You know a story has reached its saturation point when Mike Klocke has to devote a column to defending The Record's coverage of it. Or did you forget the time he defended the ridiculous coverage of the 20th anniversary of the Cleveland school shooting a week before it hit newsstands?
This week, Mike Klocke does a better job than I did explaining how overwhelming the coverage has been. But apparently it's all OK, because they..umm.. he never really says. Well, besides the fact that Tracy's eating this shit up, and the Record's the only daily paper in Tracy.
17 out of 19 days the Cantu coverage has been front page news. I'd guess at least 10 of those stories didn't contain any actual news. But, beyond that point, no story should take up the front page for literally half a month. Especially one with as little information as this story has had. And on top of all that, the Record has (up until this column) pretty much ignored the fact that the Tracy Press scooped them big time with that Huckaby interview (not to mention they scooped Tracy PD).
All of that coverage of informationless press conferences and videos of outside the trailer park and all it took was a fucking phone call to break this case wide open. The Record's hurling every resource they have to try and generate pageviews and sell papers, that they're ignoring basic journalistic principles. You can shoot all the videos you want, follow the police department's every move, and even present live coverage of a memorial service, but it's all bullshit if you miss the fucking story.
It's not about Tracy as a community, it's not about some woman's mental health, it's definitely not about Tara fucking Cuslidge, and it's not about The Record and how they're better than other news outlets (mostly because they aren't). This story is about a little girl who was fucking abducted, possibly raped, and thrown into a irrigation ditch. And yet here I am writing about the state of journalism for the third fucking time in relation to this story. Why? Because the Record decided to go the sensationalist route and tackle every single angle to this story but the one that mattered. You may remember it, it's the one about a dead little girl.
Luckily, while the Record was using this as an apparent exercise in the future of journalism, a 22-year old reporter (22!?) named Jennifer Wadsworth was practicing the present journalism not only broke an honest to God story, she broke the fucking case open. Of course you may have missed that amongst the stories of barbecues, useless videos, and Twitter feeds of questionable taste.
And that's why my bullshit meter is broken. Because when you cut through it all, the Record's coverage of this story has been exactly like that of the national outlets Klocke was so ready to deride yesterday. The local touch is bullshit, because the Record didn't use the local touch. They used the jackhammer so often used in national coverage. And in doing so they neglected the most basic principle of journalism, getting information to the people. Which, in hindsight might actually make them worse than Nancy Grace. I don't expect shit from her, she couldn't find Tracy on a map. The Record on the other hand should know better, they do cover Tracy all the time after all. Which is why Mike Klocke's entire column Sunday was bullshit.
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Monday, April 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Here's what we missed...
Sometime we get busy around here and stories fall through the cracks. Here's a couple stories that we missed (including one from today!) in a feature I'm pretty sure we call What We Missed.
Sarcasm only works in writing when the author is good at both writing and sarcasm. Don Blount isn't good at either
Bad sarcasm aside, let's move to the most important part. Where Don Blount comes from, a group of armed dudes wearing similar clothing patrolling the seedier areas of town in their cars is called the Klan. But we're not in where Don Blount comes from. We're in where Slick Diaz comes from. And where I come from, a group of armed dudes wearing similar clothing patrolling dangerous areas in their cars are called fucking GANGS.
What's that? They can't be because they're old and white? Racist!
Situations like the one surrounding the formation of the SAM are the exact same situations gangs are formed. Community members feel abandoned by the people meant to protect them so they take the law into their own hands and protect themselves and their community. Sound familiar? That's because that's exactly what the SAM is doing. And it's also how the gangs they're so hot to combat got started too.
While we can appreciate what Blount was going for, even if the entire column was borderline unreadable, likening the SAM to the Ku Klux Klan is just short sighted for multiple reasons. The biggest one being the fact that the Klan is such a lightening rod of hate that whatever argument Blount was trying to make (no matter how valid) was lost because people see the word "Klan" and go into some sort of knee jerk defense mode. Which (surprise!) is exactly what happened.
A much much much much much much (much much much ) better choice of words would have been to liken them to gangs. Or, if Blount was really set on comparing them to another group of white people, old timey gangsters. You know, the Godfather kind. Those gangs/families also formed to protect their neglected immigrant community. Sure, they're glorified now in movies and on TV, but it's still better than conjuring up images of the KKK. Doing that's almost as bad an idea as patrolling the dangerous streets of Stockton with loaded weapons and no training.
Irony alert!
