Posted by MadCityCPA on January 14, 2009 at 17:47:17:
In Reply to: Re: Why doesn't Madison have a media columnist? posted by wisconsin capital journal times on January 14, 2009 at 14:39:07:
: these are the same people who recently asked web site visitors to leave comments on whether or not their web sites should continue to allow people to leave comments
: so to answer your question, because our fine local newspapers are run by idiots (not that any newspaper company is currently run by geniuses)
I wondered the same thing. I still read Cuprisin and I haven't lived in Milwaukee for years. There is a lot of churning of the water in Madison TV. I used to audit a lot of big Media companies that owned TV stations. You could set your clock by it. After the election but before year end, they cut staff to shore up the financials for the following year.
An example of this was WKOW. They unceremoniously dumped Joe LaBarbera and Vanessa Shirley. I don’t know what happened there but all of a sudden they are gone one morning. The only reason that I know this is Vanessa Shirley had a Facebook page and she said something like she was let go, or what ever and then she locked it out so non-friends can’t read it. I understand that and I respect her right to privacy in this situation but WKOW does all this reporting about Janesville and the GM workers “thrown” out of work, but they had cut backs but mums the word. Kind of hypocritical, I think.
I also not much of a fan of local news because they seem to gloss over the important stuff and spend tons of time with the Human Interest or let’s help the community right a perceived wrong. There are many substantive issues they could be dealing with but they spend all kinds of time on “fluff”. I saw it from all the stations I audited across the country. Sweeps week comes and they spend time with cameras busting hookers or something salacious, and then the week after sweeps they are back to skimming over same old stale news stories. It didn’t matter the market size or the Arbitron numbers they all did the same formulaic thing.
If I was a reporter and wasn’t a star in the market, I would get out of the business. If you want to be a journalist, then write for a blog online, work for a NPR affiliate or freelance. If you want to save the world, join the Peace Corps, but don’t think for one second you are going to make a difference in anyone’s life shoveling the same drivel the local news has been throwing at us for the last 20 years.
Thanks, I feel better….