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THE TOP STORY: Falwell ... or
Fallwell? INSIDE ... Kilgore fleshes out tax-relief plan By Chris Graham/AFP Backdoor tax increases resulting from increases in local property-value reassessments are "unfair," Republican Party gubernatorial-nomination frontrunner Jerry Kilgore said on Wednesday. "I don't know about you, but the only number that I care about as a taxpayer goes in that little box on the right-hand side of each check that I write. If that number goes up, my tax burden goes up ..." IN FOCUS: Athletics vs. academics By Chris Graham/AFP It's not a Texas-sized sports-construction boom, but for the Shenandoah Valley, the recent spate of activity related to high-school sports facilities has been noteworthy. Waynesboro broke ground last week on a $1.2 million track and soccer complex that should be ready for use next spring. Augusta County, for its part, is in the process of building athletics field houses at three county high schools ... NOTES FROM THE PRESS: Virginia pol news and notebook By Chris Graham/AFP Political-action committees were busy in the second half of the month of May, according to a read of data provided by the Virginia Public Access Project. Among the groups reporting having received donations of $10,000 or more in the period running from May 16-May 25 were ... EYE ON VIRGINIA: McDonnell-Baril campaign heats up By Chris Graham/AFP Republican attorney-general nomination candidates Steve Baril and Bob McDonnell traded ethics-related barbs in dueling news conferences on Wednesday. Baril, a Richmond-based private-practice attorney, said McDonnell, a Virginia Beach legislator also in private practice, has violated ethics standards by representing paying clients before state agencies. McDonnell countered by citing attorney-general and the Virginia State Bar saying that it is not a conflict of interests ... EYE ON VIRGINIA: Baskerville lays out competing tax-relief plan By Chris Graham/AFP Democratic Party lieutenant-governor nomination candidate Viola Baskerville isn't interested in waiting until 2009 to do something about skyrocketing property assessments. "What I'm hearing from citizens is yes, our property assessments are a problem now, and we need to do something about it now. So why should we wait until 2009 to do something?" the Richmond delegate said on Wednesday ... EYE ON THE VALLEY: Connaughton pushing for 'Net filters By Chris Graham/AFP Putting filters on public-library computers to block patrons' access to hard-core pornography isn't a First Amendment issue. "Libraries are not in the business of purchasing pornography for citizens to view. And they shouldn't be providing their patrons with the same or even more intense types of pornography over the Internet," Republican Party lieutenant-governor nomination candidate Sean Connaughton said on Wednesday during a campaign stop at the Staunton Public Library. THE AGENDA: Augusta County School Board meeting tonight By Chris Graham/AFP The Augusta County School Board will meet tonight at 7 p.m. at the Augusta County Government Center in Verona. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. The agenda for the meeting includes ... THE AGENDA: Lexington City Council meeting tonight By Chris Graham/AFP Lexington City Council will meet tonight at 8 p.m. in the Regional Court Facility at 150 S. Main St. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. The agenda for the meeting includes ... ON THE BEAT: From the WSVA newsroom ... By Karl Magenhofer and Heather Fellin Men accused of dealing drugs arrested Man charged in fatal accident Ag museum planned
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Journalism digs deeper into niche
Guest View Bruce Kesler Special to The Augusta Free Press
Did I say niche? Sorry, I meant ditch. On almost any issue, on almost any measure, study after study shows major differences in political and social leanings between mainstream journalists and the public. Similarly, repeated surveys demonstrate a far higher skepticism among the public of journalistic product than journalists have of themselves. Readership of newspapers and viewership of the three formerly leading networks continues to drop by major percentages, up to half or more from the 1960s. The most common response from leading news media figures is that the public is ignorant or misguided, and just doesn't understand the reality to which only they are privileged to know. Their economic response is to increasingly become purveyors to their niche market, toward the more liberal readers and viewers. The purview and views of leading newspapers and TV networks increasingly narrows. Journalistic standards of fact, confirmation and balance are increasingly revealed as lacking. The spiral continues as the leading media's market further contracts. Their staffs are increasingly reduced along with their ability to provide knowledgeable, on-the-scene value-added to their customers. In short, this niche marketing, largely self-caused, and narrow-mindedly self-protective of cherished views, has become a ditch. And, the formerly leading media keeps digging the ditch deeper. A correspondent in Mosul, Iraq, Michael Yon, recently wrote: "Finding or generating news can be costly ... the media squeezes news cheaply from Iraq." Yon describes, step-by-step, how actual news dispatches are created. Yon points out that with rare exception, the media condenses military action reports into collections of one-line U.S. casualty lists ending with the latest cumulative death count. Yon observes, "a consequence of these media releases is that they allow the press to appear omnipresent on the battlefield, when in fact they usually stay close to the Green Zone in Baghdad." Yon continues: "The math is easy: Send a dozen journalists to Iraq, or hire one cheaply to live in Baghdad. The media gets a bargain rate on instant credibility from their 'embedded journalist in the heart of the Sunni Triangle,' who spends a few minutes a day paraphrasing media releases, then heads downstairs for a beer at the hotel bar." Yon concludes, "Nobody is well served by this arrangement. ... Yet, finally, the ultimate decision maker is the person reading or watching the news. We cannot expect mainstream media to give quality reporting if we accept drive-through service every night." More and more of the public avoid the poor news nutrition from the drive-through. Daniel Okrent, reflecting on his stint as readers' representative at The New York Times, wrote in his final column that "economic pressures have spread finite staff resources." Several days later, the Times announced a further layoff of more than 100 from the newsroom. Two major foundations just announced major grants to five prominent college journalism programs at Columbia, Berkeley, Northwestern, University of Southern California and Harvard. The purpose, in the words of The New York Times reporter, is to "find ways to prepare journalists better." The remedy includes an emphasis on "pairing journalists with scientists, historians, economists and other scholars on their campuses." Broader education and knowledge of academic specialties is certainly to be welcomed among future journalists. Still, again without belaboring the reader with the reams of statistics, every study of academia has demonstrated an overwhelmingly liberal tilt, more than 9 to 1 in the humanities and 6 or 7 to 2 (yes, there are some apoliticals there) in the sciences. Wouldn't future journalists, and their customers, benefit more from more partnering with the practical education and experience of mentors in government and the military? The declining market of the leading media is rooted in the twin niche-ditch digging of alienating its customers by being so markedly more liberal in political and social viewpoints and from resulting corporate cost-saving providing a shabby product. It is difficult to see working harder at coordination with society's other most liberal constituency in academia as meeting the most pressing challenges for journalism's successful reform. In the '70s, General Motors kept its engineers in Detroit, while Nissan attracted engineers to Southern California. Today, GM has half the market share it once had, and Nissan's innovative designs increased its market share. Both institutions, journalism and academia, are becoming less relevant than they once were to the discourse and direction of the country. Their closed-mindedness is evident to more and more consumers, and is the cause of their self-marginalization. The loss is not only theirs. We all lose vital cores necessary for a vibrant democracy when journalism and academia repress diversity of views, and even revel in digging deeper niche-ditches.
Bruce Kesler resides in Encinitas, Calif.
The views expressed by op-ed writers do not necessarily reflect those of management of The Augusta Free Press.
What do you think? Share your thoughts on this story at letters@augustafreepress.com.
(Published 05-30-05/Opinion) Click here to email a copy of this story to a friend |
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