While Tara Cuslidge writing about her old journalism teacher getting an award seems somewhat conflict of interesty, it's overshadowed by the hilarity of a column preaching diversity in journalism appearing in the Record. We'd outline the Record's history in diversity but if you've been reading this site (or even just the Record for that matter) you know the Record caters to one group and one group alone, rich old white people.
Ok fine, you want an example. How about the ridiculous over-coverage of minor league hockey while a popular Latino fighter spends the weekend earning a decisive victory over one of his sport's legends and only gets two paragraphs in a sports round up?
Or how about the fact that nobody's flipping out about the Cougars actually leaving town but everybody's shitting themselves over the Thunder just being put up for sale?
Or, you know, spending 2 weeks covering that Cantu case even though there was about 2 days worth of information released? Or the Record's apparent decision that the local music scene wasn't worth it and that Ian Hill was better suited standing outside a courthouse shooting video of an uninformative press conference.
And then there's always the fact that if you're a non-athlete above 17 and under 50 the only way you're getting in the paper is sending something to myRecord, while Lori Gilbert regularly writes about old people for doing shit like waiting tables and not dying (except for that one woman who actually died).
So yeah, it's ironic that the Record is writing about diversity when it's anything but. Hilarious, ain't it?
Sarcasm only works in writing when the author is good at both writing and sarcasm. Don Blount isn't good at either
Bad sarcasm aside, let's move to the most important part. Where Don Blount comes from, a group of armed dudes wearing similar clothing patrolling the seedier areas of town in their cars is called the Klan. But we're not in where Don Blount comes from. We're in where Slick Diaz comes from. And where I come from, a group of armed dudes wearing similar clothing patrolling dangerous areas in their cars are called fucking GANGS.
What's that? They can't be because they're old and white? Racist!
Situations like the one surrounding the formation of the SAM are the exact same situations gangs are formed. Community members feel abandoned by the people meant to protect them so they take the law into their own hands and protect themselves and their community. Sound familiar? That's because that's exactly what the SAM is doing. And it's also how the gangs they're so hot to combat got started too.
While we can appreciate what Blount was going for, even if the entire column was borderline unreadable, likening the SAM to the Ku Klux Klan is just short sighted for multiple reasons. The biggest one being the fact that the Klan is such a lightening rod of hate that whatever argument Blount was trying to make (no matter how valid) was lost because people see the word "Klan" and go into some sort of knee jerk defense mode. Which (surprise!) is exactly what happened.
A much much much much much much (much much much ) better choice of words would have been to liken them to gangs. Or, if Blount was really set on comparing them to another group of white people, old timey gangsters. You know, the Godfather kind. Those gangs/families also formed to protect their neglected immigrant community. Sure, they're glorified now in movies and on TV, but it's still better than conjuring up images of the KKK. Doing that's almost as bad an idea as patrolling the dangerous streets of Stockton with loaded weapons and no training.
Irony alert!
While Tara Cuslidge writing about her old journalism teacher getting an award seems somewhat conflict of interesty, it's overshadowed by the hilarity of a column preaching diversity in journalism appearing in the Record. We'd outline the Record's history in diversity but if you've been reading this site (or even just the Record for that matter) you know the Record caters to one group and one group alone, rich old white people.
Ok fine, you want an example. How about the ridiculous over-coverage of minor league hockey while a popular Latino fighter spends the weekend earning a decisive victory over one of his sport's legends and only gets two paragraphs in a sports round up?
Or how about the fact that nobody's flipping out about the Cougars actually leaving town but everybody's shitting themselves over the Thunder just being put up for sale?
Or, you know, spending 2 weeks covering that Cantu case even though there was about 2 days worth of information released? Or the Record's apparent decision that the local music scene wasn't worth it and that Ian Hill was better suited standing outside a courthouse shooting video of an uninformative press conference.
And then there's always the fact that if you're a non-athlete above 17 and under 50 the only way you're getting in the paper is sending something to myRecord, while Lori Gilbert regularly writes about old people for doing shit like waiting tables and not dying (except for that one woman who actually died).
So yeah, it's ironic that the Record is writing about diversity when it's anything but. Hilarious, ain't it?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Is that you Clyde? Seriously, this isn't cool! I'm the symbol this town needs! Not you!
Yesterday in the Quick Links I relayed the story of a proposed group of vigilantes that would "activate" (their words, not mine) if the city were to lay off 43 police officers this summer. Everybody and their mothers agreed that it was a horrible idea... ok, well everybody with a brain did (oh, and Mike Fitzgerald). Others called in to say "I have a death wish! Sign me up!" Which really wasn't that surprising.
