There’s a sense in which media blogs are dangerous things. One of the reasons for the success of the blogosphere (political and otherwise) is it’s personal, often matter-of-fact communication paradigm. Blog entries are conversational, informal, and inevitably (whether intended or not) relay a sense of the person (or at least their “internet side”). Blogs are, after all, online personal journals in which some of us like to wax political, and some just want to discuss their Star Wars memorabilia.
This creates a challenge for traditional media outlets who want a piece of that blogosphere action and send their journalists into the fray. Journalists are supposed to have a professional detatchment from their subjects, but professional detatchment is the very antithesis of political blogspeak. Certainly there are other times when journalists are systemically encouraged to either editorialize, or make full blown ideological crusaders of themselves. One could even say that’s the zeitgeist.
But put a beat reporter in that position and things are different. The Vermont political press corps are all blogging these days, potentially providing uncomfortable (but illuminating) views into their own biases and thereby inviting everything from speculation as to whether or not these biases inevitably creep into their reporting, to full-blown criticism.
Well, invitation accepted. I give you Burlington Free Press reporter Terri Hallenbeck and her apparent distaste for Freshman Representative Peter Welch (continued on the flip).
I rather like Hallenbeck’s writing and have told her so via email. By all accounts she is a pleasant person. But I don’t think that gets her off the hook for being called out when her biases show. At vtbuzz (the Freeps political newsblog), I did a quick, cursory review of the last several times she’s mentioned Peter Welch in her blog because I (and others) had begun to detect a pattern.
From her most recent Welch-referring post.
The New York Times story on the bill includes a photo of the Greening the U.S. Capitol news conference depicting part of Rep. Peter Welch?s head behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The post is a mildly smirking dismissal of the presence of Welch during a presentation on what has been his signature issue of choice. No big deal, right? Just a gentle poke.
This is the the Welch mention before that…
The speaker mentioned Welch a couple times during the news conference, Welch spokesman Andrew Savage said. Pelosi’s own news release on the same event, however, doesn’t mention Welch. Not even when she refers to plans for the House to purchase carbon offsets, as Welch did for his office earlier this year.
He gets a little recognition, but not quite that much.
Ooo. More than a little poke. Outright mockery. Very much in keeping with the personality-driven writing of a blog, but is this appropriate for a journalist on the political beat?
And before that…
This time Welch says he wants to hear from constituents about the issues that matter to them. There’s a card you can tear off, fill out and send in ranking your issues. It’s about constituent services, which are after all the number one purpose of a member of Congress.
Don’t kid yourself, though, it’s also about getting re-elected.
We’re clearly beyond “just the facts,” and with three consecutive mentions, we’re into the territory of a pattern. Look, the postcard made me roll my eyes as well, but is it really Hallenbeck’s job to interpret the news for us?
And if you think it is, it’s worth noting that there is a stack of interpretations piling up that put the freshman Representative in a poor light. In what light, then, should we be reading Hallenbeck’s coverage of Welch in the Free Press?
Continuing in order, we finally come to a reference that does not contain any personal or political characterization:
Barre was teeming with politicians last weekend. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders made their way across the stage at the Barre Opera House. So did Rep. Peter Welch and Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon.
But the next one, again, subtley smacks of eye rolling, with it’s “little splash” comment...
Peter Welch, made a little splash earlier this year by establishing the first carbon-neutral congressional office.
It’s impossible not to notice the narrative Hallenbeck is setting in regards to Welch. Still, you may say, maybe it’s just her style. Maybe we should compare her blog references to other political figures.
Well, I did.
The last several references to Jim Douglas range from the “cute” like this:
As we learned from their previous video, these kids have got a knack for this stuff, but I would pay money to hear Gov. Jim Douglas deliver a counteracting rap video.
…to the incidental, like this…:
The governor has indicated that just removing the Vermont Yankee tax won’t be enough to buy his love on the energy bill.
…and this rather glowing one…:
When Gov. Jim Douglas took his Vermont delegation to China on a trade mission this week, the Shanghai bureau chief of Forbes magazine took special interest. Russell Flannery grew up in Rutland and is a 1981 graduate of the University of Vermont. He’s been a journalist in Asia since 1991.
Flannery took the occasion to interview Douglas. His story appeared today on Forbes.com. You can read the article “Catamount strokes The Dragon” HERE.
He notes Douglas’ success in landing a meeting with Shanghai’s mayor.
All very different, and in more of a matter-of-fact style, in which Hallenbeck generally invites commentary on the news rather than the newsmaker, as she does through her characterizations of Welch. In fact the only one that breaks that reverse pattern with Douglas is this one regarding the back and forth on the scuttled meeting between Legislative leaders and the Governor over H.520:
Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin puts out a news release announcing his willingness to compromise rather than just telling the governor. He cites as a reason for this that that’s how he learned of the governor’s plan. Seventh-grader: “He hit me first.”
Gov. Jim Douglas cancels a meeting with Shumlin because he doesn’t like Shumlin’s behavior.
(And yes, it’s hard not to notice that while she takes them both to task, it is Shumlin she specifically characterizes as a child, even though it was Douglas cancelled the meeting).
A further glance at references to Sanders and Leahy revealed no such pattern of negative characterization or narrative-building.
Regular commenters have noticed the pattern as well, going so far as to tease Hallenbeck about whether or not she is building a narrative to run against Welch herself.
Now, I don’t presume to know why she has an issue with Welch. Some may conclude that she identifies more with Republicans (she certainly seems to bend over backwards to counter the Douglas Administration’s thinly veiled suggestion that the H.520 meeting was cancelled because she was giving Shumlin too much attention. Rather than nervously explain herself in public, she could have taken offense as a journalist at the Governor’s crude scapegoating). Or perhaps she identifies with Dems and is overcompensating to avoid the dreaded “liberal bias” charge. Maybe she just doesn’t like Peter Welch.
Frankly I don’t care. What matters is that she clearly has developed an unflattering narrative of all things Welch, and she has no qualms about putting it out on her blog for web surfers to plainly see.
The question, then, is whether it also comes out in her reporting in a manner that’s perhaps a little less plain to see.
