Category Archives: Peoria Journal Star

Peoria Journal Star

“Save the Journal Star” campaign begins

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As rumored, a campaign to “save the Journal Star” started today. A full-page ad was taken out by the Newspaper Guild, and a website has been set up (www.savethejournalstar.com), saying:

As newspapers across the country change hands, greedy buyers are cutting staff, coverage and service and raising advertising rates. It all amounts to much less newspaper. […]

We will not tolerate an owner who insults our region with mediocre and half-hearted news coverage in the name of short-term profit. We will not tolerate an owner who refuses to recognize a responsibility for civic engagement.

To current Journal Star owner David Copley, we say: Continue to be a steward of first-rate journalism and civic responsibility. Sell only to a buyer who recognizes the common good that journalistic excellence represents.

To anyone who is in the market for the Journal Star, we say: Buyer beware! Regardless of who owns this newspaper, it belongs to this community.

I have to admit — and I said so in the comments section of their website — the Journal Star has the most comprehensive local coverage of any media in the greater Peoria area. Does the Journal Star have its shortcomings? Yes. But is there anyone in Peoria that covers more local news, crime, arts, neighborhood issues, civic events, sports, and other local fare? No. And seriously, overall they do a very good job. That doesn’t mean they’re above reproach, and I stand by my past criticism of them. But compared to the volume of news they cover every day, that’s really not bad.

In order to cover so many local events, it takes a lot of reporters. And to cover them well, it takes experienced reporters — not just experienced as in “been a reporter for x number of years,” but experienced in Peoria. To lose a large number of experienced reporters would be a huge blow to the quality of news coverage we’ve come to expect from the paper.

Still, I’m not — and I’m sure the Guild is not — so naive as to think there will be no job cuts regardless of who the new buyer is. Nor is every position indispensable. There will undoubtedly be some cost cutting, but my hope is that it will be, as the Guild states, “responsible.”

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Public Schools

Current Journal Star not without its skeletons

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There’s quite a bit of consternation about the prospect of someone like Dave Ransburg buying the paper. The fear, presumably, is that news stories that don’t fit the buyers’ agenda for Peoria will be suppressed. There’s fear that the new owner might not be “responsible,” thus compromising the paper’s integrity.

I share those fears, but this is partially a case of “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” Is the current Journal Star pure of story suppression? Or do we just favor their known biases over the unknown biases of a rumored alliance of local businessmen (including Dave Ransburg) who may be trying to purchase the PJS?

For example, a reader of my blog recently sent me a copy of this letter (PDF format). It’s dated May 13, 2004, and is addressed to Dr. Sean C. Matheson. It’s signed by fourteen (14) District 150 administrators. It’s three pages long and expresses the administrators’ outrage over a litany of comments and actions by Matheson. “These comments and actions,” they conclude, “have been an attack on our professional judgment, integrity and reputations. They have created an uncomfortable and uncertain work environment that deters us from our mission.”

The person who forwarded this letter to me wrote, “This was passed to me a while back – it is my understanding that it was given to the PJS in 2004 and McDowell and Bailey suppressed [it] out of deference to their friendship with Matheson and Wieland.” Is this not the same kind of behavior we fear in a Ransburg? It would appear non-local corporate ownership is not the antidote to newsroom meddling.

I predict that, regardless of who buys the paper, there will be an adjustment period where we get to know the new owners’ biases, lambaste them, and then learn to compensate for them through other media, including TV, blogs, and alternative newspapers like the Peoria Times Observer.

Here are some interesting perspectives on local ownership of newspapers that I found on the web:

Peoria Journal Star

Employees unite to save Journal Star from Ransburg

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The Peoria Pundit is reporting that Newspaper Guild employees at the Journal Star are going to start an aggressive campaign “to ensure the paper is sold to a responsible buyer.” The campaign is set to kick off on January 1, 2007, with a full-page ad and website.

According to their website, the mission statement of the Newspaper Guild is to (emphasis mine):

Advance the economic interests and to improve the working conditions of its members;

Guarantee, as far as it is able, equal employment and advancement opportunity in the newspaper industry and constant honesty in news, editorials, advertising, and business practices;

Raise the standards of journalism and ethics of the industry;

Foster friendly cooperation with all other workers;

Promote industrial unionism in the jurisdiction of the Guild.

I have a feeling the driving factor behind the push for a “responsible owner” is concern that rumored buyer Dave Ransburg would compromise the bolded principle above. One wonders what kind of retribution will be meted out if their efforts are unsuccessful and Ransburg is able to gain control of the city’s only newspaper.

If, heaven forbid, we do end up with a Ransburg-run Journal Star, could that action be the impetus for a large group of disaffected PJS employees to start a rival daily newspaper, making Peoria a two-newspaper town again? Or will the status of newsie blogs be elevated — in Peoria at least — as indispensable independent news sources?

Keep your eye on this site, still under construction as of this writing, for more details after the first of the year: www.savethejournalstar.com.

