Category Archives: media news

media news, national news

Campaigning via Twitter? Sweet!

We are witnessing the birth of a new style of presidential campaigning. OK, it’s not entirely a brand new thing, but it’s taking on a life of its own.

The world is being treated to a presidential campaign conducted via Twitter. The antagonists? Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

For those of us who came of political age in an earlier — and decidely more quaint — era, this is a strange evolution to watch. However, I am learning to get used to it.

Donald Trump has perfected the Twitter gambit. It has become something of an art form with this guy. He has an 80-million follower crowd, many of whom hang on his every word. I admit to following Trump on this medium, but it’s primarily a way to keep this guy in front of me at all times. Better to keep the bad guys visible than to have them lurking unseen or unheard in the shadows.

He blathers, bellows and bloviates via Twitter constantly. He most recently has taken to the medium to fire back at criticism of his golf outings in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. He accuses Biden of having a poor work ethic while serving as vice president in the Barack Obama administration.

Biden has fired back. He said, also via Twitter, that Trump should concentrate on the pandemic rather than firing off tweets aboard his golf cart.

So it will go until the end of this presidential campaign … and likely far into the future of presidential campaigns. It’s a new age.

media news

Journalism takes another step toward irrelevance

It pains me to acknowledge this, but based on what I have just learned, daily print journalism — I am talking about newspapers — has taken another big step toward a dark hole of irrelevance.

The Providence Journal, Rhode Island’s largest newspaper, has announced it no longer will publish editorials. You know, those are the opinion pieces that represent the newspaper’s view on issues of the day.

Here is part of a letter that Journal executive editor Alan Rosenberg wrote to readers:

It’s a decision that we don’t make lightly. But it’s been coming for a long time…

[After the partisan newspapers of the 19th century,] most newspapers abandoned partisanship in their news pages, but kept the idea that they should speak out, in their editorials, on what they perceived as the best interests of their community and country.

But in doing so, they inadvertently undermined readers’ perception of a newspaper’s core mission: to report the news fairly. Our goal in news stories is always to learn, and reflect, the facts of a situation, then report them without bias. Reporters’ opinions, if they have them, have no place in our stories.

But when the newspaper itself expresses opinions on those same subjects, it causes understandable confusion. Readers wonder: Can reporters really do their work without trying to reflect the views expressed in their employers’ name? Can they cast a skeptical eye on a politician their paper has endorsed, or a generous eye on one it has opposed?

The answer is a definite “yes” — but my email since I became executive editor shows that many just don’t buy it.

The Providence Journal is owned by Gannett Corp. What we have here is a display in gutlessness. It is a shameful capitulation to the forces that are slowly but inexorably making daily newspapers irrelevant in the lives of thinking Americans.

I spent the vast bulk of my 36 years in journalism writing editorials and editing opinion pages. We once were committed to providing leadership to communities that used to look for some semblance of guidance from their newspapers. Sure, we had that argument with readers that Rosenberg mentioned about whether news coverage was influenced by newspapers’ editorial policy.

This news out of Providence, R.I., saddens me terribly. It well might get even worse for readers of the last newspaper where I worked on my professional journey, the Amarillo Globe-News. Gannett owns the Globe-News and Gannett has become a cost-cutting master in this era of declining subscribership and advertising.

I hate saying it … but I fear the end of daily journalism in Amarillo, Texas, might be at hand.

media news

It’s getting too cruel, folks

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Your friendly blogger — that would be me — believes it is time to level a complaint against a popular social medium … or more to the point, against the way some of my “friends” are using it.

I’ve given it away. I’m talking about Facebook.

In this Age of Donald Trump, I discovered long ago that many of his followers/cultists are using Facebook to launch attacks of amazing cruelty against those with whom they disagree. They get their cue from the Big Man his own self.

This is the guy who has mocked the physical appearance of his political foes and women who have accused him of sexual misbehavior; he has mocked a New York Times reporter’s physical challenges; he has denigrated the accent of his Alabama-born former attorney general. Accordingly, the Trumpsters out there have followed Trump’s lead and have sullied Facebook with hideous photos of those who have opposed the man who masquerades as the president of the United States.

I need to make a couple of points.

First, I have a number of Facebook “friends” who actually are friends of mine who fall into that category of Trump cultist. I even have some members of my family, individuals I love because they are family even though we disagree politically.

I have put some of them on notice, though, that if I see any future Facebook posts that trade on gratuitous cruelty, I will (a) delete the post from my news fee and (b) sever our Facebook connection.

I do not mind political disagreements in the least. I spent the vast bulk of my professional life dishing out opinions on newspaper editorial pages and taking plenty of heat and grief from those who disagree with what I had to say.

I damn sure do mind cruelty. I have sought to refrain from referencing a few of Donald Trump’s physical traits that have drawn barbs from others. I will disagree mightily with what Trump says and does, but I will not poke fun at matters that have nothing to do with public policy.

