Local News(papers)

Once again, the whole block of local newspapers has been bought by a 'media group'. This time the block was larger, containing Clermont, Brown, Adams, and (I think) Highland County papers. Other buyouts have included different combinations of these papers, but not all of them at once.

This sparked some discussion -- again -- of what a sinkhole local papers are, how expensive to publish and distribute, etc. All stories that have been told; all details that have become cliche on the topic.

The "new" publishers speak of how combining reduces costs, increases coverage, blah, blah, blah.

What none of the papers are doing is reporting news that the customers are looking for.

We are all still wondering about the booms we heard all over Mt. Orab last summer. No word of their existence disturbed any of local newspapers.

There was an incident one evening of power outages, road closures, and even a medical helicopter called on the west side of Lake Grant. Neighbors on Pleasant Hill as well as those near the lake are still wondering what and why and even who, although we can all accept that that last info is more for family to share than news sources.

There was an armed robbery of a local business during Fair Week. You know, where someone's children were were working? Did anyone know it happened? Did a neighbor, who only wanted a cup of coffee, tell about it? Did someone find out from a son's classmate, because your local reporter was too busy at the Fair? (Watching tractors? Looking at cows?)

There are fires.

There are times when ambulances cross paths with other ambulances -- Georgetown or Ripley going north, Mt. Orab heading south. Has something happened, or is it 'just' people getting sick or hurting?

There are accidents, often closing roads and detouring traffic. A recent incidence closed 68 during school bus runtime, and there were rumors of body bags. Is this true? We don't know -- no media source has seen fit to tell us.

These are the stories we want to know about.
These are the questions we want answered.
This is news.

Yes, a week later, even a month later, is okay. Of course, by then we know if it was someone close to us or if it impacts us directly, but we are still wondering about WHAT HAPPENED? And WHY?
Can this be fixed?
Can it be improved?
Could it have been prevented?
Can we do anything?
Should we?

These incidences involve us.
They (can) involve our friends, our neighbors, our families. Our neighbors's friends and families.
These are our people. 
We want to help.
We want to know.

Our local newspapers should want us to know, too.

That is what local news is.

If you want to make money, report the NEWS.

Heroin is Bad.

In case you have missed this, in the last forty years, today's "news" wants to keep you informed. Heroin is bad for you. It causes crime and sickness and junkies. There are even clinics for treatment and halfway houses and all sorts of stuff.
None that any of us want in our neighborhoods, but, hey, that's where the heroin is.

I don't want or mean to minimize the issue of heroin, addiction, and treatments. This IS stuff people should know about. Be aware of it -- yes, right in your backyard.

But it does annoy me that all this is being treated as brand new news.

It isn't.

The issues and concerns are exactly the same as in the 90s, when "heroin chic" brought the addiction back into the headlines. The issues of treatment, and theft and sharing needles -- it's all old news.

Most of it -- there have been some changes in treatments -- in the 90s was recycled news from the 70s. If you can find old newspapers, pull up a few articles on the subject. Word for word, they could be written today and called news.

Epidemic, the reporters emphasize. (Even though the word epidemic has been discredited in relation to actual illnesses)
Epidemic, they said in the 90s.
Epidemic, they said in the 70s.

If this is new news, maybe instead of recycling the same old news about the issue, someone (like an investigative reporter?) should look into why this may be a 20-year cycle epidemic. What makes any issue or illness or addiction repeat in the same pattern, over and over again.

If this is a cyclical issue, why is no one looking to break the cycle?
Why are they only wanting to treat it?

Why is something 20 or 40 years old being touted as "news"? It's pretty old, don't you think?
If only they would report something that has changed.

That would be news.

Brown Thursday? Are you kidding me?

I mean, what makes it brown? The shadiness of forcing minimum wage part timers away fro their families so the rich can get richer? That is shady, to say the least.

It's been a big item in the news and on social media this last week.
Boycott Walmart -- after you start a riot over a tv.
Don't shop K-mart, Target, Big Buy, Best Guy, etc --make sure you bundle up while you wait in line even before Thanksgiving.
Other news stories about how more people than ever will be eating out. Well, they wouldn't/couldn't if the damn restaurants were closed, could they?
Unless they want to line up two frigid nights ahead of time.
Oh, gee, if I want to wait for a meal I can just go "Home" for the holiday and spend it with family!
Silly me.


I would love to blame the media.  Heaven knows they feed the frenzy. Out interviewing the idiots waiting in line on Wednesday. In the stores , with cameras and publicity and regalia and rigmarole on Thursday.
But, in this case, they are doing their job, somewhat. They are reporting on the news.
Not that there is anything "NEW" going on -- this is the fourth or fifth year for this nonsense.

I think they could help.
They don't need to report their precise location when they are broadcasting the Idiot's Lineup.
They don't need to tell everyone which mall they are covering.
They don't need to reveal sale items.

People want to be on tv (and You Tube) and they want to be known for getting good deals.
The stores want all the free publicity they get, and the News Outlets give them that in spades. They don't have to pay a penny.
It's all profit for them.

