opinion about the media, and here at The Press and Tower, we want to hear yours. Deep Background is our open comments forum for you to rise up and state your take. So partake.
If you wish you can always email me at joel@nataliemedia.com or via Twitter @pressandtower.
Embrace the chaos!
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Channel 12′s 60th anniversary has come, and gone, with no hoopla or celebration. It seems the current owners do not want to acknowledge the fact the WICU is one of the older stations in the U.S., and was in fact the first building in the U.S. that was built to be a TV station and wasn’t just a converted radio station. There is a brick in the wall of the studio that is from the White House that commenerates this fact. Unfortunately Brian Lilly nad his family don’t want people to know how great 12 was over the years. They just want people to know how terrible 12 has become since the Llly’s bought the station. The impending merger of 12 & 35 will just make matters worse as the Lilly destory two good stations in favor of the bottom line.
Another station in the state has just celebrated its 60th anniversary. WGAL in Lancaster celebrated its anniversary on air with an hour long program plus they are selling DVD copies of the program on their website.
Obviosuly WGAL’s owners were proud of their history. Same can’t be said for the Lilly’s and WICU.
I believe (within the next few days) those who are interested in WICU-TV’s past glory will be able to purchase a copy of the stations excellent 40th Anniversary program on DVD. Stay tuned for details…
Congress heard that our newspaper industry is basically shutting down. They are going to intervene and stop the unstoppable.
A proposal is being made to allow newspapers to reorganize as “nonprofits” and receive tax benefits accordingly.
There is a positive hitch.
As nonprofits, newspapers will be outlawed from political endorsements, which would leave the Erie Times News no choice but to twiddle their thumbs each November, OR, actually report on candidates during election season so that folks can make up their own minds. The era of ETN doing your thinking for you would be over, should they decide to survive as a nonprofit.
What a Congress!
Story in full:
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE52N67F20090324
When the money stream comes from the public sector (ie taxpayers) and not the private sector you now have a co-dependent (as opposed to independent) system.
If you think traditional media doesn’t dig into public officials now, wait until they need those same people to keep the tax breaks (ie money) flowing. You might as well call that what it is: state run media. Gee, I wonder why Washington would favor that? And you shouldn’t either.
Scott – Much of the money stream for PBS and Public TV comes from the public sector. Are you suggesting that their news and editorial programming (e.g., The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, et al) is dependent upon political influence of and manipulation by the same folks who keep the money flowing, and is the product of a state-run news medium? If the answer is yes, I couldn’t agree more. If the answer is no, you need to rethink your position, which would be internally inconsistent.
New Market Manager for Boston Store Radio Stations
http://www.connoisseurmedia.com/press/2009/03/25/nancy-dymond-leads-the-charge-in-erie-pa/
Good link, Doug.
I see within the link is an employment section.
They are hiring as noted here:
Positions available in the following markets:
Billings, MT
Sales
Promotion
Bloomington, IL
Sales
Erie, PA
Sales
Huntington, WV
Sales
Omaha, NE
Sales
Programming
Wichita, KS
Sales
At least ONE job is open in Erie.
Things are looking up.
Joe and Scott
The absolute last thing we need in this country is
government controlled media. The slanted journalism we saw from the national media during the campaign is just a hint of what one-sided, censored, reporting we would receive from a nationalized media. One of the first things a power hungry leader does is throttle the media. The treasury secretary has already floated the idea of seizing failing newspapers. We can not let that happen.
New York Times?
LA Times?
Chicago Tribune?
Washington Post?
Any newspaper in the world?
How bout Time Magazine or Newsweek?
ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX?
ANY radio on the globe?
Try to find the treasury secretary floated even the idea to seize the newspapers, and there is not a peep of information in any of the above outlets of media.
Do they report on the tresury secretary thinking he needs to seize more FINANCIAL firms? You betcha.
Here is a newspaper in Australia that told the truth and the actual story. The headline says it all:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25239200-12377,00.html
GE Capital belongs to a corporation….General Electric.
AIG was the whopper that started the domino fall, but now REGULATION needs tightened in insurance and FINANCIAL companies that are mot regulated by the government.
Lack of regulation brought the likes of Enron.
Ditto for all the banks and mortgage firms.
Many financial operations have no FDIC protection.
How’s your credit union lately?
The treasury secretary (and his boss) seek ability to regulate a myriad number of FINANCIAL firms.
Hedge funds are profiting in this turmoil by betting it will get worse, and making billions (Soros) by doing this.
