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anti-press ezine 1998 09 05
ANTI-PRESS EZINE #01
(C) Copyright 1998 Anti-Press
You may reproduce this ezine free of charge as long as proper credit and
copyright notice appear with each copy. Brief passages may be quoted
for the purposes of review or class discussion in Journalism 101. If
you don't respect our intellectual property, we will use our intellect
to hunt you down and kick your ass into a bloody pulp.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WHAT THE FUG IS ANTI-PRESS?
Originally this ezine was a hardcopy edition that was distributed
locally. Its focus was on the negative aspects of print journalism as
demonstrated by the neighborhood fishwrap, the Plattsburgh
Press-Republican. A local "groovy" establishment allowed us to leave
free copies to enlighten its customers-- until its owner sold out and
was sucked in into sharecropping his mind for the P-R.
Looking over our material we decided that while we talked about the
Press- Republican in particular, we were also pointing out problems that
must exist at other newspapers, maybe even your own local rag. So we
are posting this on The Net and are waiting to see if anyone else is out
there with their own journalistic horror stories to tell. Believe it or
not, we are pro- journalism-- good journalism, that is. But to call
this ezine Anti-Bad- Journalism-- hey, we can't be THAT precise. And
why should we when the local fishwrap uses the word "comtempt" [SIC] in
a headline?
You can email us at Antipress1@aol.com with your praises and brickbats.
Just keep in mind we're a small operation; we're not funded by a
well-financed news chain which is able to afford a professional
proofreader. We're not "perfekt"-- but we are better.
SO WHAT THE FUG IS PLATTSBURGH, NY?
Plattsburgh is an overgrown town masquerading as a city. Located near
the Canadian border, the "Burg" is sixty miles south of Montreal.
Recently the Canadian dollar dropped to the value of Monopoly money
(which it resembles) and so local shopping and tourism has suffered.
Now the main local sources of income are prisons, paper mills, and
Welfare checks.
There used to be an Air Force Base here but that closed before a
hotdogger jet pilot could crash his FB-111 into downtown. (Note to our
Russian readers: please advise your government-- whatever it may be this
week-- to retarget all those ICBMs aimed at Plattsburgh and just point
them at Montreal before the Canadian dollar rebounds and we're up to our
necks again with rude French Canadians.)
Plattsburgh also boasts a state college swollen with pimply-faced
nitwits-- as well as students who have skin problems.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WE NO BE THOUSE PLATTSBURGH
PRESS-REPUBLICAN
Years ago an editor from the Press-Republican appeared on a local TV
station to discuss the operations of his newspaper. He talked about a
sign that hung on the wall at the old offices of the P-R: "We're not the
New York Times."
Accordingly, the editor explained, his paper didn't take it upon itself
to be the New York Times.
Of course, when you have a near monopoly in the local market-- there's
no serious competition from another major paper-- you can be as bad as
you want. As long as advertisers keep funneling in the $, you can
publish semi-readable fishwrap and still make a profit.
Case in point: Where's the proofreader?
Recently this sentence appeared in a P-R editorial about the Plattsburgh
Airbase Redevelopment Corp.: "We'll hold tight on this one, too, and
we'll eventually get thouse housing units, just like the lakefront."
Thouse? How Shakespearean. But here in the North Country we say d'em,
d'ose, and d'ere housing units.
How about this headline: "Cosby Give Warning." Hey, Bro, P-R be
ebonics.
I could cite other examples-- like a headline being repeated twice on
page 2-- but enough bandwidth has already been wasted on the P-R and its
grade- school abuse of the English language.
Anyway, Anti-Press is basically a subjective rant-rag out to provoke
some thinking. The "Press" in our name refers to mainstream newspapers.
"Anti-" in our name means we're against the image of the average
newspaper that claims to Objectively Report the Truth while in fact it's
answerable to others like advertisers, politicians, and stockholders.
Since there's no advertising, we can say almost anything we want within
the fair boundaries of Free Speech.
Of course, this assumes that more A-P issues are created. And whether
or not that happens depends upon you and the feedback this ezine gets.
CITY PLANTS MORE VICTIMS
Plattsburgh (A-P) Stupidity compounds stupidity.
In a vain effort to compete with the malls outside its limits, the city
of Plattsburgh years ago narrowed its main street, Margaret, to put in
wide sidewalks accented by trees. This was to attract more retail
business downtown.
Downtown died and so did the trees.
What really screwed up downtown was making Margaret Street one way.
This made it easier to give directions to the malls. ("Just go to the
next corner, turn right and head east.")