And that's all you are, if you are foolish enough, or maybe desperate enough (if you happen to be one of the slave wage laborers.)
You are profit.
You are dollar signs.
You are dollars.

You are not a person.
You are not a parent.
You are not a valued ... (customer, consumer, member of the team, part of the staff-- you choose.)

You are profit.

So -- how do you see yourself?

And did you spend your Thanksgiving stuffing your face or stuffing their already bulging wallets?

NOT My News

They say the world gets smaller every day, especially with the Internet so readily available.
I'm pretty sure the world is approximately the same size as ever, but people and how they communicate are very different.

What I'm not sure about is whether or not this is a good thing.

Easy access to the World Wide Web offers any business a larger audience for its product, whether that product is a twice weekly scribble, such as this blog, or selling services like Time-Warner Cable or Verizon, or marketing goods as Amazon does.
Big audience, big sales should somehow equal better service or maybe even (gasp!) better service for your Primary Customers.

Because really, even though the prospective market is there, if your product is for a targeted audience, wouldn't you rather hit the target? And isn't the closer you get to the bull's eye supposed to be better?

So why are local news stations featuring interstate and international stories instead of what is happening in their areas?

Most news stations are located in or near big cities. Most of these cities have vast suburbs, exurbs, metro areas, and sometimes overlap other cities. (Or sometimes not.)

In all these --urbs of these cities, there are many many things happening; things  that are newsworthy, especially to the residents and neighbors thereof. There are car accidents, barfights, break-ins, buildings giving way, murder, shooting, ambulance calls, fires, runaways, shoplifters.. Not every county, town, village, hamlet has all of these every day, although it seems the city does.
But one of them has one of these things happen, at the very least. Several of the outlying areas could have several things happening. You never can tell. And your local newa may never tell you.

The 'local' city's news, both on air and on social media, sees more importance in reporting a housefire across the country than one across the county. Somehow the availability of all this news minimizes what really is important to their 'local' audience.
The really annoying thing is many of these sations like to brag about how "Local"  they are. Some of them have "Local" as part of their program name. Some have "Local" as their website address.

So why, near Cincinnati, am I being inundated with news and news clips from Colorado and New Jersey, about mundane events such as runaways and bar fights. We had both of those two towns over, in all four directions.

Will we get to see out "Local" stories on the Denver news?

News from the bucket list

There's another story in the news about someone skydiving and checking it off their "Bucket List."http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Two-Local-Paraplegics-Skydive-From-13-500-Feet/edn9aifvi0ylJxOHi28BHw.cspx


If the media is to be  believed, every person on earth has an overwhelming desire to plummet to earth. News, movies, songs.

I just don't get it. I never will, so don't bother explaining. It's something I truly do not wish to understand. If the epitome of your life is to do something expensive and foolhardy, then I'm not sure I know you at all. Or want to.

I blame the media for a lot of this foolishness. Some 97 year old woman, once upon a time, fulfilled her lifelong desire to jump from an airplane, and the story was an immediate hit.
This was probably in 1934, when airplanes and 97 year old women were rarely paired. There was no instant news, no sharing everywhere, and only her friends knew, even after word got out.

In those days, skydiving was news.
97 year olds were news.

Nowadays, there are skydiving clubs around every city, and 97 is peppy if elderly. Neither item is news.

But, for some reason, this is consistently treated as "NEWS."

You want to know about bucket lists?
Visit a nursing home.
Visit the oncology floor in the local city hospital.
Heck, visit a veterinarian, where pets are freed from pain as loving companions linger near.

None of these people are mourning the fact that they didn't get to jump out of sn airplane.
None of them are regretting that they never jumped from an airplane.
None of them see that as a legacy to be treasured in any sense.

There's a saying about nobody having his tombstone engraved with "I wish I had worked more"
No one has asked that be put in his obituary.
I'm pretty sure no one has engraved, "I wish I had jumped from an airplane."
I'm pretty sure no one has put NOT-skydiving in a loved one's obituary

Please stop treating this as a legitimate news story.
It isn't.

Chaos in Colorado & the Right to Know

Last week, there was a shooting in Colorado. No doubt everyone has heard of it by now, and they've heard misleading quotes, incomplete assessments, rumors, outright lies, and everywhere the young man's name all over the news. We've seen it and him and he knows he's going down in the history books, so now he's going to act or claim crazy. (As if a sane person would shoot up a theater and booby trap his own home.)

I'm not naming him. There are enough people and mechanisms doing that, and that is what this young man is eating up. He's FAMOUS! He's INFAMOUS! He's on the Front Page, he's the LEAD Story, he's on YouTube, he's shared and reshared on Facebook and other social media.

Everyone knows his name. He can sit back and wallow now. And that's exactly what he's going to do.

To most of the public, especially the politically attuned, the Horrible Happening is a new reason to scream and open debates about gun control. It is somehow the fault of the guns that they were amassed and misused in this fashion.
To me, the issue should be about the media. The Fourth Estate.
We have freedom of the press. That's a good and wonderful thing.
Until something like this happens.

