This was the most glaring whopper:

“Caterpillar has never threatened to leave Peoria if the referendum fails. Those are all non-issues drummed up by the opposition.”

Bullshit. The lie that Caterpillar would leave was drummed up by the proponents.  Think for a second, people. Why would opponents to the tax tell people that Caterpillar would leave if it doesn’t pass. That Cat would leave is an argument in favor of the tax. Many of the people spreading this lie sit on the City Council, told in terms of the need to help Cat “grow roots” in the community.

It was the opposition — myself included — that finally, FINALLY got someone from Caterpillar to admit, on the record, that of course Caterpillar is not going to move its world headquarters somewhere else if this referendum fails. But even after this admission was made, the Journal Star’s own columnist spread the same lies. But then I am not surprised the anonymous gnomes on the Journal Star editorial board don’t bother reading their paper’’s own front page. Too depressing, I suppose.

This editorial, unsigned, is allegedly the position of the institution of the Peoria Journal Star. I would wager money that if one were to take a pole of the employees — those who still work there, anyway — one would find a lack of support. You see, real journalists have finely tuned bullshit detectors. Not so true, apparently, of anonymous gnomes cherry pick facts to suit their agendas.

Maybe it’s the leaves. Maybe it’s the bark. But there is something about trees that weakens America’s fragile democracy.

That is why we must routinely cull some of the trees. Because when we cut some of them down, our democracy is strengthened and America’s otherwise inevitable slide into totalitarianism is postponed.

Or so thinks Phil Luciano.

In today’s column, Luciano asks readers for their opinion on what should be done to save newspapers. Because, as Luciano writes, newspapers — and not any other form of the news media — are the pillars of our democracy.

It’s complete bullshit. Journalism on television and the Internet would not exist without newspapers leading the way, he says. Therefore preserving newspapers is essential to preserving democracy itself. It’s big talk for a columnist who who wrote, I think, three columns during the past month about missing dogs (you see, it doesn’t matter what crap you put ON the paper, as long as those evil, anti-democracy trees are chopped down and pulped into paper).

What arrogance. If newspapers vanish, free market forces virtually guarantee that someone would start providing news in a different medium, most likely the Internet, which is a vastly less expensive way to distribute news to readers.

But members of the Big Media like things just the way they were. They want to preserve the institutions of journalism, not journalism per se. They can’t imagine journalism being done any way other than the way  they do it.  So all of their solutions tend to be more about propping up what already exists rather than about creating new ways commit acts of journalism. Lone writers posting news about their neighbors onto their Blogger or WordPress sites is not part of their journalism mix for these people.

One solution that’s been tossed out is to give newspaper customers some sort of tax rebate or credit. Another would let newspapers become non-profit organizations, which would keep them from endorsing candidates. Yet another would make newspapers immune to antitrust legislation. This is probably the stupidest of the many ideas being bandied about. But any solution that exists only to prop up the dying carcass that is newspaper journalism is a solution that will not work. We need to allow constructive destruction and let newspapers fail so they can evolve into online-only news organizations.

Students vie for top honors in bridge-building competition

PEORIA — After months of designing and building bridges, it was time to watch them all come crashing down.

The Peoria Journal Star printed this crap without any critical analysis or background.

No doubt this group will include members of the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, which is on record praising the board for making decisions.

He’s what I want to see. I want to see ONE SINGLE ARTICLE from the Journal Star that mentions details from most recent audit — it’s available upon request from the district, for God’s sake — in which the auditor criticizes a $10.5 million budget discrepancy and complains about a slew of errors and omissions. It seems that the financial brainiacs who work for District 150 have a poor understanding how school finances work, too.

If actually requesting and reading the audit is too much hard work for stressed out reporters, they can always cut and paste the juicy parts from this article written by Elaine Hopkins. The Journal Star ought to be familiar with her work. She used to write for them.

Publisher Ken Mauser said, “The layoffs were made in an effort to adapt to the changing nature of the newspaper business.”

Mauser declined to specify the exact number of jobs involved in Thursday’s action. The layoffs are effective immediately. The publisher did say that the personnel moves are part of a plan to strategically reposition the Journal Star.

