N&R Review

News & Record tight-lipped on layoffs
Yes! Weekly

The Greensboro News & Record announced the layoffs of 41 employees on June 7 - 17 from the newsroom - mirroring a national trend that has shaken daily newspapers as diverse as the Los Angeles Times and the Mount Airy News.

Employees cut from the editorial rolls included full- and part-time copy editors, staff writers and editors. Anonymous posters supplied several names to local blogger Ed Cone; both long-time staffers and recent hires were represented.

Management at the News & Record required departing staffers to sign confidentiality agreements in order to receive severance pay, so none were able to speak on the record.

Ah, blackmail by any other name would stink as bad. I wonder what they would have done if an employee simply told them to shove there severance pay up beside their non-disclosure agreement? Would they have him whacked?

The newspaper announced the cuts in a terse news article posted to the web on Thursday and printed Friday. In a post on his blog, editor John Robinson defended his decision not to include any interviews from any of the terminated employees.

"As news stories about layoffs go, our total number isn't that high," he wrote.

"In recent years we've written numerous stories about the decline of the textile and furniture industries. It has gotten to the point that layoffs have to number in the hundreds before they get more than a half-dozen paragraphs inside the paper."

Dance, little man, dance. How lame is this? Let me count the ways.

1) Is he seriously telling me that if either of the other two local papers axed 41 people, he wouldn't see that as a BIG story? What about the local radio stations, or TV stations? I can tell you that if the Rhino Times axed a large number of employees, he would be all over that story.

2) A newspaper is a critical community institution, not just another factory cranking out widgets. Newspapers SHAPE the local discussion and set the agenda for what is important (well, the GOOD ones do) by covering the community and keeping the community informed about what is happening in the community.

3) Also, Robinson is playing with numbers a bit here. 41 layoffs wouldn't be a big deal for company employing thousands, but it does represent almost 7% of the N&R's total work force of about 600, so it IS significant.

Neither Robinson nor Publisher Robin Saul responded to requests for interviews. In statements released online, both said the paper would be reorganizing.

Translation: More jobs are on the way out, but we didn't want to fire everyone at once because people would talk and our lame excuse for why this is a non-story would be even lamer.

The News & Record is owned by Landmark Communications, a privately held newspaper and broadcast company headquartered in Norfolk, Va. Other daily papers owned by Landmark include the Virginian-Pilot in Hampton Roads and the Roanoke Times. Landmark also owns the Weather Channel in Atlanta.

Frank Batten, Landmark's CEO, has an estimated worth of $1.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

So, he won't be missing any meals.

The question that no one has asked, and Landmark certainly wouldn't answer is this:

"Was the N&R losing money, or simply not 'providing sufficient return on investment'?"

The latter is what happens to most jobs in America. Dell put six thousand people on the street because it missed earnings by $3 million. Which means it cut roughly $160 million in "expenses" to make up for missing earnings by a few pennies per share.

For Dell, the move is stupid and self-defeating. They claim they are trying to catch up with HP who have surpassed them in computer sales. The only trouble is that HP did so by cutting prices below Dell's, while cutting people to retain profits. As a result, HP now makes the shittiest computer in America. Dell now wants to follow HP's strategy, which it claims will allow it focus on "customer satisfaction". Just how do you get satisfied customers when you eliminate the very people who are needed to keep customers happy, especially when you start cranking out crappy computers made from the cheapest, least reliable components possible?

For the N&R, the move is catastrophic since it it greatly accelerated the death spiral of the paper by removing people and thus reducing useful content. The paper becomes more irrelevant to the local community, which means more irrelevant to local advertisers, which results in revenue continuing to plummet, and more job cuts to protect profits.

There are two ways for newspaper's like the N&R to survive in todays market, three if you count what they could have done back in the early to middle 90's. It will be interesting to see if anyone there is bright enough to figure it out, or whether they will continue their path of tighter and tighter circles around the drain of oblivion.

Greensboro police chief quits with 'great regret'
News & Record

Police Chief David A. Wray resigned Monday amidst turmoil over a "secret police" unit, irregularities in personnel matters and an independent report investigating possible misconduct on the part of some department leaders.

Wray announced his resignation to city officials at 8:30 a.m. In a letter faxed to media a half-hour later, Wray cited lost confidence -- especially from the city manager -- in his ability to lead the department.

"Certain events during the last several months have created controversy," Wray said in the statement. "During this period I have at all times acted in what I believed to be the best interest of the department and the community, attempting to find balance between a number of conflicting interests.

"The result, however, is that the city manager and some others have lost confidence and trust in my ability to lead. This is my great regret."

There is a lot more to this story coming since police chiefs don't just up and resign unless they are about to be fired or indicted.