My second point is that fairness should require me to demand the same of anti-Trump individuals who post these social media messages and images that denigrate the president. Full disclosure: My bias gets in the way of fairness … and I regret that. My goal now is to look more critically at the hideous images that come to my Facebook feed.

I need to remind myself that I am better than the target of these attacks … even though he brings all of it onto himself.

media news

Hooray for community journalism!

Too often, it seems, when we ponder the term “community journalism,” we lapse into thinking of reporting on county fair farm animal competition or an outbreak of burglaries in the neighborhood.

However, the term always should include the kind of reporting and commentary that earns journalists the greatest prize their craft delivers for excellence.

So it is that the Palestine Herald-Press, a small East Texas newspaper, has won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. The award goes specifically to Jeffrey Gerritt, editor of the Herald-Press, who looked critically at a rash of deaths of inmates in the county jail.

The award makes me proud for Gerritt and for the work done far from major media markets by community journalists who work for small-town publications such as the Herald-Press.

Granted, Gerritt joins a long list of community journalists who do their job with dedication to their craft and who honor that craft with excellence.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2017/04/small-town-paper-makes-it-big-time/

I once worked for a newspaper, the Amarillo Globe-News, that won the Pulitzer for Meritorious Public Service in 1961 for the reporting of the late editor Tommy Thompson, who exposed corruption throughout county government. That prize, of course, pre-dated my time at the newspaper, but the paper’s legacy included that proud accomplishment.

Jeffrey Gerritt continues to further the cause of community journalism. As the Pulitzer board noted, Gerritt was awarded “For editorials that exposed how pre-trial inmates died horrific deaths in a small Texas county jail — reflecting a rising trend across the state — and courageously took on the local sheriff and judicial establishment, which tried to cover up these needless tragedies.”

That is how you deliver top-tier journalism to the community you serve.

media news, national news

Kitchen is getting too hot for Trump

It’s a cliché, but it’s worth noting: If you can’t stand the heat, then get the hell out of the kitchen.

Donald John “Wartime President” Trump says he’s being treated worse by the media than any president in history. That includes Abraham Lincoln, a real wartime president who fought like the dickens to preserve the Union.

He succeeded. The fight cost him his life when a gunman killed him at Ford Theater in Washington, D.C.

Now, though, for Donald Trump to suggest the media treat him worse than what the press did to President Lincoln simply is beyond the pale.

Trump doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand the media’s role in protecting us against government that is capable at times of reaching too far and, yes, of making egregious mistakes.

Do you think Trump has made any such mistakes during his three years as president? I most assuredly believe that’s the case.

Trump spoke at a Fox News town hall. A woman asked him why he doesn’t answer reporters’ direct questions on the coronavirus pandemic. According to The Hill: “I am greeted with a hostile press, the likes of which no president has ever seen,” Trump said, sitting in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. “The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They said Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse.” 

Cry me a bleeping river, Mr. President.

The media are doing what the Constitution allows them to do. No amount of bullying, intimidation, coercion or threats from the president or his lackeys should throw them off their mission.

Every presidential predecessor — all of whom had to endure negative coverage — has understood that it all goes with the job to which they were elected.

Until this clown.

media news, national news

‘I will never lie to you’

Kayleigh McEnany made news this week by answering a direct question with a remarkably direct response.

She is the fourth White House press secretary to work in the Donald Trump administration. The first three were doozies. Sean Spicer opened his tenure by arguing with reporters over their coverage of the inaugural crowd that greeted Trump’s presidency; Sarah Huckabee Sanders admitted to lying at times to the media; Stephanie Grisham never held a White House press briefing.

Now we have McEnany, who comes to the administration after serving as a Trump apologist on the Fox News Channel.

A reporter at McEnany’s initial press briefing got right to the point: Will you pledge to always tell the truth?

“I will never lie to you,” she answered.

Well now. Given that she works for the Liar in Chief, and given that lying often is essential to protecting his political standing — which is most important of all to Donald Trump — the press secretary has issued a mighty tall promise.

We all must hold her accountable for it.

media news

Good news offers strength

I am drawing a good deal of strength by much of what I am reading these days, yes, even in this troubling and perilous time.

We’re holed up in our house. We go out only to do essential duties. We watch a lot of TV; I am on the computer a great deal; I am reading lots of material related to the coronavirus pandemic.

I read the bad stuff. I am disheartened and dismayed by the misery and the heartache out there. It normally would send me into an emotional tailspin.

However, the media that Donald Trump loves to demonize, also is giving me reason to keep the faith. They are reporting about the heroism, the unsolicited good deeds being done, the demonstrations of caring and love, the joy of children who get to play games with their parents and their siblings.

I subscribe to three newspapers: the Dallas Morning News, the Princeton Herald and the Farmersville Times. Each of them in every issue I see offers positive news about heroism and outreach. Cable news channels do the same thing. They tell us of the amazing fortitude being exhibited by pent-up Americans who (a) wish for all they’re worth for a return to “normal life” and (b) understand that they must adhere to the rules being laid down by their government.

Broadcast TV is full of public service announcements repeating the mantra: We’re in this together. Our Dallas/Fort Worth network stations give us reason to smile at the news they deliver about the deeds being done to help others.

