One of the most depressing aspects of modern journalism is the perversion of the idea of "balance." This even shows up in opinion columns, which is rather weird. According to this theory of balance, if one side has done something bad, then the other side must have as well, and the writer has to make mention of that.

Leaving aside the fact that one side may, in the course of events, have more bad actors than the other, this is still a pretty silly idea of balance. A prime example of this was in last Saturday's Telegraph editorial page in a column by TV host and writer Bonnie Erbe.

She was talking about some of the tarnished female officeholders in the current administration. She pointed to the case of Consumer Product Safety Commission Acting Chairwoman Nancy Nord. Though she's in charge of the agency that is supposed to see that such things as imported toys are safe, she has opposed a Congressional initiative to increase her agency's budget and tighten standards. In addition, she has accepted some $60,000 in travel and accommodations from the very toy industry that her agency is supposed to regulate. Erbe also mentions General Services Administration Administrator Laurita Doan, who has been investigated on charges of engaging in partisan political activity while on official time, which is prohibited by the Hatch Act.

All well and good, except that Erbe has to add: "And to be bipartisan about this, we all know Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was tinged by scandal during her time as first lady in the White House via associations with the Whitewater and 'travelgate' scandals." 

(Read More...)

It would appear that figuring out what "al-Qaida" really is, is going to play a large part in the ongoing political debate in this country. Here's what I mean:Everyone knows that al-Qaida -- meaning the group headed by Osama bin Laden that was headquartered in Afghanistan -- was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Recently there was a report from U.S. intelligence agencies that said that "al-Qaida" had reorganized and retooled itself since the invasion of Afghanistan such that it was almost back to its pre-Sept. 11 strength.

This led the Associated Press, , in one story about the report, to observe:

"The findings could bolster the president's hand at a moment when support on Capitol Hill for the war is eroding and the administration is struggling to defend its decision for a military buildup in Iraq."

This is because of quotations like this from Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, in the same AP story:

"The number one enemy in Iraq is al-Qaida. Al-Qaida continues to be the chief organizer of mayhem within Iraq, the chief organization for killing innocent Iraqis." 

(Read More...)

Maybe we are all just getting too used to gasoline prices soaring toward $3 a gallon every spring. At least I guess so, judging by the stories I haven't seen in the paper.

Where I live, regular gas was $2.68 a gallon last Wednesday. Friday, it had jumped to $2.75. By Sunday, when I filled up trying to beat the next increase, it had gone to $2.83. And tonight on my way home from work, it was up to $2.85.

But no one seems to care very much. I haven't heard a lot of talk about it. When it gets mentioned on the teevee, they just dryly report the latest leap in prices and let it go at that...not even an attempt to explain why. 

(Read More...)

The photos, videos and writings that the Virginia Tech mass killer Cho Seung-Hui sent to NBC news have been a problem for lot of editors. On the one hand, there's certainly news value in the material. It's like getting a glimpse into the sadly deranged mind of the worst mass murderer in modern American history.

But on the other hand, many feel that the images are too disturbing and also accomplish what the killer wanted, to air his imaginary grievances to the world. Most editors appear to have split the difference, using some of the photos but trying not to overplay them.

That seems about right. To have reported that Cho sent the package to NBC news but then to use none of the material would have left people wondering exactly what was in the package.
 

(Read More...)

As might have been predicted, the Obama attends radical Muslim school story I wrote about in The Telegraph recently has been followed by still more silly nonstories that are picked up by the mainstream media and presented as real issues when in fact they are just more examples of spin, half-truth and outright lies of the type that has made "swift boating" a new verb in the American political vocabulary.

Which raises a new question: When a story is a lie and outright false, why is the media so reluctant to use the words "false" and "lie"?

Case in point: The much-ballyhooed story that Nancy Pelosi has supposedly requested a luxurious military jet to fly her back and forth to her home district in San Francisco. 

(Read More...)

I thought the Telegraph did a great job covering the ice storm which affected the region on January 15 and the following days.
The story was played on Page 1 for a couple of days -- which is where it belonged -- and the main story and accompanying pieces (we used to call them "sidebars"...maybe they still do) covered, to my mind, all the bases that needed to be covered.
I thought the story on the line technicians who came from other states to help put the lights back on was particularly well done, and I really liked that the story pointed out that the line crews are often unsung public safety heroes who can be as important to the region's health and safety as the police and firefighters. 

(Read More...)

