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Who's
Watching
the
Richmond Media?
Blogs
to the Rescue?
Part
II of a Two-Part Series
In
the world of Richmond media, Jim Bacon occupies a
unique place. A former publisher of Virginia
Business, the Media General publication that
chronicles developments in the Commonwealth’s
economy, Bacon launched an online magazine called Bacon’s
Rebellion in 2002. That publication’s
tagline is “The Op-Ed page for Virginia’s New
Economy.” Bacon had a long history in
traditional public affairs and business
journalism, starting his career as a gumshoe
reporter in western Virginia. Through his online
magazine and blog, Bacon and his stable of writers
(this writer included) offer up perspectives on
politics, public policy, economics and the media.
He also is the co-owner of the VA
Newswire, a business “intelligence”
operation that gathers and summarizes relevant
corporate-focused nuggets from media sources.
With
his combination of experiences and personal
connections, Bacon speaks with some measure of
authority on the local Richmond media market.
Turning his eyes to his one-time colleagues, he
asserts that “The Times-Dispatch is a
middling paper that management is trying to make
better. But management has an up-hill job – the
newspaper is under tremendous pressure to cut
costs to offset stagnant circulation and
advertising revenues.”
Bacon believes
that the daily paper gives the city of Richmond an
inordinate amount of coverage compared to other
localities in the metropolitan area. He says “city
politics gets lots of ink – county politics gets
ink only when there’s a scandal. I read the
newspaper more carefully than most people, and I
don’t know who my county supervisor is. I
don’t know who the chairman of the board of
supervisors is. Other than the occasional zoning
dispute or the latest flap in the school system, I
know next to nothing about the major issues facing
the county (through reading the Times-Dispatch).”
He
notes that, “to me, media bias, which does
exist, is less a problem than the media’s
unwillingness to cover key issues at all.”
In the case of Metro Richmond, Bacon sees the
mainstream press as slanted against folks south of
the River and west of downtown. To him, “If
there’s a bias, it’s in favor of covering the
city and ignoring the suburbs.” Despite his
criticisms, he is skeptical of the usefulness of a
news council as a response to shortcomings in
local news coverage. Bacon notes, “If other
people want to form a news council, that’s fine
for them. I’m not interested.” Bacon
prefers an alternative medium to perform the
watch-dog functions of a news council – blogs.
“Blogs
are a great way to deal with media bias. They
provide an avenue for readers to talk back to the
newspaper.” His answer is to “find a
team of people who can comment intelligently on
the practice and business of journalism and turn
them loose on the Times-Dispatch, and possible
local broadcast media. The goal would be to
produce intelligent, informed commentary.”
To
that end, Bacon says that he has “been
thinking of organizing a string of blogs around
Virginia whereby readers can criticize their
hometown newspapers.” He wants to see
bloggers step into the gap formed when larger
media outlets fail to adequately give ink to local
stories and perspectives. As opposed to merely
sniping at the mainstream media, these bloggers
would emerge as thoughtful commentators and
competitors to the industry. Says Bacon, “Hopefully,
these people would be relatively dispassionate,
not out to ‘get’ the newspaper or settle old
scores. Then the public would be invited to
interact with the blog.”
*****
On
the local scene, questions have emerged as to
whether blogging is in fact, a form of journalism.
Recently, Richmond media outlets have shown more
and more interest in blogging, with journalists
attending both summer statewide blogging
conferences, and the RTD featuring blogs
prominently in a July article (admittedly, this
writer was the focus of that piece). As to whether
blogging equates journalism, notable Richmond
blogger, Norm Leahy, who publishes One
Man’s Trash, thinks not. He says, “Bloggers
are not journalists, and that's not a bad thing.”
Leahy
is a professional direct mail marketer by day and
an avid media and political critic by night. A
member of the nascent Media Bloggers Association,
a national “non-partisan organization
dedicated to promoting MBA members and their
blogs, educating bloggers, and promoting the
explosion of citizen's media,” Leahy is a
long-time critic of Richmond media mavens like
reporter/columnist Jeff Shapiro.
He
is not shy about attacking the daily paper when he
feels it has strayed, nor is he shy about
begrudgingly offering praise to those mainstream
media types that he feels have done good work
(like occasional kudos to Baron Hinkle). Leahy
believes that bloggers can and do go further than
mainstream journalists in some measures. He notes
that, “For the local situation, the best
example of bloggers daring to go where the press
fears to tread is the Virginia Performing Arts
Center fiasco. Don [Harrison] and Andrew [Beaujon]
at Save
Richmond were on this story from the start and
they never let it go. Don is still on the case.
What they achieved was nothing short of amazing.”
Leahy
is referring to Save Richmond’s dogged efforts
at revealing what they felt were major problems
with the proposed massive arts and entertainment
complex in downtown Richmond. As Leahy points out,
the project “enjoyed the backing of the
region's moneyed elite, the political class, and
the Times-Dispatch [a proponent of the Arts
Center] was brought to its knees by a couple of
bloggers who simply refused to stop asking
questions.” Save Richmond stood in
where the media essentially refused to go. Leahy
continues, “I've said it before, but Save
Richmond's work ought to be a case study for
bloggers and journalists alike.”
Leahy
is a big believer in the ability of blogs to
develop and grow into a repository of local news
and commentary, especially when the mainstream
press lets stories slide. For him, “Locally,
blogs have been able to fill the gaps in press
coverage or develop stories to a far greater
extent than the press owing to time and resource
restrictions. I won't say laziness, but I'm sure
there's some of that as well.” While he does
not believe that blogs will replace the
traditional media, he does assert that, “As
blogs proliferate, they will continue to fill the
gaps the established press leaves behind. They
will break news, they will make news, and they
will be news.”
