It ain't just me.

Submitted by James on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 12:53pm

Sometimes I feel like a one-man band in my criticism of the McClatchy media monopoly that has taken over both the Charlotte Observer and the News and Observer. So it's nice to see another voice - more experienced than mine - speaking out on the sad situation.

Kirk Ross (Exile on Jones Street), has an excellent analysis of the continuing implosion of journalism in North Carolina, brought to you by the McClatchy Boys. The example he points to today is the death rattle currently being heard at the Chapel Hill News, where Ross used to work.

He knows of what he speaks.

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I tried four or five times

Submitted by James on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 1:12pm.

last year to get the Chapel Hill News delivered to my house. Thank goodness they never got it together to grace my driveway with the paper. Now I don't have to cancel it.

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

There you go

Submitted by Betsy Muse on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 1:22pm.

seeing the bright side again......


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Vote Democratic, the ass you save may be your own.

DTH Get's Spanked

Submitted by WillR on Mon, 09/25/2006 - 11:27am.

From today's Daily Tar Heel

The DTH should be ashamed for its story on the Bush approval "spike" in N.C.

For one thing, the poll cited was commissioned by the John W. Pope Civitas Institute, a right-wing think tank chaired by a former North Carolina Republican Party chair, and funded by the N.C. Republican Party's biggest donor.

The DTH failed to report other approval rating polls, most of which showed very different results.

CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class

CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class

He must have read A and I's comments.

Submitted by Robert P. on Mon, 09/25/2006 - 11:41am.

CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.

Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me

My exchange with the N&O publisher

Submitted by James on Mon, 09/25/2006 - 9:04am.

From: James Protzman
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 2:47 PM
To: oquarles@newsobserver.com
Subject: Downward spiral

What on earth is going on with your newspaper? It’s like the wheels are falling off … and a once-admired institution is devolving into a parody of itself.

Your editorial page is good for maybe one strong opinion a month, if that. Your political reporters carry water for Art Pope and the John Locke Puppetshow nearly every day. You have a staff columnist who recycles right wing talking points from the Carolina Journal as often as not. And now you’re selling the front page of what used the be the only decent paper in Chapel Hill.

I know, I know, these are “economic decisions.” Of course they are. They’re the natural consequence of the decisions your company has made. This is what happens when a newspaper goes from standing for something to standing for nothing in the course of a couple of years.

I subscribed to your paper for 20 years. I was an intensely loyal customer. And now I am so far gone, you couldn’t pay me to read the paper again.

I recently asked readers at BlueNC.com why they subscribed to the N&O still. There was only one answer: the comics.

Get a new editorial page editor.
Rededicate your organization to excellence and objectivity in political reporting.
Stop pandering to rightwing think tanks.
Stand for something.

That’s what it’ll take to get me back.

Today I received this non-response. Mr. Quarles oughta be in politics!

From: Orage Quarles [mailto:oquarles@nando.com]
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 8:41 AM
To: James Protzman
Cc: msill@newsobserver.com; sford@nando.com
Subject: RE: Downward spiral

Mr. Protzman, I'm sorry you feel the way you do. Thanks for sharing.

Orage Quarles III

Sort of like the Pope saying he's sorry the heathens got mad when he called them heathens.

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.