Isn't there an election this year?

I could have sworn there was......but in the month since I decided to keep track of the Whig's coverage of the Zinga-Hare race, there have been no stories to keep track of. None.

What's going on?

Well, a weakness in campaign coverage that not just the Whig, but most local (and many national) media experience.....letting campaign events dictate coverage. So, if neither Zinga nor Hare come to Quincy, the campaign doesn't get any coverage. But that's not how campaigns should be covered! The press shouldn't let the candidates drive the agenda....they should identify the public's agenda, and let that drive their coverage.

On a related note on the subject of provinciality.......

The Whig lays claim to being a regional newspaper......hence the Deborah Gertz Husar and Ann Pierceall stories from far-flung points about interesting news of home canning and thumbtack collections. But when you get right down to it, in the pages of the Herald-Whig, Quincy is what counts, and the Quincy point of view is what matters. Witness the coverage of the scheme to generate power from the lock and dam stations. Nowhere in the H-W's coverage was there any consideration of how the cities of Canton and Hannibal might react to Quincy claiming the right to generate power from dams that are much, much closer to them than to Quincy......in Canton's case, right at the city itself. Wouldn't a regional newspaper have contacted Hannibal or Canton officials for some comment?

Objective journalism

Very good story Wednesday about the Quincy schools/teachers union contract. Even though the principals weren't talking, Holly Wagner did what journalists are supposed to do.....dug around and found some people willing to talk. Good reporting and clear writing.

I can't help but compare that to the Shoutfest reporting. Throughout all the stories on the event, some things were not reported. For example:

The fact that you had to pay to get in. Not mentioned once.
Anything about how much money the organizer was going to make from the event.
Any comment from anyone inconvenienced by the closing of streets.
Any comment that expressed anything less than total enthusiasm.

Media everywhere prohibit reporters from covering beats about which they are strongly partisan for this very reason. The loss of objectivity damages the credibility of the organization as a whole. Ah well, enough about Shoutfest. Time to cover something more important! Is there any Soap Box Derby news?

Interestingly enough, the same reporter does a solid job covering Quincy Raceways. Same degree of enthusiasm for the subject, but no stake in the outcome.....so the reporting is better.

Useless websites

I hate to carp, but doggone, the Herald-Whig's website is a waste of electrons. This morning.....got to my office, thought to myself, "Hm, wonder how the elections over in Missouri turned out?" Went to the Whig website........

Nada.

Both WGEM and KHQA had up-to-date results. So did the Hannibal Courier-Post.

If you want people to visit your website, you've got to put content on there that they want to see.....not just a shovelware version of your top three stories of the previous day.

Monday, August 7

A grand 68 inches of SHOUTfest promotion, this time on the front of the city/county section......possibly a new record! As I said in an earlier post, I have no objection to "happy news".......as long as it's kept in proportion. But the H-W seems to take the happy news emphasis to absurd levels sometimes, especially when it's a reporter's pet subject. That's where editors are supposed to come into the picture.....but editors have to take their marching orders from their superiors too.

Like the first robin of spring.....

The first 18 inches of SHOUTfest hype appeared on Monday, July 31. In a remarkable bit of restraint, the next one didn't arrive until Saturday, August 4.

On a brighter note, Ed Husar's local politics pieces in that same paper will very well researched and reported. And *finally*, the H-W ran a locator map of the disputed ethanol plant location. The map was well done and extremely helpful. Yes, there are people who buy the Herald-Whig who didn't grow up in Quincy and who don't automatically know every road and village in the area. Locator maps help these poor souls, out there freezing in I-didn't-grow-up-here land.

Hot breaking news from Quincy!

Sunday, July 30--Herald-Whig reporter prefers Coke over other beverages!

Seriously, why mar an otherwise good paper with three-quarters of a page of this silliness? I know that a newspaper has to include a few "just for fun" segments....but this piece was just dumb.

In the fine print, with just a scosh of sanctimony, the story adds that only non-alcoholic beverages were included in the one-person "survey" because it's intended for the whole family. This in a city where, in living memory, it was a regular part of a kid's chores to go down to the corner tavern with a bucket to get fresh suds for Mom & Dad in the evening.

On another note, the paper's coverage of Josh Rabe and Josh Kinney making the major leagues has been handled well. Not overplayed, but plenty of hometown pride at local boys making the bigs. Perhaps in the off-season the H-W can do the big feature...especially if both of them manage to stay in the majors for the rest of the season. The great danger here is to get out ahead of the story and proclaim them great successes prematurely.