*****
Terry
Rea has also traveled between the worlds of the
traditional and alternative media. The publisher
of SLANTBlog, Rea is a writer and cartoonist whose
works was published by the Richmond Mercury and
the Commonwealth Times in the 1970s. A multimedia
journalist, he has done art, columns, essays,
features and photography for a number of area
publications over the last 30+ years. With that
diversity of experience, Rea says, “The term
‘mainstream media’ still seems somewhat
unclear to me. Is it the same thing as what we
used to call the ‘establishment’ media? If so,
then are alternative print or electronic
‘zines’ now seen as part of the mainstream, or
not? Is ‘mainstream’ just another way of
saying professional?”
Rea
is well aware at the seeming contradictions of the
blogging world in terms of the mainstream press.
He notes, “When I went to the [Sorensen
Institute for Political Leadership] June blogging
summit, I saw how much many of the political
bloggers wanted to be both at odds with the
mainstream media, and yet accepted by them, too.
To me the blogosphere seems more like a parallel
universe most of the time.”
Though
he has not written much about the local
“blogging versus media” scene, he did note
that one of his blogging endeavors highlighted the
points of divergence. He notes that the tragic
deaths of the Harvey family and the outpouring of
love and grief that followed “presented me
with a unique situation for how to use SLANTBlog
in a way different from what the
mainstream/traditional media were doing.”
Rea’s personal connectivity to the situation
gave him insight and perspective that the
strictures of traditional journalism do not often
provide. Against this backdrop, he was able to
engage in the kind of “citizen media” work in
Metro Richmond that blogs are often noted for in
national circles.
Rea
believes that Metro Richmond needs some form of
media watchdog. In his words, “I think every
good-sized town ought to have such a thing.”
Rea feels that two main factors have brought about
the need for some monitoring presence. He opines,
“The first is the power that money -- in the
form of advertising dollars -- has to influence,
even corrupt, the media's coverage. The second is
the merger trend we’ve seen that has reduced the
competition in both print and broadcast. That has
chased much of the diversity of opinion and
background out of the field. So much so, it seems
at times that all the media outlets are working
from the same playbook and game plan. Thus, when
they make a mistake, they all seem to make the
same mistake.”
While
recognizing the important of a new council type
body is one thing, Rea hones in on the trickier
aspects of the notion that proponents advance. He
says, “Who decides who should be the Media
Watchdog is tricky. I can’t imagine a government
appointing you or me to the post, nor can I
imagine the Times-Dispatch and [WTVR] Channel 6
getting together to do it either. So, the watchdog
probably will probably appoint himself.”
Rea
comes down on the side of bloggers as the most
appropriate outlet for such a media monitor
saying, “They now have the tools, and some of
them are already doing something along those
lines.” But, he cautions that certain
elements of the blogosphere itself - such as the
unfettered ability to hype opinion over fact and
the tendency for too many to become stooges for
political campaigns and interest groups – make
it difficult. He notes that bloggers are covering
the media, “But, it’s usually coming from a
partisan political standpoint, and let’s face
it, too many political bloggers clog up the
blogosphere with silly, repetitive rants and raw
propaganda for the blogosphere itself -- as it is
now -- to do the job effectively for a community
such as Metro Richmond.”
Still,
Rea sees an opportunity brought upon by recent
happenings with the major press outlets. In his
words, “With the RT-D having recently muzzled
its own staff -- no talking to out-of-house
reporters, on the record -- meaning the public
will know even less about how they do their job,
the need for such a watchdog seems greater than
ever. For there to be a blog-driven watchdog
for this community, I’d say you’d need a staff
of volunteers. Most of them would probably need
some experience as professionals, to have the
understanding of how the biz works, and have the
contacts to investigate stories.”
Like
his ideological opposite Norm Leahy, Rea looks to
one particular blog as the model for a media
watchdog blog, saying, “What Save Richmond
has done along these lines is the best example of
what I’m thinking about, and I’d say Don
Harrison is exactly the kind of person you’d
need six or eight of to make the thing work...a
web site or blog that would assemble a team to
attempt to be Metro Richmond’s Media Watchdog.”
*****
Blogs
are growing in recognition and reputation as
purveyors of news and opinion. Local sites like
Save Richmond, One Man’s Trash, SLANTBlog, RiverCity
Rapids, Church
Hill People’s News, and yes, even South
of the James, combine elements of muckraking,
political activism, media criticism, and general
agitation that can redefine media criticism and
maybe even reform the local media industry itself.
On the whole, Virginia’s public affairs
blogosphere has demonstrated dynamic staying power
and growth over the past two years, playing
significant roles in state politics and gaining
the attention of the statewide political media.
Through the development of Blog
carnivals, content
aggregators, news
feed summarizers, and two blog-themed
conferences (one put on by the political
establishment and one by bloggers
themselves), at least in Virginia, the
medium has legitimacy that blogging skeptics once
doubted.
Admittedly,
the major media outlets like the RTD don't have
much to worry from bloggers in terms of financial
competition for now. But, there is impact on the
news and opinion side as mainstream entities cut
back on both, which provides an opening for
bloggers as media monitors. Essentially, local
bloggers can play the roles of watch-dog and
at-large ombudsmen for the community that
proponents of news councils hope for.
As
such, be it Jim Bacon’s media mega-blog idea or
simply individual bloggers highlighting the
yeoman-like work of their contemporaries, the
building blocks are there for bloggers to
strategically respond to cries for increased and
improved community-oriented reporting and
editorializing. Metro Richmond’s bloggers are at
the right place, at the right time, and have the
right tools to do the job. Whether they
consistently show up for this work is the key to
whether bloggers can effectively become the media
watch dogs. For Greg Pearson’s (and others like
him) sake, let us hope so.
--
September 13, 2006
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