What was surprising was that somebody called up to say they had that idea already. No really, they even have uniforms. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Angels of Christ (Ok, technically it's given by David Siders). They are by far the most depressing militia of all time.
They're run by (or at least represented by) Martin Hernandez of Stockton who decided to protest the proposed layoffs of at least 43 of Stockton's finest. Because, you know, the city wants to lay those officers off.
As if that uniform (which if our knowledge of all things Olden Polynice is correct, can't be legal) wasn't depressing enough, this group comes complete with delusions of grandeur!
From Siders' blog:
"Hernandez said there are 16 people in his group and that he has detained perhaps 20 people in three months for the Stockton Police Department to arrest."
Oh, so their working with Stockton PD. I wonder what they have to say about this uptick in vigilantism.
"Officer Pete Smith, a department spokesman, said, 'I’ve never heard of Angels of Christ.'"
Hmmm, that seems to directly contradict Hernandez's comment. Do they just drop criminals off on the Police Department's stoop? Surely they have more training than the Stockton Armed Militia.
"Hernandez said he learned in Sacramento 10 years ago how to arrest people and use weapons"
Oh, well that's in no way comforting. Nothing says "safety" like 10 year old detainment tactics. At the very least they're a bunch of big guys. You know, like bouncers or something. Somebody imposing looking and this disheveled, unemployed man is just their spokesperson.
"Hernandez, of Angels of Christ, is at the podium... He is introducing Sandra, who he said is also an Angel of Christ."
Aww, isn't that adorable. They let women into their group. Sandra must be some sort of Amazon woman if she can hang with the AoC.
"Sandra said she is a teenager."
What. The. Fuck. Fucking teenagers!?
So let me get this straight. Stockton's proposing laying off upwards of 90 police officers and the residents of our fair city come back with multiple vigilante groups patrolling the streets with one involving teenage girls? Seriously!? This is the best fucking idea we can come up with?
I hate to sound like an elitist (that's Fitzy's schtick) but this is why we have our current government structure. The residents of Stockton can never eeeeeeeeever bitch about the horrible ideas presented by the City Council again. Sure, some of them may present silly ideas like declaring bankruptcy. But that idea pales in comparison to having an armed, overmatched group of vigilantes roaming the most dangerous areas of Stockton or replacing sworn officers with sad-looking dudes and teenagers. Hell, compared to impending vigilante warfare declaring bankruptcy looks like as good an idea as a Scarlett Johannsen topless scene.
Sadly, the national media is picking up on these stories. They love to exploit crazy people apparently. In the previously linked Fitzy article the World's dumbest attorney Ron Stein said he had an appointment his morning to talk to the Associated Press. Great, because if there's one thing Stockton needs it's more negative press. Is it too early to start drinking bourbon?
What was surprising was that somebody called up to say they had that idea already. No really, they even have uniforms. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Angels of Christ (Ok, technically it's given by David Siders). They are by far the most depressing militia of all time.
They're run by (or at least represented by) Martin Hernandez of Stockton who decided to protest the proposed layoffs of at least 43 of Stockton's finest. Because, you know, the city wants to lay those officers off.
As if that uniform (which if our knowledge of all things Olden Polynice is correct, can't be legal) wasn't depressing enough, this group comes complete with delusions of grandeur!
From Siders' blog:
"Hernandez said there are 16 people in his group and that he has detained perhaps 20 people in three months for the Stockton Police Department to arrest."
Oh, so their working with Stockton PD. I wonder what they have to say about this uptick in vigilantism.
"Officer Pete Smith, a department spokesman, said, 'I’ve never heard of Angels of Christ.'"
Hmmm, that seems to directly contradict Hernandez's comment. Do they just drop criminals off on the Police Department's stoop? Surely they have more training than the Stockton Armed Militia.
"Hernandez said he learned in Sacramento 10 years ago how to arrest people and use weapons"
Oh, well that's in no way comforting. Nothing says "safety" like 10 year old detainment tactics. At the very least they're a bunch of big guys. You know, like bouncers or something. Somebody imposing looking and this disheveled, unemployed man is just their spokesperson.
"Hernandez, of Angels of Christ, is at the podium... He is introducing Sandra, who he said is also an Angel of Christ."