Short selling was flat out stopped to prevent the chaos from buying and betting on selling lower. That was a good call or we would hemorhage totally.
The media does not fall in this category, unless you want to distort GE owning NBC and GE Capital as “getting seized by the government”.
And GE would love that. GE Capital is the only reason their stock plummetted from $66 a share to $7 to $10 lately……and STILL the outfit is rated AAA. (best you can get).
Maybe the regulating companies (like Moody’s) need seized with the logic of AAA rating for a company going $66 to $6 a share and still being AAA.
Just what does GE have to do to lose AAA?
Meanwhile $135 billion of bailout has gone to GE and they have acquired at least 3 major overseas contracts since…..all employing overseas people, paid for by USA people. If GE Capital was seized, GE could go back to being a corporation. Their stock would still be AAA since that is the best and they stay there whether they flourish or flunk.
Two blogs insinuate the media may be next (newspapers). But the reality is that Congress floated nonprofit status for the newspapers if they choose to do so. They lose their ability to endorse candidates,…
just like nonprofit churches can not campaign, endorse, fund a candidate since they are also nonprofit.
Congress seeks to use fiscal policy to save newspapers, not monetary policy. The latter is the domain of the tresury secretary.
The Internet is ending the newspaper regardless of any fiscal or monetary policy as surely as the electric light bulb ended oil lamps.
The only government to seize and/or regulate the Internet to date is China (although Burma and North Korea pretty much bar it more than regulate it).
Walter Cronkite sat with John F. Kennedy in Hyannisport and broadcast the evening news. It made history as the evening news went from 15 minutes to 1/2 hour for the first time. Given the dreaded reporting, they could go back to 15 minutes once again as the rest is entertainment, not news.
Top newspapers were ignored at Obama’s 2nd press conference. He should have ignored TV folks too. Both sectors filter what is said and say the news in their filters. That is why the public no longer trusts the news in any of the forms it takes and media declines.
Reese Witherspoon wore a metalic miniskirt.
That was a big news story this week.
As Walter Cronkite would say:
“And that’s the way it is…..Thursday, March 26, 2009″
“Good Night”
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Dale – The prospect of government controlled news media is real here in Pennsylvania with Governor Ed Rendell’s recent unprecedented proposal to bail out the Philadelphia Inquirer with a $10 million gift from the Commonwealth.The Inquirer has already has filed for Bankruptcy Protection under Chapter 11,
While the bailout is not a done deal yet, it is being seriously considered by Rendell. His office has already stated that he can dispense such largesse to the Inquirer unilaterally (without action by the legislature). If the bailout is consumated, what does that do to the Inquirer’s credibility as a watchdog of the Rendell administration in particular and state government in general?
A number of other newspapers in Pennsylvania have already stopped their presses because of the economic crisis, and more are expected. If Rendell bails out the Inquirer, how can he deny bailout requests from the others, thus further disembowling the news media’s watchdog role in Pennsylvania?
One of the beautiful standards at Press and Tower is to allow readers to make their own conclusions in what a story is.
To do so, all comments are preserved and anyone can review all comments in a story to see when and how it started, how it developed, and how it ran its’ course.
This little series is one of them…..and a good example on how a blog should be run for readers to discern truth.
MY Comment #4 above provides a link to a story saying “US Bill Seeks To Rescue Faltering Newspapers”.
(This is an act by Congress).
A local TV newsman follows up with an astute observation that expands the conversation to include ALL media, not just newspapers (as I stated), should NEVER get public funding as it is an inherent conflict of interest.
I thought the inclusion of “state-run” media was reminiscent of the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the bellicose Pravda releases by the state, posing as “news” for decades.
It was a nice touch by Bremner.
(Radio Free Europe blasted the truth to the Russian empire and the people were duly informed that their government was basically filled with liars. The USSR fell apart. Truth counts.)
PS. Radio Free Europe is NOT Radio Free Jo Jo.
Comment 6 by a local blogger wisely points out that PBS already receives public funds (the degree of total funding and total influence is debatable, but the funding by the government of a media source is not debatable).
My own opinion on Jim Lehrer is that people are likely to trust him, like Walter Cronkite, far more than any other anchor anywhere, but drifts from the topic of media freely reporting on our government activities, to provide an informed electorate. That is a prerequisite of democracy, and an underlying reason democracy can NOT be imposed as George W. Bush attempted to do with an uninformed citizenry in Iraq or Afghanistan……to this day.