City of Peoria, Peoria Journal Star, Radio

“Outside the Horseshoe” reviews top stories of 2006

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Jonathan Ahl had WMBD-AM’s Dave Dahl and the Journal Star’s Jennifer Davis on WCBU’s “Outside the Horseshoe” program (listen to an .mp3 of the show) this past Tuesday to review 2006. The six top stories they identified and discussed:

  1. At-large Council Elections — Morris and Grayeb are not seeking reelection, so there is a lot of speculation on who might be filling those positions, and if the other three incumbents will remain.
  2. City Budget — No significant changes from last year, despite having a new council that was supposed to fully staff Fire Station 11 and eliminate the $6/month garbage fee.
  3. Snow — The city wasn’t prepared for the big December 1 snowstorm and did a poor job clearing the city streets. Ahl’s panel decided that it wasn’t any one thing that was to blame (it was a combination of factors), but the council, et. al., are looking for one scapegoat.
  4. Crime — 18 murders in 2006, “Target Peoria” crime forum, surveillance cameras, saturation patrols, and whatever happened to the parental-responsibility ordinance idea?
  5. East Bluff Replacement School — District 150 was, and still is, trying to find a 15-acre site in the East Bluff on which to build a new school to replace/consolidate Glen Oak and White schools.
  6. Civic Center Hotel Controversy — I have to admit, I had almost forgotten about this one. It’s been so “underground,” as Jennifer Davis said, that one wonders whether some back-room deals are being made, or if the idea is being abandoned.

After listening to the show, I have to say the panelists did a good job of covering the big stories of the past year. But there were a couple of stories I was surprised they didn’t cover: the PDC landfill controversy (granted, that was a Peoria County issue, not a city issue, but it was still a big story affecting the city) and the proposed Land Development Code for the Heart of Peoria area (which I think is significant because it’s a huge step forward for the Heart of Peoria Plan, which was adopted by the council in principle, and now will have the chance to be adopted in practice).

And I think they should have had a blogger or two at the table just to round things out. Not necessarily me, although I always have fun on the show, but at least Billy Dennis who has been covering Peoria politics for the blogosphere for a number of years now. After all, it’s people like Billy and me who were named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year this year, right? 😉

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Park District, Peoria Public Schools

Spin City: Journal Star editorial on school/park agreement

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The Journal Star didn’t publish its pro-intergovernmental-agreement editorial online today, so I can’t link to it. But I’m still going to comment on it. I think everyone is aware that District 150 and the Peoria Park District on March 29, 2006, signed a Letter of Intent to enter into an intergovernmental agreement that would allow the school district to build a new school at the corner of Frye and Prospect using a combination of acquired parcels and shared Glen Oak Park land. The Journal Star thinks the park board should stick by that agreement, despite public outcry against it.

The Journal Star editors’ thesis is summed up in the first sentence:

If the Peoria Park Board were to pull the rug out now from beneath its partnership with District 150 regarding the construction of a new school in upper Glen Oak Park, just eight months after effectively greenlighting the project, it would represent an act of bad faith not only against District 150, but against its own taxpayers.

That sentence is the epitome of spin. First of all, what represents “an act of bad faith…against its own taxpayers” is the park district violating the Open Meetings Act to hammer out an agreement with the school board in secret (there’s a lawsuit still pending on that matter), and the school board subsequently acting on a letter of intent as if it were legally binding.

Secondly, the taxpayers don’t want the school in the park! The Journal Star Editorial Board (JSEB) can’t seem to get that through their heads. If the park district were to cancel their participation in this project, it would show — contrary to the JSEB’s assertions — that they were acting in good faith, listening to the taxpayers, and making amends for their earlier errors.

The JSEB then writes this whopper:

[A]ny misgivings Park Board member Roger Allen and perhaps others had about this project should have been voiced publicly before March 29, when the two boards agreed to go forward, and before District 150 spent $877,500 purchasing eight private properties next to the park. Even if it was premature of District 150 to begin buying homes before it had the park district’s rock-solid OK, there was time for the park board to say “whoa” before it got this far.

No kidding. Apparently the park board didn’t realize this would be so unpopular with the public, otherwise they wouldn’t have signed the letter of intent in the first place. Which is why it might have been a good idea to not have secret meetings in violation of the Open Meetings Act in the first place. Those laws are there for a reason — and one of them is to protect the park board from foolish mistakes like this one.

If a majority of the park board follows Allen’s lead [i.e., changing their minds] …they’ll have some real explaining to do to [the] taxpayers.

Au contraire; if a majority of the park board continues to ignore the public and act on secret deals, then they’ll have some explaining to do to taxpayers.

Despite feigned concern for taxpayers, the JSEB in the very next paragraph implies that those same taxpayers are either malicious (spreading misinformation; suing the park board), or stupid (believing misinformation), or simply ungrateful (for not embracing a new East Bluff school at any cost).

There’s more, which you can read below (just click the “show more” link to read the whole editorial), but those are the main points. |inline

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Public Schools, Public Building Commission

Journal Star could use some remedial civics classes itself

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Speaking of the Journal Star’s editorial yesterday, they sum up their case for PBC funding with this condescending paragraph:

But again, the primary criticism comes from those who’ve never quite come to grips with the fact that they live in a republic, not a direct democracy. Should District 150 regain its PBC connection, perhaps it should spend those funds constructing a building in which they teach civics, the lessons of which seem lost on a certain segment of the population.

