vision2020
Re: Covering Moscow News
This below is one of several reasons I contribute financial support to the
Spokesman Review and not to the Daily News.
John
John and Laurie Danahy
jdanahy@turbonet.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Don Coombs <dcoombs@uidaho.edu>
To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, December 10, 1999 5:02 PM
Subject: Covering Moscow News
> If you think it's desirable for people to know what's going on in town,
> you're interested in how the news is covered. Moscow used to have 3-1/2
> agencies covering the area: The Daily News, the Lewiston Trib, KRFA and
> KWSU (the WSU stations) and -- in a half-hearted way -- the Spokesman
> Review.
>
> The WSU stations dropped out some years ago, when their reach was extended
> to Port Angeles and Bellingham; they couldn't afford to cover or find
> air time for news of dozens and dozens of towns. What they could
> afford was seamless classical music, and the national news shows.
>
> The Spokesman Review now and then covers Moscow, and Friday the paper got
> out in front and looked good. On the front page of the Idaho edition, the
> Spokesman had "Washington State auditors say the administrator of Moscow's
> Gritman Medical Center violated laws and breached ethics while
> (in his previous job) overseeing a hospital in Western Washington." And
> Andrea Vogt, the reporter, put together a long story which jumped to page
> 9.
>
> The Lewiston Trib whiffed on the story, which means there will be
> opportunity Saturday morning for the Trib to cover the story in its own
> way or to pretend that it's not really news and ignore it. The Trib has a
> reputation for not taking that last, easy, route.
>
> The Daily News, with all morning to cover the story after the Spokesman
> broke it, chose to use portions of the Spokesman story (which is perfectly
> legal because both newspapers belong to the Associated Press) and add
> nothing of its own. In other words, the Daily News ran heavily edited wire
> copy on a story in its own town. The Daily News also changed the lead so
> that instead of identifying the person (Tom Stegbauer) as the
> administrator of Gritman Medical center, it identified him as "A Port
> Angeles hospital administrator." In the third paragraph, it got around to
> reporting his present employment at Gritman.
>
> Nobody should judge on the basis of one day's papers, but the Spokesman
> definitely did better than the Trib in covering Moscow on Friday.
>
> While the Trib sports section was guessing who the strongest
> candidates were to replace Chris Tormey as UI football coach, the
> Spokesman sports section -- even though it had an earlier deadline than
> the Trib -- reported that three candidates had withdrawn, including Scott
> Linehan, who was one of the Trib's two "strongest candidates."
> (In its defense, the Trib's information appeared in an opinion column, not
> a news story.)
>
> *********************************
>
> On a personal note: I can be persuaded to keep observations like the above
> to myself. All it will take is one or more people letting me know they
> prefer to judge papers by how much "good news" they print. (I tend not to
> communicate when I'm depressed.)
>
> Don H. Coombs
>
>
Back to TOC