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

by: odum

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

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...