Translation: if you’re against the school being able to get funding through the Public Building Commission (PBC), then you’re an ignorant boob in need of remedial education.

Maybe the editors of the Journal Star should attend those civics lessons instead. They can start by studying the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, where he says that governments “deriv[e] their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Thus, if the people don’t want the school board to have the power to spend tax money on new schools without a binding referendum, that is perfectly within the rights of the citizens of a republic.

Indeed, one needn’t throw out the school code or the Constitution, nor do they need to resort to direct democracy, in order to place reasonable limits on their representatives in our current form of government. In the case of the PBC, these limits already exist, and those who oppose PBC funding are not arguing for new legislation, but the status quo.

And since when is it the job of our legislators to represent other municipal corporations? Are Schock and Shadid representatives of the school board or the people? In this case, they’re acting as representatives of the school board, since the people clearly don’t consent to additional bonding authority being given.

And since the Journal Star thinks PBC funding should be available to all, why are they in favor of SB2477 which would only grant this bonding authority (a) for 5 years, and (b) only for Peoria Public School District 150? The Journal Star should be fundamentally opposed to this abridgment of our republic and advocate instead a bill that would completely repeal the 1993 law that stripped all school boards from using the PBC. Of course, such a bill would never pass the legislature, because it’s easier for representatives from elsewhere in Illinois to pass laws that don’t affect their constituents.

Here’s another civics lesson from Bob Bratt: citizens of Illinois have the right under Illinois’ constitution “to make known their opinions to their representatives and to apply for redress of grievances.” In other words, voting our representatives out of office is not our only avenue for participation.

Elections, Peoria Journal Star

Copley’s Obama poll question ambiguous

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Senator Barack ObamaThe Journal Star’s headline says, “Voters signal Obama support,” but that’s debatable. Dana Heupel of Copley News Service writes:

In the statewide survey, taken Monday and Tuesday, 59 percent of those polled said they would cast their ballots for the Illinois senator if he were the Democratic candidate for president. Twenty-eight percent said they would not, and 13 percent were unsure.

Yet, right above the article in the paper edition of the PJS, it reprints the actual poll question:

QUESTION: If Obama was the Democratic Party candidate for president in 2008, would you consider voting for him or not?

To “consider” means, “think carefully about (something), typically before making a decision” (New Oxford American Dictionary, emphasis mine). In other words, to say you would “consider voting for” someone is not the same as saying you would actually cast your ballot for that person.

If you were to ask me if I would consider voting for Obama, I would say “yes,” because it depends on who else is running, what his platform is at the time, who his running mate would be, etc. I wouldn’t just dismiss him out of hand. But if you were to ask me whether or not I would likely cast my ballot for him, I would say “no.”

That’s why these polls are so tricky. It’s all in how you ask the question and interpret the results. The headline could just as easily have read “Poll: 28% wouldn’t even consider voting for Obama for President.”

Peoria Journal Star, State of Illinois, Voting

Poll results and the future of polls

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According to the Journal Star’s midday update, the latest poll numbers for governor are as follows:

  • Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) — 44%
  • Judy Barr Topinka (R) — 40%
  • Rich Whitney (G) — 7%
  • Undecided — 9%

The margin of error for this poll (provided by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research) is ±4%, so the front runners are in a “statistical dead heat.”

I got to thinking about these polls…. Peoria County Clerk JoAnn Thomas has stated that 1,500 people have already voted in the county (not including the city) — that’s roughly 3% of the total registered voters in the county (approx. 50,000). If that’s the trend statewide, that’s a significant percentage. In contrast, Mason-Dixon polled 625 “likely voters” out of 7.3 million registered voters in Illinois.

So, the question is, how long do you think it will be before we start seeing polls of early voters instead of likely voters? If there are enough early voters to make the sample statistically diverse enough, couldn’t you just see pollsters calling an election before election day even arrives? I think it’s just a matter of time.

Peoria Journal Star

Copley Press to sell Peoria Journal Star

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The Journal Star reports this afternoon that their parent company, Copley Press, is selling all its newspapers in Illinois, which includes the Peoria Journal Star, Galesburg Register-Mail, Springfield’s State Journal-Register, and the Lincoln Courier:

Journal Star publisher John McConnell revealed the news to employees at a 1 p.m. companywide meeting today.

Copley said in a midday release that those papers, along with three in Ohio, will be subject to “possible mergers, sales or other transactions.”

[…] A company spokesman said the company’s decision to sell the Illinois and Ohio properties was affected by both a contraction in the newspaper business and by a looming inheritance tax related to the death of Helen Copley in 2004. Her sole surviving son David is CEO of the company.

[…] The announcement was met with stunned silence by Journal Star employees, many of whom recalled hearing about 11 years ago that the Journal Star, after more than a century of family ownership, was for sale. It was eventually acquired by Copley.

Wow. I don’t know what to say, except that I sincerely hope the employees are treated well.