Aww, isn't that adorable. They let women into their group. Sandra must be some sort of Amazon woman if she can hang with the AoC.
"Sandra said she is a teenager."
What. The. Fuck. Fucking teenagers!?
So let me get this straight. Stockton's proposing laying off upwards of 90 police officers and the residents of our fair city come back with multiple vigilante groups patrolling the streets with one involving teenage girls? Seriously!? This is the best fucking idea we can come up with?
I hate to sound like an elitist (that's Fitzy's schtick) but this is why we have our current government structure. The residents of Stockton can never eeeeeeeeever bitch about the horrible ideas presented by the City Council again. Sure, some of them may present silly ideas like declaring bankruptcy. But that idea pales in comparison to having an armed, overmatched group of vigilantes roaming the most dangerous areas of Stockton or replacing sworn officers with sad-looking dudes and teenagers. Hell, compared to impending vigilante warfare declaring bankruptcy looks like as good an idea as a Scarlett Johannsen topless scene.
Sadly, the national media is picking up on these stories. They love to exploit crazy people apparently. In the previously linked Fitzy article the World's dumbest attorney Ron Stein said he had an appointment his morning to talk to the Associated Press. Great, because if there's one thing Stockton needs it's more negative press. Is it too early to start drinking bourbon?
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The only time I'll probably ever partially agree with Lori Gilbert. Ever.
If you don't know what subject/story I'm tackling today, then you must be very new to the site. Hi, I'm El Duke. Nice to meet you. Now everybody please turn to Page A2. Yes, for one Lori Gilbert's not writing about old, dying people. She's writing about an old, dying profession.
Ok, I'm kidding of course. Journalism isn't dying. There will always be a need for someone to chronicle the events of our time. I could spend the next many paragraphs talking about how journalism is a job of passion, how you don't become a writer for the money, that you could work tirelessly for 10 years and then all of the sudden you're back at square one and I probably will get to that. But first I have to point out a couple of things from Gilbert's column.
First and foremost, Bill Davis' Mass Comm class isn't always full because of the quality of the class. While it is a fantastic class that I really enjoyed taking and would suggest to all of my friends, the reason it's always at it's 50-student limit is because it's a prerequisite or fairly easy elective for multiple degrees.
If you want to see the true interest in the profession of journalism you have to look to Mass Comm 2. A class that I tried to take multiple times but only actually took once because the class was never full enough to actually warrant having the class. Or look at the Impact/Collegian, when I was there the class never really topped 20 people. Again, that's not an indictment of Davis' ability. I credit the man with reenergizing my passion for journalism, but to present the Mass Comm class size as an example of the droves of kids who are essentially screwed if they're set on being in print is misleading at best.
Also in the Delta vein, we've heard whispers of a rumor that the Collegian might actually be going under. Possibly to become a club instead of a class. None of us really felt like running with it since rumors aren't really our thing, but if we've heard the rumor there's a good chance others have. I hate to break it to you guys, but we don't exactly have super secret inside sources. If we hear something, chances are everybody's heard it. So if you're doing to do a column about the sad state of print journalism, and you're interviewing the advisor and writers for a paper that's being dogged by rumors of shutting down, you should probably ask them about that. And probably mention it in your column.
Another thing, and this is just me nitpicking really, if you're going to mention the Pacifican (UOP's student newspaper) in the Record, it's probably a good idea to mention that it's Editor in Chief Devon Blount is the daughter of Shit seeer, January Rube of the Month and Record Managing Editor Don Blount. Granted Gilbert didn't quote her or anything, but some disclosure may have been necessary.
Now that I've gotten those out of the way I'm going to do something I never thought I'd do. Say something nice about something Lori Gilbert wrote. In the end she gets it right. While it's a scary time for any profession economically, in the end it boils down to passion. Nobody, I repeat, nobody gets into journalism for the money. Even before the recession, unless you're Bill Simmons or Rick Reilly you ain't gettin' paid shit. If you become a writer it's because you love writing. Hell, I can't even explain why I love doing this shit. I just do. And while everybody wants to talk gloom and doom about ad sales and readership plummeting and all the other shit, at the end of the day even the staunchest of newspaper supporters has to agree this is an exciting as shit time to be in the journalism field.
