PatrickH: Don’t Call ‘Em Newspapers

29 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  moscow_minidoka on March 10 at 8:53 a.m.

  It’s not even an entertainment guide anymore, since they killed the “7” supplement on Fridays and fired half the entertainment staff.

  (I realize they brought “7” into the main paper, but it’s worthless now).

  And yes, despite my griping, I still subscribe to the SR. But I cannot remember a 6 month period like what we’ve had, as far as the noticeable decline in the quality of the newspaper.

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  Whippersnapper on March 10 at 9:45 a.m.

  What’s he talking about? It’s thinner and smaller, but it still looks like a newspaper. Maybe he’s mistaken the Press’ Wednesday shopper for his daily paper.

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  PatrickH on March 10 at 10:02 a.m.

  Whippersnapper,
  My point was about the content in the paper. The Press and The SR have moved to more entertainment and feautres then hard news. Gone are the days of the papers being the source for investigative journalism. The last major inestigation series done by either paper was really the Jim West series that the SR did in 2005. The editors of both of our local papers as well as many others throughout the nation would rather fill the papers with columns, which are cheap and entertaining, then stick to hard news.

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  nic on March 10 at 10:02 a.m.

  Well… OpenCDA calls HBO a gossip blog… so I’m sure their opinion of the Spokesman-Review isn’t much better.

  I still view newspapers as a vague news source. A rappidly thinning news source.

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  PatrickH on March 10 at 10:12 a.m.

  NIC,
  I don’t by any means share OpenCda’s opinion of the SR. Like I said I read the SR, and I find it to be a better publication then the Press or the Inlander. I just don’t consider it, or a good portion of the dailies in the US a “newspaper” anymore. Hard hitting news has made way for soft features, columns, and wire materials, in order to cut costs and I find that deeply tragic.

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  moscow_minidoka on March 10 at 10:19 a.m.

  What I don’t understand is why the SR and other papers STILL insist on giving so much space to the AP! Unless you are housebound without TV or the internet, the national news is OLD by the time it’s in the newspaper… and if I want to know what’s happening in the country as a whole, I do not turn to the Spokesman Review to find out.

  Unfortunately, what the SR and other papers seem to be cutting is LOCAL coverage, which is the only real edge they have, since local TV news is an absolute joke.

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  Bent on March 10 at 10:43 a.m.

  Patrick, that so-called investigation of Jim West was not journalism.

  In journalism, reporters find sources and get them on the record. In journalism, editors don’t hire private detectives to ferret out people’s sexual practices, which is nothing more than tabloid gossip. You can argue that hipocrasy was the story in West’s case, but I call BS on that.

  West may have voted on laws that went against the gay community’s wishes, but the votes were much more complex than what was reported at the time. Sure those votes played well to his GOP constiuentcy, but to lable those votes as gay bashing is just plain ignorant and inaccurate.

  What didn’t get reported was how he personally and publically welcomed Richard Florida to Spokane. Florida is the author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” which West read and praised at the event. The basic premise of the book points out that communities that embraced the gay lifestyle with open tollerance in the 90s florished with innovation and high-tech investment.

  I knew West and he was not a gay basher, but he was a politician. And as a politician he should be scrutinized, but that scrutiny should be responsible and professionally executed.

  For example, I could accept this as a story if the SR was reporting on a prosecutor hiring a private detective to catch West in the act of picking up a same-sex partntner — even if there was no crime was committed. But, had I reported it, that story might have taken a different twist.

  I would have been tempted to take the approach that the SR did for the sensational asspects. But I like to think that I would have pointed out the political irony of the sting, but the meat of my story would have questioned the prosecutor’s motives —especially if the prosecutor made the information public in absence of a crime.

  But as we all know, and as Frontline pointed out in a real journalistic piece, the SR hired the private investgator. That wasn’t journalism, it was prosecution…plain and simple. They were doing the job of the prosecutor, and a poor job at that. No crime was committed so where is the news story? Frontline nailed it. The story was how the SR handled it…

  I’d take bread and butter journalism in the Voices section over manufactured news any day of the week.

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  Cindy_H on March 10 at 10:57 a.m.

  Well said, Bent.

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  Sam on March 10 at 11:21 a.m.

  I somewhat disagree with Bent in that the SR story was an issue about the mayor offering wares and internships to young gay males he was trying to entice on dates and for sexual encounters. That’s clearly unethical behavior. It wasn’t about his orientation (I repeat, it WASN’T about his orientation), and I think that was the twist that Frontline put on it that was a bad one and their own editorializing (but I generally love Frontline pieces and I still found the S-R/West piece well done). I think the story would have been the same had West been straight offering up favors and presents to young straight females in order to seek dates and sexual encounters with them.

