Gloria Ferris

I just read this post on Brewed Fresh Daily and I have a few questions regarding the latecomers to the party. For months we have been hearing how the blogging community takes itself too seriously, how we are not true ”journalists” and how “the power of the blog” is all in our own heads. Now, Doug Clifton is telling his political writers to blog. I have several questions concerning the blogging rights of PD journalists. If blogging does not add dimension to the dialogue, why do it? Will comments be allowed? If they are, will they be edited? If comments are not allowed, why blog?

When the Plain Dealer did the five part series on Forest City Enterprises, I was mystified by the lack of comment by the NEO bloggers. Then I realized what had happened. The printed material about Forest City was very laudatory and warned that if we didn’t watch out we would lose FCE because we don’t appreciate them. The added dimension of the blog gave a much more balanced report of FCE and the projects that they have ongoing around the United States. Since I know one of the players fighting Forest City Enterprises-NYC over the use of eminent domain to assemble the land needed for the Atlantic Yards project as well as some of the design elements that are unfriendly to the neighborhood I will restrict my comments to that article. My friend called me from Brooklyn asking me to save the articles for her. She said the PD writer, Chris Montgomery had spoken to her for over two hours, she had sent him almost two inches of documentation and she was really excited to see what would be printed. I was quite skeptical on whether it would be a balanced report, but she saw it as an opportunity for more exposure and support. She was greatly disappointed when the opening paragraphs in the printed article included the line “a rundown neighborhood in Brooklyn” and that there was very little mention of how this band of neighborhood activists have gone head to head with FCE and have had impact. The blog entry for that article was much more balanced, offered links to No Land Grab and other sites which enabled the article to seem much more balanced.

Herein lies the problem. How can the Plain Dealer in good conscience offer two different stories to their readers—the printed story and the enhanced story on a blog with links?
Reread the Forest City Series and then read the blog entries that enhanced those articles. Am I being hypercritical or is it a valid question?
Meet the Bloggers was formed to meet a need that the Plain Dealer was not filling—in depth interviews on the issues important to Clevelanders with the mayoral candidates. It is now filling a decided void when it comes to the discussion of policy issues on a statewide level. All candidates are welcome to participate and the citizen journalists try to include questions by those unable to attend. In fact, George, Tim, and Bill are constantly looking for ways to make the podcasts and transcripts more accessible to a wider audience. Unlike, the Associated Press who recently told Bryan Flannery that they would no longer include him in their reports on the Ohio Democratic gubernatorial primary race because they do not see him as a viable candidate, Meet The Bloggers strives to be inclusive and interview any and all candidates that would like to use the platform. Isn’t it the voter who should make the choice of the more viable candidate?

How will the Plain Dealer strive to make the blog entries accessible to a wider audience? Will they take a leadership role in demanding that an equitable and fair way of providing Internet access to all Clevelanders be found?

And, last but not least if and when paid Plain Dealer journalists attend Meet the Blogger interviews should they have the same access to the candidate as those participants who obtained the interview with the candidate, those who take personal time to attend the interview and those who produce the podcast without compensation in the name of citizen journalism and the voters right to know. The candidates tell us that they would like nothing better than to sit down with these paid journalists and have an in-depth interview but are unable to gain access. Should those interviews be conducted at the expense of a Meet the Bloggers interview? And why are political journalists not interviewing candidates for public office?

And as I asked at the beginning of my post, is it ethical?

This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2006 at 11:33 pm and is filed under Brooklyn Centre, Cleveland, New York City, local news, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.