JimF-LowBari Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 (edited) Def. not uncommon. Some friends I have who are editors of online sites call those types of stories 'hit whoring.' A lame part of the business Really went downhill when the hard copy paper was bought by a corporation of some sort and went to printing 3 times a week. Just see the handwriting that online will be where the local paper is going... period.... Really bizzare part is the monitoring of the comments posted by readers. When a sore subject is brought up (ohhhhh say Penn State and the ongoing Sandusky scandal) really nasty personal attacks stay up while calm ones are removed. Thing part of the problem is the software used to remove posts but just think the mods are real dufuses or keeping the crap up to generate interest. Sad part is the online "articles" have about 1/3 of the info as compared to the print version. And editing that just destroys understanding of the story, such as "He said..." but nothing in the online article to say who "he" was... Edited December 14, 2013 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Honestly: bitter parents who would rather discount the merits and hard work of THEIR OWN CHILDREN, and their children's peers (not to mention the BOA Regional judges, Lassiter Band staff, Lassiter band parent boosters and volunteers, etc) for the sole purpose of denigrating the Band Director. It's really sad: not surprising, but still sad oh trust me...I once sat in the stands as a fan at a band show I had no horse in the race at. Listening to parents.."they always win..all they have to do is show up and they get an 80". #### like that all night long. I finally turned around and said "no they kick your bands ### because they design smart, they teach their kids to perform, and they rehearse like champions. Your band overwrites, has the same mistakes in October they do in September, and rehearsal is a joke." For the remaining 3 bands, it was awfully quiet around me 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 oh trust me...I once sat in the stands as a fan at a band show I had no horse in the race at. Listening to parents.."they always win..all they have to do is show up and they get an 80". #### like that all night long. I finally turned around and said "no they kick your bands ### because they design smart, they teach their kids to perform, and they rehearse like champions. Your band overwrites, has the same mistakes in October they do in September, and rehearsal is a joke." For the remaining 3 bands, it was awfully quiet around me So you're snarky in real life too! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 (edited) Snarky but truthful.... bit of a Central PA trait..... But... we usually say blunt instead of snarky.... or subtle as a Semi hitting a wall at 80mph. Edited December 15, 2013 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
actucker Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 One of the problems is that in today's culture many people consume and desire sound-bite sensationalism instead of in-depth factual hard news. Truth, truth, and more truth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 So you're snarky in real life too! LOL I prefer brutally honest. it seems to #### people off everywhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie1223 Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 I prefer brutally honest. it seems to #### people off everywhere Well I'm not one to judge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Well I'm not one to judge! I am LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2muchcoffeeman Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 (edited) PS - Local paper went online a few years back and has been accused of stirring up crap by having articles that go more for the emotions (IOW anger) than the cold hard facts. Idea is more viewing and posting hits, the more valuable the online ad space is. I can see that applying here too. Def. not uncommon. Some friends I have who are editors of online sites call those types of stories 'hit whoring.' A lame part of the business Having been in the news business for 30 years, I can reasonably surmise that what happened at MDJOnline was not "hit whoring." It was simply a hot local controversy handled by a relatively green reporter. In my experience, stories like this get started with a phone call or email from one of the angry parents to the local paper. In this case, the call is forwarded to the schools reporter, and she begins taking notes and names, which the original caller is only too happy to provide (because, as the source always says in a case like this: "It's not just me. Everyone agrees with me.") A few phone calls later, the reporter has a notebook full of angry quotes from parents. And it's a legit story -- prominent local program; transition within a public institution; frustrated stakeholders; plus some added spice of overweening parents and the unmistakable whiff of entitlement. This story would have been reported the exact same way long before the arrival of the Internet. So the reporter does next what she is trained to do: She calls the school and the teacher for comment. Both decline. (The subsequent complaints by the teacher about the lack of "fair and balanced" journalism are off-base. The teacher had the opportunity to respond before the first story was published, and she declined. The reporter cannot be expected to do more than to go directly to the object of the parents' frustration.That the teacher and school have subsequently decided to publicly mount a defense is fine, but it is not an indictment of the reporter's fairness). MDJ Online is simply the online home of what is a classic, straight-ahead suburban newspaper, one of hundreds that exist in major metro areas. The bread and butter for news organizations like this is cops, courts, schools + HS sports, and local features. Parades. Ribbon cuttings. Mill levies. Much of what ails the Marietta Daily Journal and most other local daily newspapers/websites isn't "hit whoring," but persistent blandness and the crippling overhead of printing and distribution in the digital age. It doesn't help that the newsrooms like the MDJ generally are A) understaffed with B) reporters who are fresh out of school. No, what crippled this story was not malice or pandering, but simple inexperience, as I surmised in my earlier post. It's a complex and nuanced story that was handled with all the nuance of a sledgehammer. Sorry to drag this OT, but given that the whole mess revolves around news coverage of the episode, I think it's worth getting our assessment of the journalism right. Edited December 24, 2013 by 2muchcoffeeman 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slingerland Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Snarky but truthful.... bit of a Central PA trait..... Central PA? Isn't that the "Alabama in the middle" part of the political description of Pennsylvania? Re: the original article...parents who get really stoked up about their high school's team sports need to go out and rent more interesting adult lives. Any time a kids' competitive success becomes that important to a grownup, that should serve as a clue that they need to go find something more useful to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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