  I still have never been able to wrap my head around the whole West investigation as to how they got the information. I figure one day I’ll look back on it and really assess it and try to throw it through the ethics machine that I use in my daily work. Perhaps look at my WWSHD (What Would Seymour Hersh Do) bracelet first, too. ;)

  Other than that, if you’re going to talk about getting sources on the record, and I hate to belabor this, but the Press allowed a reporter no longer working there to quote anonymous sources several times (including stories about the gay sex happening at that highway rest stop) And that was journalism that didn’t need to have anonymous sources. Period. By the way, for full disclosure, I’ve quoted anonymous sources twice in my career so far. They were both victims of sexual assault.

  The SPJ Code of Ethics calls for naming sources as much as possible because the public deserves to know who is providing that information. But it can’t always happen (I think it can happen far more than it does in D.C., where political sources get a Anonymous card FAR too much), and I understand the reason why the Spokesman used anonymous sourcing to protect the innocent in the West story.

  Bent - a question - if the Spokesman had staff on hand who knew how to do the same things that the private investigator did, would you believe it was still wrong to get that information or would it have been OK if it was a journalist sleuthing? I’m just curious for you to elaborate more based on your experiences.

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  Sam on March 10 at 11:23 a.m.

  Patrick - I’m hoping you can elaborate. To clarify: You only believe real journalism comes in the form of investigative journalism? What about community news in general - coverage of public safety, City Hall, human interest, public schools, etc. That’s not journalism if it’s in a daily format?

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  Bent on March 10 at 11:38 a.m.

  Sam, you certainly are entitled to your opinion on this as well.

  I don’t think it matters if it was a PI or a staff member. For me the issue is, who is the source here and what are they alleging?

  If a newsroom staff member wants to go on the record and say, “I got Jim West to hit on me when I mislead him to believe I was a young gay male looking for sex” Where is the story? I say so what? Did he comit a crime?

  I disagree that the story would have been the same if this was a young girl being offered an internship with sex as a potential motive because that happens all of the time. where were you in college?

  Tjhose stories just dpon’t get pulished because they are considered gossip, and frankly it doesn’t tilt the sentational meter quite as far a same sex political affairs.

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  JeanieSpokane on March 10 at 12:04 p.m.

  I regretfully agree that “news” in the newspaper has taken a back seat to sensationalism. Worse - I call it what my Dad, a former editor of The Chronicle called - “yellow journalism.” Dad’s newspaper is not the same today. In Dad’s time (50’s through late 80’s), he was an investigative reporter and followed the who-what-where-why-when facts of a story. The key word here is “facts.” Dad would never put something in print that even hinted at bias or at gossip.

  The “news”paper slaughtered Jim West with nothing but gossip and shock value.

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  Whippersnapper on March 10 at 3:25 p.m.

  Two men said that Jim West and a close associate of West’s abused them as boys. The other man, Dave Hahn, committed suicide rather than face the charges.
  One young man said West pursued him offering him jobs and asking him on dates, even after he said no. West hired young men and took them political junkets.
  West cruised for young men online.
  Although I respect some of what West accomplished as mayor, I have no problem with the reporting that was done.

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  Bent on March 10 at 4:36 p.m.

  Well, see there wippersnapper, that is exactly the problem I have with a lot of journalism today.

  There are many reporters and editors out there who would just assume publish innuendo as fact because it was too much trouble to get the facts on the record. Or they just had to break the story because they knew in their heart of hearts it was true… we are just supposed to trust them on this.

  So, what about the Jack Lynch innuendo piece that followed the West scandal? That was even worse. I could go on, and on about that one.

  Plain fact is those sources you mentioned were very questionable because of their extensize criminal records. Nobody has proved that Hahn and West were, in fact, partners in molesting children. They were partners as cops, but that stretch to insinuate molested boys together. It was never proven.

  How does that happen anyway? Two cops are just driving along one day and one says to the other, “Hey, I know we are cops and we took that oath and all, but don’t yopu want a break sometimes? I know, how about yoy join me in molesting a couple of young boys after work?”

  And sure he was cruising men online, and probably trying to pick up other gay men, but is that a crime? They were of age. I’d bet Barney Frank does it too. So is it only news when a closeted single gay man cruises for sex partners? Outing people, even if they are public figures, is now news?

  I’m not defending West’s actions per se, I am just pointing out that IMHO the West story was nothing like the journalism I was taught…not even close.

  That story would never have run in the Cd’A Press when I was there. Never. That’s what blows me away the most. I can’t believe the S-R would run it…

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  Sam on March 10 at 4:58 p.m.

  Great insight on these, Bent. Thanks for the chat.

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