Next, we have a Comment saying the treasury secretary floated a notion to seize failing newspapers. I have read that nowhere, and if any paper took funding to survive, a chorus of boos would arise from legitimate media, for the state-run slant on reporting that would ensue. No boos are heard anywhere.
Comments continue. A blogger notes that Ed Rendell wants to bail out Philly Inquirer via Ed Rendell.
Here is what was said on January 28, 2009:
“Philadelphia Inquirer Seeks Bailout”
This was from Media Research Center News Buster
(a decent link for this forum, btw). Full story here:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/stephen-gutowski/2009/01/28/philadelphia-inquirer-seeks-bailout
But the story twists anew on February 20, 2009 as the headline reads:
“Philadelphia Newspapers Not Seeking Government Bailout, Publisher Says”
Interestingly, this report comes from CNSNEWS.com,
an Internet competitor to newspapers.
This is a fascinating report:
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=43841
Two important things occurred in this one.
First, with closure of some Philly space at the Inquirer, an attempt was made to get the Rendell blessing to “rent or maybe buy” the space from the newspaper. This is along the lines of “Economic Development” that PA is so willing to do, to lure anybody to do anything in this state.
Bush Industries will make cabinets off Robison Road if the State of PA will build an access road, for example.
“How is that working out for you?”, says Dr. Phil.
Second, it is argued that Economic Development by the State, is akin to bailout when you finally slice the truth thin enough to be understood.
Newspapers in Europe are state subsidized.
One professor in Missouri suggests we “buffer” government and media if we go this route, but who among us believe that any “firewall” can not be breached somehow, someday, when needed.
So this story at P&T, conflicts all over the map, with the exception of the universal conclusion that government funding of media is NOT a good idea, when it comes to independent reporting on that same government.
There is a conflict of interest.
Credible firms, like the Rocky Mountain News, simply bow out as the jig is up and Internet wins. A bailout to them would make RMN equivalent to a high school newspaper heavily censored by the School District/Principal.
But Joel Natalie improves media immensely at P&T by leaving ALL comments on a story up on the wall as they occur, and are time stamped for accuracy of “what was known, and when did you know it” , ala Watergate days.
This entire column of opposing reports will end up in archives and be easily followed from beginning to end (which has yet to occur as the “bailout has not been done……but an ‘economic development” package is within the domain of Fast Eddie still).
The Governor is taking heat on the issue, but he is a lame duck and can do like Dick Cheney and reply to the citizens who complain: “So What!”……a reply to Martha Raddatz at ABC News by our illustrious VP, to her incredulity at his lack of response to the desires of citizens, to his administration’s Iraq Policy.
(If you believe Bush was President, start reading.
The book “Angler” is a good start.)
Dick knew best what the yokels needed to know.
Keep ALL comments up Joel. The integrity of such action allows truth to bubble to the top as people read how a point was derived.
It is also time we look at “Economic Development” and state funding at the whim of a governor, IN ADDITION to the dreaded “Bailout” monies.
The former was a way for states to fight one another, and corporations to play off state against state for jobs.
When the term for funds expired, the corporation played new states against each other. It is worse than a zero sum game, for each move is a loss for a state area repeatedly.
Bailouts are a cry for regulation, particularly the financial sector that shows illegal activity at all levels.
Finally, as true news shifts to the Internet, it is in forums like this, and comment areas in particular, that someone somewhere is going to add a new variable.
The truth is more likely to come out, for the news watchdogs are actually….. “The People”, as it should be.
Had Joel Natalie wiped out any comment as the story shifted, the story itself, would no longer be true.
Kudos to Natalie Media and its quest for truth and integrity.
Danny, thanks for the kudos.
I just need to explain a technical point that you may not realize when it comes to blogs. People that are on the “white list” with previously approved comments will appear more quickly than those who for whatever reason end up in the moderation queue.
So you can have the scenario of someone responding to another person’s comment, end up in the queue, I don’t see it right away because I have a life beyond blogging, meanwhile, the discussion makes a turn or new details are revealed, and the poor comment in the queue gets ripe (i.e. a little outdated).
However, the input and opinion retain their importance to the discourse.
Just FYI…
There was a story on various media outlets this week about a young fellow who committed an armed robbery against an older gentleman as the latter exited a public restroom. The older man turned out to be a retired police chief and he was there attending a convention of other lawmen. Naturally, the alleged perpetrator was apprehended shortly thereafter.
For the life of me, all I could think of was Ned McGrath’s “Loser of the Day” feature at the end of the 11PM News on WICU what seems to be so long, long, ago.