Some common sense seemed to prevail lately with Margaret Street being
converted back to two way traffic. The old ways worked best. The next
step should've been to tear up the wide-empty sidewalks and return
Margaret to its original state with plenty of room to drive and park, no
more squeeze plays.
But here in P-burgh common sense only goes so far until stupidity
dominates once again.
Did you know in the Olden Days there was a dynamite factory in
Plattsburgh? It blew up. So what did the City Fathers do? They let it
rebuild. And, of course, it blew up again. The City Fathers finally
saw the handwriting blasted on their walls and had the dynamite factory
leave.
Some mistakes have to be repeated. Instead of tearing up the
widely-useless sidewalks, the city is making sure they have to stay in
place by planting more trees. Didn't they learn from before? How long
before these new trees die from drunkenly rowdy, limb-ripping students
and the road salt needed to keep the streets driveable in the winter?
Our advice: Plant dynamite instead. Blow away past mistakes.
A PIERCING OBSERVATION
Speaking of dynamite, there's a documented case of a laborer who was
workin' for the railroad when an accidental blast drove a metal spike
into his head, just below his eye in the cheekbone area. He lived after
the spike was removed.
We see today's youth running around with all sorts of bodily punctures
to wear cheap metal jewelry that a carnival geek would pass on. We must
admit some of it is notable: right through a tongue or an eyebrow.
But if you really want to impress us, get a rail spike pierced into your
head. Of course, that railroad laborer we mentioned had all sorts of
mental problems after his accident, but, hey, with the way you act,
who's going to notice?
P-R: HOLIER THAN "THOUSE"
Once upon a time a Press-Republican editorial explained how they handle
reports of illegal activity. The P-R's policy is that everyone gets the
same treatment, i.e. even if one of their own gets in trouble the paper
will print the details, including the Police Log.
We are skeptical about this claim. Most organizations that deal with
other organizations must at times "go along" to "get along". Trade-offs
must be made. It seems that the average newspaper must occasionally
make a trade-off or business becomes difficult. Maybe the local police
department needs the paper to sit on a story until an investigation is
ended. And maybe an editor at that paper gets in trouble or has a
relative who runs afoul of the Law (e.g. getting pinched for DWI) and so
the PD in turn sits on it. Now the paper can say there is no official
report of the incident and so doesn't print it.
Do such things occur locally? We don't know. And we usually wouldn't
care, but when a newspaper makes the statement "we'll report the bad
even on one of our own", then such an extraordinary claim needs
extraordinary proof.
There has been a series of incidents in our region about a distraught
father who claims his son was murdered and that the police in his
community are doing nothing about it. We don't know the validity of the
man's claim of a "cover- up" but he has been in some scrapes with the
law that point to the passion of his belief.
The P-R has covered the story of this upset dad against the system. And
with all the articles printed, not once was it mentioned that the man
was once employed by the Press-Republican, a reporter complete with
by-line and photo. Yet, when a local teacher was accused of shoplifting
a while back, the P-R had to put in all the details, mentioning the
individual's position with a teachers union, even though that fact had
no bearing on the charge. Of course, with its anti-union attitude, this
doesn't surprise us. (Anti-union? Talk to a former employee in the
P-R's composing department who got such a sweet deal from management
when the "cost-effective" and "superior" computer system was installed.
Out on the street, beating around for a new job. He ain't going to be
retiring after 25 years with a gold watch presented to him by a grateful
manager of the Press-Republican.)
The whole issue of skeletons in the P-R's closet came into focus when
Channel 5/WPTZ-TV reported on the claim by a former route
driver/deliveryman for the Press who said he was cheated out of his
overtime. The driver claimed there was funny business going on with
time cards, mileage expense vouchers, and social security numbers.
Nothing about this was mentioned in the P-R until 2/5/97. It seems the
P-R didn't like a rival news organization trying to peer into its
closet. P-R ran an article, "Press probing claims of payroll
improprieties", that oddly enough didn't have a reporter's by-line.
This article-- which reads as if carefully written with a lawyer's
oversight-- had quotes by General Manager Daniel Swift. Swift stated
the former route driver's claims on Ch. 5 were "a rehash of a
four-year-old charge by a disgruntled former employee" and to his
knowledge nothing of that nature was reported to management while the
driver was employed or after his employment.
So what happened after this? There was no follow-up article on the
P-R's probe into this matter, even though the headline indicated a
upshot would follow. But maybe its probe is like O.J.'s search for the
real killers.
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