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:
- Local ownership isn’t cure-all for newspapers (Boston Globe)
- Yearning to Put Papers Back in Local Hands (New York Times)
- New ‘Local’ Ownership Raises New Issues in Newsrooms (CNN Money)
- SPECIAL REPORT: Is Hometown Ownership Really the Next Big Thing? (Editor & Publisher)
“integrity” and “Peoria Journal Star” don’t belong on the same page, let alone the same sentence. They’re strangers.
Well said, CJ. I worked as an editor, reporter and columnist for three daily newspapers in Illinois and Florida. There were biases and preferential treatment at every one. Sometimes news is supressed, sometimes it is overblown in an effort to “get” someone the paper doesn’t like. The real concern by the newspaper folks is to save their jobs, something other businesses know all to well doesn’t happen with buyouts. Niney plus newsroom employees is astounding. All of the papers I worked for were equal in size or bigger than the PJS, and at most we had 40 newsroom staff. Paying multiple people to write a column or two a week was unheard of at those papers, just one example of the bloat at the PJS.
In the January 1st PJSEB editorial, the editors closed the piece as follows, “. . . Central Illinois can be a better place. We have the power and potential to make it so. It will happen faster and better if we stop punching each other. It should be our collective resolution.” To say their philosophical New Year’s resolution is disingenous is an understatement.
For Bailey and McDowell to suppress a document, signed by 14 administrators (several of whom are still in place at District 150), that contains allegations of a criminal act (physical assault) by Matheson, is at best a cover up. At worst, it could be construed as a conspiracy to conceal criminal behavior.
And now they suddenly find it convenient to assume a righteous posture about the hypothetical agenda of some future buyer?
As to Matheson’s alleged actions, assault is a criminal offense. Assault is a violent act. District #150 has a zero tolerance disciplinary policy for violence among students. But yet, the BOE tolerated violence alledgedly committed by a BOE member against an administrator. This is outrageous. Why has this community and the Illinois State Board of Education allowed a person to remain on the Board of Education who has demonstrated (according to 14 witnesses) abuse?
The hypocrisy of the PJSEB is beyond belief. They truly are “effete snobs.”