Re: Covering Moscow News

["JS M" <jbiggs50@hotmail.com>]

I like it.  Your commentary, that is.  How about doing this once a week or 
so?  It might make a good format for the proposed weekly radio show 
mentioned by Mr. Hoffman; kind of a run-down of local news stories taken 
from local news sources and a biased comparison of the sources.  Nothing 
wrong with having an opinion.
jm


>From: Don Coombs <dcoombs@uidaho.edu>
>To: vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: Covering Moscow News
>Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 17:02:32 -0800 (PST)
>
>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
>
>

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