Peoria Pundit

I know this post by Dr. Andrew Cline is more than two months old (an eternity in an industry plagued by so much bad news) but I thought it worthy of a read, especially here in Peoria where the working conditions continue to deteriorate under GateHouse Media. Basically, Dr. Cline takes an ombudsman column from the Washington Post and rips it apart for the over-romanticized notion of reporting it advocated in the face of continued staff reductions:

Let me suggest another focus for this column: A good reporter is a person who acts as a custodian of facts and operates with a discipline of verification despite working for news organizations that, as profit making businesses, all too often fail the primary purpose of journalism. A good reporter doesn’t let the MSM news organization strangle his good work and then sit on his ethical shoulders to take the credit for it. He finds a job in the new media instead.

I agree. The corporations that own the mainstream media think nothing of nickle-dicking their workers to death, knowing full well that many of their staffers will shrug their shoulders and soldier away as they cover multiple beats and work a few more hours off the clock to get the stories covered, thankful they still have jobs.

I worked for a newspaper organization — American Publishing Company — that was headed by the very same people who managed local GateHouse operations. This is how they operate. Their philosophy was the fewer reporters the better. They have had respect for the people to report the news. They didn’t value news all that much either, beyond meeting whatever minimum amount they feel is necessary to sell the ads.

This attitude didn’t suddenly spring into being when the stock price plummeted. This was the attitude that GateHouse’s business model was based upon: Own everything, reduce staff. Count on workers dedicated to quality journalism to continue to work their asses off. Profit.

This entry was posted on January 12, 2009 at 7:44 am and is filed under On the Media with tags GateHouse, Washington Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.