Look, I understand where all the old, crusty newspaper people are coming from. Shit's been the same forever and they don't want to change now. I get it, change can be scary. Especially because those changes could possibly mean losing their jobs. But, for those willing to learn, for those really into journalism for the love of it I can't think of a better time to be around. People debate the journalistic integrity of self-publishing, the lack of oversight, blogs whatever the fuck you want to call it but they're most people in that discussion miss the bigger picture. We're redefining journalism right now. It's truly becoming a multimedia field. Instead of being handcuffed to the print medium or to TV or radio, the world is a journalist's oyster. If you can't get excited by that, you're in it for the wrong reasons.
So while it's easy to ask why somebody would possibly push someone towards a field with such an initially bleak outlook, anybody with a true passion for the field of journalism can't help but be even a little bit exciting about the prospects for the future. Which I guess in the end means I disagree with Lori Gilbert (whew, all is right with the world). We shouldn't be asking "How could teachers push someone towards this profession" because why wouldn't they want to? It's one of the best times to be journalist...as long as you don't mind not making any money.
Ok, I'm kidding of course. Journalism isn't dying. There will always be a need for someone to chronicle the events of our time. I could spend the next many paragraphs talking about how journalism is a job of passion, how you don't become a writer for the money, that you could work tirelessly for 10 years and then all of the sudden you're back at square one and I probably will get to that. But first I have to point out a couple of things from Gilbert's column.
First and foremost, Bill Davis' Mass Comm class isn't always full because of the quality of the class. While it is a fantastic class that I really enjoyed taking and would suggest to all of my friends, the reason it's always at it's 50-student limit is because it's a prerequisite or fairly easy elective for multiple degrees.
If you want to see the true interest in the profession of journalism you have to look to Mass Comm 2. A class that I tried to take multiple times but only actually took once because the class was never full enough to actually warrant having the class. Or look at the Impact/Collegian, when I was there the class never really topped 20 people. Again, that's not an indictment of Davis' ability. I credit the man with reenergizing my passion for journalism, but to present the Mass Comm class size as an example of the droves of kids who are essentially screwed if they're set on being in print is misleading at best.
Also in the Delta vein, we've heard whispers of a rumor that the Collegian might actually be going under. Possibly to become a club instead of a class. None of us really felt like running with it since rumors aren't really our thing, but if we've heard the rumor there's a good chance others have. I hate to break it to you guys, but we don't exactly have super secret inside sources. If we hear something, chances are everybody's heard it. So if you're doing to do a column about the sad state of print journalism, and you're interviewing the advisor and writers for a paper that's being dogged by rumors of shutting down, you should probably ask them about that. And probably mention it in your column.
Another thing, and this is just me nitpicking really, if you're going to mention the Pacifican (UOP's student newspaper) in the Record, it's probably a good idea to mention that it's Editor in Chief Devon Blount is the daughter of Shit seeer, January Rube of the Month and Record Managing Editor Don Blount. Granted Gilbert didn't quote her or anything, but some disclosure may have been necessary.
Now that I've gotten those out of the way I'm going to do something I never thought I'd do. Say something nice about something Lori Gilbert wrote. In the end she gets it right. While it's a scary time for any profession economically, in the end it boils down to passion. Nobody, I repeat, nobody gets into journalism for the money. Even before the recession, unless you're Bill Simmons or Rick Reilly you ain't gettin' paid shit. If you become a writer it's because you love writing. Hell, I can't even explain why I love doing this shit. I just do. And while everybody wants to talk gloom and doom about ad sales and readership plummeting and all the other shit, at the end of the day even the staunchest of newspaper supporters has to agree this is an exciting as shit time to be in the journalism field.
Look, I understand where all the old, crusty newspaper people are coming from. Shit's been the same forever and they don't want to change now. I get it, change can be scary. Especially because those changes could possibly mean losing their jobs. But, for those willing to learn, for those really into journalism for the love of it I can't think of a better time to be around. People debate the journalistic integrity of self-publishing, the lack of oversight, blogs whatever the fuck you want to call it but they're most people in that discussion miss the bigger picture. We're redefining journalism right now. It's truly becoming a multimedia field. Instead of being handcuffed to the print medium or to TV or radio, the world is a journalist's oyster. If you can't get excited by that, you're in it for the wrong reasons.
So while it's easy to ask why somebody would possibly push someone towards a field with such an initially bleak outlook, anybody with a true passion for the field of journalism can't help but be even a little bit exciting about the prospects for the future. Which I guess in the end means I disagree with Lori Gilbert (whew, all is right with the world). We shouldn't be asking "How could teachers push someone towards this profession" because why wouldn't they want to? It's one of the best times to be journalist...as long as you don't mind not making any money.
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