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Democratic gubernatorial primary: When Newspapers are their own worst enemies (Update)

by: odum

Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 15:56:15 PM EST

Update: Yay for the Valley News! They don't post their articles online, but they did cover the event and the issues discussed in their Sunday edition. Also yay for Shay Totten, who just took some time to process the event. Journalism lives after all.

Looking at the newspapers today, I see a semi-comprehensible piece on property taxes by Louis Porter in the Argus/Herald. Over at the Free Press, more on the story about cruelty at the Grand Isle slaughterhouse (hmm... sounds a little oxymoronic when I put it that way). From the look of the papers, I guess there was no political news from yesterday.

Well, unless you count the very first meeting of the Democratic candidates for Governor in a public forum in Randolph. You know, no biggie.

God, mother & country, this is freaking ridiculous. It's not like they didn't know it was happening. The Argus/Herald had a piece about the keynote speaker from the very conference that the candidate forum was headlining, apparently deciding that the Middlebury Professor's comments were the only newsworthy parts of a conference that featured Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, former Senator Matt Dunne, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Bartlett, and a proxy for Senator and former Lt. Governor Doug Racine essentially kicking off the full Democratic Party Primary for Governor.

But I'm sure they were all just there for the keynote too.

Yup, guardians of our right to know jack squat in action. There are already plenty of factors driving down sales that are out of newspapers' control without them needing to shoot themselves in the foot with vapid coverage decisions like this.

So where to turn if you want coverage of the biggest political news of the weekend? Where else - the internet - and no, I'm not talking about amateurs on blogs, I'm talking about the fledging online journalism site vtdigger.org. From professional journalist Anne Galloway:

Five Democratic candidates for governor answered questions about conservation, the Current Use program and renewable energy as part of a gubernatorial candidates' forum at the Environmental Action conference at Vermont Technical College in Randolph on Nov. 7, 2009.

Good for Galloway. She doesn't do any full on reporting here, but she notes the event and provides videos of each candidate addressing the potential primary voters.

As for the newspapers, it's editorial decisions like this that make their complaints and concerns about the decline of newspapers against the rise of online news sound like whining.

Now watch, because it may get worse, as I suspect this is the prelude to one of those electoral seasons where Dems could cure freaking cancer and not get press coverage while Republican Candidate Dubie will get front page adulation every time he blows his nose...

odum :: Democratic gubernatorial primary: When Newspapers are their own worst enemies (Update)

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Democratic gubernatorial primary: When Newspapers are their own worst enemies (Update) | 13 comments

Trying to keep up with 5 candidates is likely to stress their budgets ... (0.00 / 0)

after all, that means real people showing up for real events.

Their dollars are better spent retyping the police blotter, letters to the editor, obit entries and other pre-done work.

It's over at http://ramabahama.net ... only it's still under construction (but so is the rest of my life)

by: Rama Schneider @ Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 21:30:48 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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It was great being in that gym yesterday. (0.00 / 0)

To hear five people working that hard to convince a huge flock of environmentalists that each one was greener than the last really did my heart good! It reminded me why I choose every day to wake-up in Vermont rather than any place else in the country. For my money, the "proxy" for Doug Racine cleaned-up; but of course he isn't a candidate so I'm not sure what all that means.

Poor Susan Bartlett held-up valiantly, despite the fact that the whole thing went way over time and she ended-up with roughly half the talking time of the others. I think she was probably so burnt-out from listening by then that she had about all that she could manage; but she handled the questions well and gracefully, gamely ignoring the fact that a good portion of the audience had left by that point.

Deb Markowicz probably got the coolest reception, but that may have been at least in part because she followed Peter Shumlin who seemed to have a substantial cheering section for a pre-candidate.

Matt Dunne held well to his strong suite, technology; but he seemed to lose the thread a bit when he misunderstood a question from the audience and went down that jargon trail that politician's resort to when they have no idea what to say.

As one candidate observed, anyone on that stage would be a vast, vast improvement over Douglas...or Dubie, for that matter.

by: Sue Prent @ Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 21:56:00 PM UTC

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I was there, too and (0.00 / 0)

it's amazing that no one from the print media could find their way to the forum. All the candidates did a good job and all would be an incredible improvement over the current situation. Shumlin and Dunne seemed to me to be the most innovative thinkers - with the fire to carry through on implementation. Bartlett and Markowitz did fine jobs and both would be vastly better than what we've been living through. And Pat Parenteau was great! It's an embarrassment of riches - and embarassing that our print media didn't deem it newsworthy. I wonder why their readership is declining.

So now we have Anne Galloway with Vtdigger.com. That is excellent. More power to her.

by: Anne @ Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 00:48:20 AM UTC

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No Nasty (0.00 / 0)

What really turns on the print media is when the candidates snipe at each other, and so far all the candidates are mostly adhering to the goals stressed on GMD months ago: this is a job application process; show us what you've got, and never mind what someone else doesn't.

So far, so good. We'll see what the new year brings.

NanuqFC
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. ~ Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

by: NanuqFC @ Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 01:35:38 AM UTC

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But they weren't even there. (0.00 / 0)

The candidates could have gotten into a Jerry Springer style knock-down-drag-out for all the print media would know.

Nullius perfectus est

by: odum @ Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 01:39:51 AM UTC

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"Watch it will get worse' (4.00 / 1)

It already is worse .......From today's Times Argus

100th anniversary: Scouts honor veterans at annual parade
The parade, which began at the Barre Auditorium, was lead by Gov. James Douglas, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, State Auditor Tom Salmon and others.

by: BP @ Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 02:51:03 AM UTC

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Just read Shay Totten's piece (0.00 / 0)

and he did a nice comprehensive job of reporting. I'll have to check out the Valley News when I get a moment.

by: Sue Prent @ Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 18:04:12 PM UTC

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Whoops! posted in the wrong place. (0.00 / 0)