I'm going to go out on a limb here, and pick up on a thread that has
come and gone...the Daily News. Counter to popular opinion, I
think that the Daily News is the best I have seen it in my 10 1/2 years
in Moscow. Although I am confident that it has a tremendous
amount to do with the leadership, it also has much to do with the
staff--their morale, talent, commitment, and so forth. Those things,
from my vantage point, are the highest they have been (overall) in a
decade. Specifically, I find the stories by Dan Nailen and Dustin
Solberg, among others, to be intelligent and well-written. Murf's
Biz Bits and Vera's Ink are a joy to read. The photographs by
Geoff Crimmins and Steve Martine are stunning. And the letters
FROM the editor, Mark Trahant, are worth reading...twice.
I don't count how many stories are about WSU vs. UI, or Pullman
vs. Moscow. I read a story if it grabs me, and more of them grab
me now than in the last 10 years.
When arrest reports in the past were printed, they fed my perverse
curiosity about local gossip (I'm not proud of that), rather than
inform me about whether the prosecutor was pursuing cases
adequately.
My memory of the unmistakably Nazi billboard on Jackson (Anglo
boy posed with a "Heil" arm extended) advertising the DN that
read, "We deliver to discriminating doors everywhere," is still fresh.
And that was BEFORE the Napoleonic Frisch arrived on the scene.
Although I'm not a psychologist, the mega-control and paranoia he
exhibited was certainly diagnosable. (I had a birds eye view on the
advisory board.)
My mother, who only recently moved to the Palouse, has a mini-
conniption every time she sees a typo or blundered headline. I try to
remind her that this is a farm-team newspaper, likening it to our
hometown baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens. Just as the Mud
Hens will never look like the Detroit Tigers or Cincinnati Reds (our
teams back when--I'm just starting to warm up to the Mariners), the
Daily News will never be the New York Times. And like the Mud
Hens players, when someone notices how good they
are...POOF...they're gone!
On the list server, I've noted an ample amount of bashing of the
Daily News. I believe that it comes from one (or more) of three
sources. First, this community is so accustomed to dissing the
"Daily Snooze" that it is, in the Fiddler on the Roof sense,
TRADITION! We take for granted that the local rag must be
bad...it always has been, according to local legend. Second, as
social scientists attest, revolutions occur NOT when things are at
their worst, but when there are rising expectations and hope! I think
that Mark Trahant has given this community both, and
consequently, the unified response is...we want more NOW! The
third has to do with change. As my screen saver still reads, "If you
want the times to change, you have to change with the times." That
is far easier said than done, and I am confident that Trahant's
philosophy and vision challenge and change traditional journalism.
To conclude, although I understand that Hagadone may have
backed out of purchasing this paper, the threat to losing what we
have is still there. Butch Alford has new competition to contend
with. (And I haven't even begun to express my kudos to the LMT,
which I also subscribe to!)
I know the bottom line is the $$$$. No amount of discourse is
going to salvage the ownership issue. So...Butch, I'll contribute my
measly $200 bonus pay to your effort to buy these papers, provided
that its current relative autonomy is preserved.
I know this post is inconsistent with my customary critical persona.
I haven't lost my mind completely. I DO think "Jumble," as well as
"Sally Forth" would enhance the Daily News considerably.
Best,
Susan
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Susan Palmer Phone: 208-885-6616
Women's Resource Specialist FAX: 208-885-6285
for Education Outreach, Gender Equity, and Research
Women's Center e-mail: susanp@uidaho.edu
[Lecturer, Sociology Dept.]
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho 83844-1064
"People convinced against their will,
hold the same opinion still."
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