Two paragraphs of corporate bullshit. Yeah, the “nature” of the newspaper business is changing from one in which the owners of a printing press in a monopoly market could pretty much print money to one in which they had to limit themselves to one yacht. And they are “strategically repositioning” the Journal Star from a somewhat quirky but good daily newspaper into the sort of rag that assigns their top columnist to write about lost dogs.

The names of the fired staffers will start rolling in soon. How the surviving reporters can possibly cover the remaining beats is beyond me. I expect them to eliminate the Monday edition before long, or outsource the copy editing to India.

But hey, the Journal Star might be firing, but Blog Peoria is hiring. I don’t pay anyone, but you can make a few bucks from Google AdSense if you get enough hits.

UPDATE: WEEK is reporting that the unions are reporting five newsroom employees and six from other departments.

UPDATE: I gather that not all of those who’ve been laid off have been notified. So, I’m not going to name any names for now. The union is supposed to be having an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss wage concessions to prevent additional layoffs.

UPDATE: Reporter Kevin Sampier is among those shown the door. The loss of Circuit City as an advertiser is being cited as one reason for the cuts.

How many weeks will the deep thinkers at Peoria City Hall debate this?

I suggest Roger Sparks file an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit against the city, the Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Times-Observer and any of those other rags that are allowed to hawk their wares on the public right of way.

So, the writing is on the wall. She’s going to be paid $275,000 per year, compared to the $250,000 her predecessor Mark Thompson took home in 2007. She’s also eligible for a $137,500 bonus, four weeks of vacation, and be eligible for medical and dental coverage. Apparently, outsourcing jobs can make you both sick and tired.

And Mr. Turner ads:

As usual, while she undeniably will be involved in decisions that will cost people their livelihoods, GateHouse Media has made sure Ms. Janik is protected in case the company has to send her packing. If that occurs, she will receive her full year’s salary and bonus, adding up to $412,500.

Boy, I bet it’s nice to see GateHouse putting to good use all the money it’s saving by having reporters do double duty because it cannot “afford” to replace reporters who leave.

From the Turner Report:

Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that at a time when many GateHouse employees are wondering if they have will jobs a few months down the line, new President and COO Kirk A. Davis (pictured) will receive a base salary of $461,260.80. [Former chief operating officer Scott ] Champion’s base salary for 2007, according to a proxy statement filed with the SEC was $200,000. Even with $173,000 in bonus and benefits Champion made nearly $90,000 less than Davis’ base salary.

The SEC filing indicates Davis will normally receive four week paid vacation…except in 2009 when he will receive five weeks because he is carrying one over from 2008. Other benefits Davis will receive include vacation, sick leave, and participation in company medical and dental insurance programs. He will also be reimbursed for travel, meals, and accommodations, the proxy said.

Oh, and if he leaves the company for any reason OTHER than being fired for cause, he gets a year’s salary.

CEO Michael Reed earned $925,000 in total compensation in 2007,  which includes a half million in base salary. Of course, this doesn’t compare to the compensation he got in 2006, which was valued at more than $6.4 million.

Meanwhile, the company stock is selling for pennies a share and they just ended payments to employee 401(k) plans. And reporters are covering double beats because the company can’t afford to hire new reporters.

I’ve been on Twitter since at least July, and it’s brought in quite a few hits to Peoria Pundit and Blog Peoria. It’s also a great way to follow the work of other journalists and like-minded people. It also can be a good way to liveblog an event, considering how easy it is to write those nifty little 140-character posts.

When I joined, it was still kinda new. In the months that have followed, practically everyone and their manma has a Twitter account. In other words, it’s not that new anymore.

The Journal Star’s lack of Twitter was starting to get embarrassing for them. I mean, it’s FREE and the process is pretty quick and painless. And Twitter is all the rage in media circles, so I’m sure word of this service had managed to permeate even the dense cognitive fog that often surrounds 1 News Plaza.

So, I added “PJS isn’t on Twitter yet” to my mental list of things to write about.

And today, there it was on PJStar.com, an announcement that the Journal Star has Twitter pages for news and for sports.

Just 34 followers so far as I write this. And the PJS is following just two other media organizations. Two.

Still a ways to go, I see.

The company’s stock price improved 1 1/2 cents to 4.5 cents per share today, trading on the Pink Sheets.

For the newbies in our audience, GateHouse Media owns the Peoria Journal Star and most daily and weekly newspapers in West Central Illinois.