Mining the gaps at vtdigger.org

I just (4.00 / 1)

visited VTdigger for the first time.

I was suprised to see a piece from the VT Chamber on the front page.  This piece had already appeared in various papers around the state and was offered with no commentary from the editor(s).  Seems to me the Chamber has ample access to MSM so why should an "alternative" web site give them more exposure?  This does not seem to be a case of mining a gap in VT news coverage.

Having said that, I wish them well (and left a response to Betsy Bishop's piece).

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by: Doug Hoffer @ Tue Dec 08, 2009 at 21:01:02 PM UTC

I dont think she'd accept the term "alternative" (0.00 / 0)

Great day to send traffic from GMD-- Dubie and Bishop on the front page with opinion pieces. We did talk a bit about "unfiltering" -- presenting press releases and such as "raw material."  They may cordon off a section of the site for such material or have them disappear altogether as the interactive newsgathering pieces get up and running.

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by: Randolph06 @ Wed Dec 09, 2009 at 02:20:03 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Budget Narrative Bias? (4.00 / 3)

I was dismayed to hear on this video that Anne Galloway, whose work I have admired, has apparently absorbed the Republican budget narrative.

At 4:58 on this interview, she says "at a time when the budget is going to have to be slashed," in the context of preserving environmental priorities.

Perhaps I'm being naive but it seems to me there are choices to be made, and "slashing" is only one of them, as Doug Hoffer -- and, I might add, Doug Racine -- have said before. Just last Friday night, Doug Racine proposed dealing with the major budget deficit of $80 million and counting by a combination of budget cutting (or, as Shap Smith put it, "restructuring government"), using perhaps half of the "rainy day fund," and short-term income tax increases, with more coming from those most able to pay.

The Republicans are going to hammer on slashing services (although they will likely call them "expenses") while targeting services for abused children and elders (including inspections of senior care facilities), folks who need mental health assistance, who knows, perhaps even the DMV (everything except the Administration's budget, the handful of Auditor cronies who got raises recently, and the governor's 14 spokesmodels),  to balance the budget.

It is unfortunate that Anne used such one-sided and partisan language. I expected better.

NanuqFC
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. ~ Edmund Burke (1729-1797, Irish philosopher & statesman)

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by: NanuqFC @ Wed Dec 09, 2009 at 01:19:45 AM UTC

I edited (0.00 / 0)

a couple minutes out shortly after she made that point. She got more specific to the cost of VTYankee in this budget environment, but I dont think anything she said contradicts your point.

I usually dont edit but we ran long. Whenever I have to cut I feel like I'm somehow misrepresenting the guest and I dont know how they do it in the pro world. But that's what they do, media mediates.  

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by: Randolph06 @ Wed Dec 09, 2009 at 13:39:21 PM UTC

[ Parent ]