Here's a long-range weather prediction: Next January will be cold and snowy. Why? Because the New Hampshire primary campaign will be in full swing, and all those candidates wouldn't know what to say if they couldn't make a few references to New Hampshire's (typical) winter weather. Thousand of words have been and will be written about all the candidates, but when the campaign really begins, much of it is what I call baseball-score newswriting: Where the candidate was, how many people showed up, and not much about who the candidate really is. Most candidates have a standard speech that they repeat, with minor updates and variations, at every stop, so what they are saying usually doesn't get much coverage, since it hasn't been new since the first time the candidate delivered it. It's hard to guess, at this point, who will be the front-runners by the time we are overrun with candidates in the late fall and early winter of 2007-2008. But it's a pretty safe bet that prominent among them on the Republican side will be Arizona Senator John McCain. 

(Read More...)

The government this week reported on the November Producer Price Index, which is commonly described as a guage of prices at the wholesale level. The wholesale price index, according to an Associated Press story, was up 2 percent in November. This followed declines of 1.3 percent and 1.6 percent in September and October, respectively.

The big jump in November's wholesale prices was caused, the report said, almost entirely by a jump in energy prices. The overall wholesale price jump was the largest for one month in more than 30 years. Gasoline prices led the way, with a 17.9 percent jump. But natural gas, fuel oil, and heating oil prices were up sharply also. 

(Read More...)

I try to keep up with the news, but it seems like I am always falling behind. Then I have to go do some research to try to fill in the gaps. Case in point: The week after the recent election, I read a column in the Telegraph about how failure to solve the school funding problem, now that they had a majority in the Legislature and controlled the governor's office, could be the Democrats' undoing.

I read that, and I thought: "Hm, I must have missed the story the day after the election about how the failure to solve the school funding crisis had been the Republicans' undoing." So I went back and looked and...no story. 

(Read More...)

I mean, who hasn't been, these days? It's like we missed November...and if you believe the forecast, we are going from September to December without passing go.

What does that have to do with the newspaper? Well, one of the most delightful things in the Telegraph every day, IMHO, is the little drawing, apparently done by schoolchildren, that accompanies the weather blurb and the pointer to the page containing the full forecast. I look forward to it every day.

I'm sure it's a pain for someone on the copydesk to make sure there's a new one for every day, but I for one sure appreciate the effort. Even on a rainy day, it's a sure smile.

If you haven't noticed this bright little feature, take a look. It'll brighten your day right from the start...and maybe take you back to your school days.

It's probably in the nature of a "reader advocate" that more often than not, I'm criticizing the Telegraph.

But, stepping out of character for once, I want to note that the Telegraph did a great service by pointing out, in their Election day editorial, the less than honorable tactics used in New Hampshire, for a second time, by the national Republican Party.

 

(Read More...)

While just about every angle of the upcoming election has been covered by the local and national media, one subject that has come up in the last few national elections hasn't got a lot of coverage: The chances of the vote being accurate and accurately counted. But Editor and Publisher, the trade publication that has been on every newspaperman's must-read list for years, has taken a look at this issue. You can find the article here.

It's worth a read. And it brings to mind a simple story idea: How about a roundup of how the voting gets done in the local area? Paper ballots? Punch cards? Optical scanners?

A reader sent me an email the other day and at the end of it he mentioned that he'd had to call the Telegraph and had a bit of trouble getting my email address. So I thought it worth posting again: You can reach me by email at readeradvocate@nashuatelegraph.com.

I keep a pretty close eye on this account, so if you drop me a note I'll see it usually the same day, or the next day at the latest.

And while we are on the subject of correspondence: 

(Read More...)

Sometimes when I read the paper, I think more about the stories that I don't see than the ones that I do see. This has happened a number of times in recent days, so here are some stories I'd like to read:

Gasoline prices. Occasionally, there's a story about them coming down, but I wonder why? And prices are not coming down slowly: From late last week until Thursday afternoon, the price for regular at the station I usually go to had dropped from 2.33 a gallon to 2.19! Why? I seem to recall in past years that gas prices sometimes went up at this time of year, and the reason usually given was that refineries were switching over to making heating oil, so gasoline supplies were tighter. And the other things going on in the world that were given as reasons when gas was flirting with (and sometimes exceeding) $3 a gallon: Alaska? Half the production of the Alaska pipeline is still out due to corroded pipes, as far as I know. Tension in the middle east? Last I checked, the U.S. was still taking a hard line about Iran's supposed atom weapons program. They're not shooting at each other in South Lebanon but nothing more than a very tenuous cease-fire has broken out there. Iraq sometimes gets pushed off the radar screen by such things as the torture debate, but the bombs keep going off and people (U.S. soldiers and Iraqis both) continue to die. So it's hard to see why gas prices are falling so fast. 

(Read More...)

If you're not a regular reader of the Telegraph online, then you've been missing out on an interesting sequence of events. See Damon Kiesow's "Web Notes" for all the details but in essence the story was that there was an attempt -- fairly quickly discerned -- to stuff the electronic ballot box in a web poll the Telegraph was running.

This incident brings to the foreground some issues that have been simmering since the first web polls appeared only a few years ago.

 

(Read More...)