Thursday, July 27

A good paper today.....honest to goodness news on the front page and on the city/county front. Now this is what a small-city newspaper should look like! The saved-from-drowning story was a bit purple and overlong, but hey, it was the only feature.

In general, the Herald-Whig does a good job of avoiding political bias in its news columns (despite the efforts of bloggers and letter-writers on the left and right to find a pro-Democrat or pro-Republican slant in a writer's news reports). However, I have noticed what may be a bit of a tendency to publish more puff pieces for Andrea Zinga than for Phil Hare.....the QHW sometimes seems to merely reprint Zinga's press releases with no effort at critical reporting. So let's start a tally and see how things add up over the campaign season.

Yesterday's paper (July 26)

Page 9A (Front of City/County--probably the best-read page in the paper)

Zinga -- Uncritical puff piece wrapped 3 columns on 4 (16 column inches), jumping to page 11 for 5 column inches--total of 21 inches for Zinga. Picture included. Admittedly, it's not the most flattering photo, with the fold going right beneath her perky newscaster nose. Silliest unchallenged claim: that she will make electronic infrastructure better if elected in November. Biggest oh-really: "People face a very serious dilemma on health care."

Hare -- No story.

First round:

Zinga 21 inches, 1 photo; Hare zero inches or photo.

Random and occasional comments on Quincy news media

God bless the Quincy Herald-Whig! It keeps the word "Whig" on people's lips when it otherwise would be forgotten! And occasionally news sneaks in as well. But only in between bouts of Soap Box derby promotion, build-a-highway puffery, and accounts of preachers' vacations. Granted, all community journalism involves a bit of boosterism now and then, but the QHW takes it to delightful heights.

Forecast: Many many articles in the next month about SHOUTFest, which got huge amounts of ink last year.......until it came time to report the size of the crowd that actually came, which was well below the predicted number.