The  media is helpful when there is a question of locating a perpetrator or suspect. The media is at its best when reporting events as they unfold. The media is a force to be reckoned with when someone in the public eye is trying to hide secrets. The media tells us we have a right to know, and they will inform us. They can keep us informed of all rumors and speculations as long as they say they are rumors and speculation. Reporting of the booby traps may have saved lives.

But what, exactly, do we have a right to know about? What is needful and/or entertaining and informative? Do we need to know, on a national level, speculation and gossip?
 Is it right to be shoving their microphones into the faces of families waiting for someone to come outside from the scene of a massacre? Is it our right to know when they finally accept the unbelievable unacceptable fact that their loved one is not coming away from the scene?
Is it our right to know what a mother thinks when her son has admitted to this type of horror? Has she no right to the privacy of thought?
Do we have a right to know about every clipped toenail or late bedwetting incident ever in the guilty person's history?
Do we have the right to decide -- believe -- he's guilty before there is any sort of due process?
Does the media have the right to claim our right to know gives them the right to lionize punks and publicity hogs?

There are no easy answers, which is why the problems have been unresolved for so many years. There is a right to know, but who can or should decide what anyone else has the right to know?  Is there, or should there be, a time that it's right to know.

Difficult questions that need to be looked at and discussed and worked on as intently as gun control or defining insanity. It's no wonder that policing authorities try to conceal identities and evidence from the press. Irresponsible reporting compromises deaf, dumb, and blind justice.

And then, there  are young men like this "joker" who do the deed, then, when the media is fully present, walks up to the police and says "Yeah, I did it," then spends the next three days -- or three months, three years, three decades -- smirking and preening and posing for the cameras.


He has the right to know how important he is

The Adams County Informer

I bought my last issue today.

The Informer is a small newspaper in competition with Brown Publishing's  People's Defender here in Adams County. It was a nice paper, understandably small, but full of the small town (county) news. All the car accidents (well, a lot of them), ambulance runs, fire calls -- this information made it to this paper. The thicker, heavier, and more expensive Defender only reported a few, usually the most spectacular -- ones that made the city news broadcasts --  or the ones somehow involving *names* in the county. And  ad nauseum court news (which never really tell anything) and board meetings ad infinitum.

The Informer had  a Picture of the Week from readers, and a few words from the editor Troy Jolly every week. The personal touch.

There wasn't much advertising, which is normal for a little guy competing against an established and many-armed.competitor. There was some kind of political good-buddying going on that kept public service ads from being listed in the Informer. Something about having to reach more people instead of costing less and it really cost less per person to pay more to the bedfellow newspaper. Not fair. Not fair at all. I always thought that those sort of announcements -- sheriff's sales, village and school bids for goods or services, etc -- had to be published  with/in/through all available public media.

I faithfully bought my little Informer every week, because I liked the tone of the paper, and because I love, love, love the idea of a local paper produced locally.  The paper must have been doing okay, because there were new employees being introduced.

Then, in November, Mr. Jolly was elected mayor of Manchester. He's doing a good job, even according to his competition. They are faithfully reporting the changes and improvements happening under Mayor Jolly's watch.

His paper was faithfully reporting the changes, too. So much so that in the last few months the paper could be called the Manchester Informer. That's a natural enough change, so I didn't mind it. Not so happy about it, but I understood.

But now, the car accidents and fire runs have disappeared. The Picture of the Week is missing, and so are the 'Words'.The articles that appear are mostly publicity sent out by the various organizations. Fresh stories are few and far between. When there are fresh stories, they are badly organized and badly written. There are spelling errors and there are grammar errors.

This week there's a glaring grammar error in a Manchester story. AEP has went around and fixed the street lights.... That's exactly what the paper said.

Well, I have went and spent my last fifty cents on the Manchester Braggart's Bulletin. I expect  literacy when I read a newspaper. News would be nice, but literacy is a MUST.

I will have to look farther afield for my Adams County Information.

Accidents in the News

Local stations are all streaming "Breaking News" of an accident in our area -- an accident that has had the coroner called to the scene. That's not something that happens much out this way, in the rural areas east of Cincinnati.

This news always makes me sit up and pay attention. It's unlikely to be anyone close to me. It could be someone I know. In all likelihood, the victims are known to someone I know, and I ache for their bad news, for their loss.

Even when it is not someone known, I hold my breath and wait to know the names. While I wait, I pray, I pray for the families of the victim -- and I pray that I am not a member of that family. I pray for survivors, and I pray that no one's recovery is impeded by guilt. I pray for those in traffic, and hope they do not have children waiting and wondering at home and alone for them. I pray for those who react and respond, and have to deal with the crumpled cars and flattened bodies and the mixtures of blood and oil and fuel.

When I hear of these accidents, I pray.
I pray hard.

This time, it may not affect me. I pray thanks for that, but I can't forget how the waiting for news feels. I know someone is getting that call, and I know they are hurting. I know someone close who got that call. I know others who have got that call.


I cannot help the unknown sufferers, and probably can't help even if I know them.
But I can pray for them, light a candle, send out comfort and loving.

When I hear of an accident, I pray.
Hard.