The cynics in public life — the politicians who have determined that the media are the “enemy of the people” — simply aren’t paying attention to what the media are seeking to do. The media are allowing me to crease my face with a smile.

They are strengthening me for the ongoing battle against a killer.

I want to thank them for that.

media news

So glad to be free of the media misery

I am watching with great dread the fate of my former colleagues in print journalism, watching as they are being forced out of work or forced to take unpaid furloughs.

It’s a continuation of what has been happening to the media landscape for years.

Gannett Corp. laid off seven newsroom staff members from the Austin American-Statesman this week. One of them is a former colleague of mine with whom I worked way back when I first arrived in Texas in 1984. She gravitated from the Beaumont Enterprise to the American-Statesman two years later and was told that her 34 years of service was no longer relevant.

Another former colleague of mine, who works for a Gannett newspaper in Corpus Christi, is being told to take one week of unpaid leave each month for an undetermined amount of time. He told me recently “it sucks,” but he’s doing what he needs to do.

Gannett, by the way, is the name of the company that now owns the newspaper that served as my final stop in a daily print journalism career that spanned nearly 37 years. That career ended in Amarillo when the paper was owned by Morris Communications. Morris eventually sold all its papers to GateHouse Media, which this past year purchased Gannett Corp.; however, the newly minted newspaper giant operates under the Gannett name.

This is tough to watch.

I am watching it happen in real time while thanking Almighty God in heaven that I am no longer subject to that kind of misery. I went though enough of it as my career ended. Two pay cuts, decimating of staff, a newsroom reorganization and finally being told I would no longer do what I had done with some success for most of my career.

My heart hurts for my colleagues who are still toiling, still wondering, still awakening every day while not knowing with any form of certainty what the future holds for them.

They are doing their jobs the best they can do. The media landscape is shifting under their feet. It is unsteady at best.

All I am left to do — if you’ll pardon the cliché many of us have grown tired of hearing — is offer my thoughts and prayers for those who are being caught up in the media sausage grinder. I was there once myself. They just need to know that many of us who have gone on to “pursue other interests” are in their corner.

media news

Memo to media: Stop calling ’em ‘briefings’

I have made a command decision regarding High Plains Blogger, which I am entitled to do since it’s, well … my blog.

I am no longer going to refer to the White House press room sessions as “briefings” that were called initially to offer the world an update on how Donald Trump’s administration is dealing with the response to the coronavirus pandemic. I want the media to cease using the “b” word as well.

These sessions have turned into campaign rallies. It’s that simple. Donald Trump no longer provides an ounce of new information. He no longer offers a ray of hope. He never has exhibited a scintilla of empathy or grief over the loss of life from the deadly viral infection.

It has killed more than 51,000 Americans. The death toll is going to surpass in a week or so the number of Americans who died during the Vietnam War; it already has killed more Americans than those who died during the Korean War. Donald Trump doesn’t say a word to mourn the loss of life.

Instead, he rails against the media, against Democrats, against (mostly Democratic) governors who criticize the administration’s response to the pandemic.

Thus, these sessions no longer qualify as “briefings.”

I will call them “rants” or “riffs.” I just wanted to let you know that I have had enough of Trump’s ignorant assertions about the “fantastic” he says he is doing to fight the virus.

That might change if he ever steps aside to let the medical experts he has enlisted to serve — so far — as mostly window dressing during these White House events.

To be clear, I consider the experts to be worth hearing. But only if they are allowed to offer their advice, their analysis and their assessment — without being interrupted by the Imbecile in Chief.

If that happens, then perhaps the media can resume calling these events “briefings.”

media news

A reporter boycott in the making?

This idea comes from one of my social media contacts; he’s actually a friend who comments on my blog regularly.

Donald Trump’s latest disgraceful dressing down of a broadcast journalist has become far too great of a distraction. His tirade this past weekend against CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond was just the latest example of his intolerance and petulance with journalists who merely are doing their job — which at times requires them to ask difficult questions of the commander in chief.

My friend posted this: They need to stage an organized walkout and not return or broadcast until he behaves decently. They’re enabling his behavior by tolerating it.

The “they” in his message are the reporters assigned to cover the White House for their various organizations.

Diamond asked Trump if it was appropriate of him to boast about the great response he has mounted against the coronavirus when the death toll surpassed 40,000 Americans. Trump was having none of it and lashed out at Diamond, at CNN and at the media in general.

I generally oppose boycotts, but I am starting to come around on this one.

A boycott by the media of the White House “briefings,” which no longer provide any real news is beginning to sound like a sensible response to Trump’s egregiously intemperate behavior.

These daily ramblings by the president of the United States have stopped providing anything useful for Americans to digest. They serve only as a forum for him to rant and roar against those who decline to lick his boots and kiss his backside.

Would such an act produce a change in behavior? Well, that’s the nagging question. The answer is far too elusive to pin down. I tend to believe it wouldn’t … but the notion is starting to appeal to me.