A local official had a “private” conversation last week with a Tallahassee Democrat employee, saying he was disappointed – as were others, he said – with the newspaper’s coverage of the city.
Too much attention is being given to issues that put the community in a negative light, things like the Rachel Hoffman murder, homelessness and the commission voting itself an increase in compensation through deferred retirement pay. These issues are not newsworthy, he suggested.
He said he wants to come over to the Democrat and talk to me about it. The newspaper should be highlighting more good things.
Yes, I think it is time we have a talk. But let’s do it publicly, and let’s start right now.
There are many wonderful things happening in our community, and we do our best to highlight those things. Our pages are filled with “good news” every day.
Life is good in Tallahassee for those whose lives are good.
But a newspaper worth the paper it is written on cannot be so dismissive of those for whom life isn’t so good. Nor can it stop being a watchdog on government activity. We’re not the public-relations arm of city government.
If a newspaper won’t question authority, who will? You certainly won’t get independent analytical conversation or debate on tough issues from the city-owned TV channel, WCOT.
It’s been my experience in 30 years as a journalist that the most newsworthy stories from the public’s viewpoint are the ones the politicians don’t want us to write about.
Let’s take some of the issues brought up to our reporter as not being newsworthy:
On deferred compensation: The commission votes to enrich its own members and city staff – without a vote of the public – to the tune of $1 million since the vote was taken five years ago, as reported in the Sunday Tallahassee Democrat – and that is not newsworthy? I wonder how city employees who have lost their jobs feel about that.
We were told the city could not afford to follow the charter to conduct an election to replace a vacant commission seat without cutting more jobs. Now we know why.
Look, all of this occurred at a public meeting. It was under-reported in the media, maybe missed altogether. Legal? Probably. Ethical? I don’t know. Moral? It seems to me that if you are going to take a million dollars out of the public’s pocket over five years, you want to make darn sure they know about it.
On homelessness: I spoke with a homeless man last week – a good and honest man, I might add. For much of his life, things were “normal.” Circumstances have conspired to have him living on our streets. He is 47 years old and desperately needs a job. With temperatures at life-threatening lows, he was handed a mat and told to sleep outside, even with beds available inside.
“This is how they do people,” he said, shaking his head. “This is how they do people. This is how they do people.”
Not newsworthy? I guess that depends of which side of the door you’re on when it’s cold outside.
Employers: If you need a man with character and integrity, call me. I’ll introduce you.
On Hoffman: Where do I begin? After all that we have learned about the city’s behavior in the death of this young woman, I’m simply amazed that this was brought up as not being newsworthy.
After all this, nearly two years of news stories by media outlets across the nation, changed state law and police procedures and a pending lawsuit, this is not newsworthy?
Doing these stories is just a matter of the newspaper trying to sell papers to fix declining circulation, our reporter was told. Instead we are only hurting our own reputation and losing readers.
But it’s not that people aren’t reading us that creates the worry, is it? If so, rest easy. The reality is our readership is strong; combined with Tallahassee.com, our readership is growing.
But come now, it’s not the newspaper’s reputation you are really worried about, is it?
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