Given this creeps love of creating his own personal Gestapo, he ceratinly isn't quitting "to spend more time with my family".

Today's paper looked like a real winner, the front page chock full of appropriate and informative stories and a real nugget with each turn of the page. It isn't until the editorial page that we hit a problem, with a very simplistic and offensive editorial cartoon.

Important stories

Everything on A1!

A dizzying decision by Amy Dominello - A story on the difficulty of navigating the byzantine health care bureaucracy and the spiralling cost. Amy talk to fellow blogger Sue Polinsky. about her insurance/health care costs, a staggering $700 a month. My only quibbles with the story was that it could have been three times as long and Amy missed two reasons in her summary of "What causes premiums to increase". She forgot "maximizing share-holder returns" (greed) and "CEO salaries" (greed).

By the way, why does the article have a different title on the N&R web site? (Rising medical costs continue to impact health care")

Truth panel sees signs of healing by Margaret Moffett Banks - A summary of the Greensboro Truth & Reconcilliation Commissions investigation so far.

Preaching Peace by Nancy McLaughlin - Coverage of Archbishop Desmond Tutu symposium (which I missed getting tickets to, damn it).

Interest grows in secret jails (AP wire) - A story I mentioned yesterday that deserved front page treatment, and lo and behold, here it is.

Travelers could speed airport checks for a fee (AP wire) - Once again our government shows it cares more about money than security. For $80 and a background check, you can now avoid the random rectal exams that do nothing to make travelers safer on airplanes.

Page A2

Heed science, Vatican cardinal says (AP wire) - I would feel better about this article if the former Grand Inquisitor of the Roman Inquisition wasn't running the church.

Page A5

Patients in U.S. pay more for care (Washingon Post) - How we pay through the nose for crappy health care.

Editorial page round up

Flawed bird flu plan needs attention now - A detailed discussion about why we are totally screwed if a flu pandemic strikes while BushCo controls the reins of power. We are told that:

Now is the time to get answers. Sixth District Rep. Howard Coble, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, may hold hearings. That's a good starting point in light of FEMA's inability to deliver after Katrina slammed the Gulf region.

Of course, by the time that doddering old Bush suck up does hold a hearing and actually decides something, the country will either be completely broke, or we will be stone fucking dead. If the N&R wants to actually do something useful on this issue, it should assign a reporter to call Coble every Monday and ask him when he will start the hearings.

Suspension rate at Kiserdoesn't tell whole story - Duh! Who's fault is that? After all you wrote the story. Next time, tell the whole story.

Attitudes, not wealth, yield success (Counterpoint column by Kris Patel) - Ms. Patel launches into conservative lecture #36, "Poor people would succeed if they weren't lazy/ had a bad attitude".

Answers to op-eds and letters to the editors

The News & Record's report ("Dollars and Sense," Oct. 9) on the link between poverty, wealth and education was disappointing and feeds into the stereotype that if you are poor, you cannot succeed. My husband's experience demonstrates that this simply is not true.

I went back and read the article and I can't find any place where it said "if you are poor, you cannot succeed." The gist of the article is that if you are poor, the odds are against you succeeding. BIG difference.

Articles like the one written are counterproductive and demeaning to the parents who are economically disadvantaged but are trying to instill the values of hard work and discipline in their children, and they are also insulting to the people who have achieved educational and/or financial success through hard work.

How was the article "counterproductive and demeaning" to poor parents? All it did was try to educate folks like you about how the odds are stacked against the poor. It was not "insulting to the people who have achieved educational and/or financial success through hard work" though it seems to have goaded people who acquired wealth by marrying rich doctors into writing snotty op-eds to the local paper.

I hope that economically disadvantaged families will read about my husband and his family and see that high expectations are the key to later success.

Well, doesn't that kind of assume that:

1) Poor families have the time and the money to read condescending pieces life this.

2) Poor families can read.

3) Poor families can read English.

That is the problem with a sub-standard education, after all.

Editorial cartoons

The N&R ran a Mike Lester comic on the editorial page which shows a young mother looking out the window after her baby which her husband has just killed. She asks why he didn't tell her he was going to kill the baby and he responds that "contituted an undue burden".

This is a simplistic dig at an overturned Pennyslvania law requiring husbands be notified if wives were going to have an abortion. If the wife can "kill" the baby without telling the husband before it is born, then the husband can kill the baby after it is born.

When men can carry a fetus for nine months and go through all the problems and risks involved in preganacy and labor, we'll talk. Until then the issue is moot, women must have control over their bodies no matter how much it pisses off some men.

OK, I hear you, I'm way late. But hey, this is not a paying gig and I have to pay the bills. I also had to pop over to the meeting of the Guilford County Comissioners to try once again to thwart the evil machinations of the Guilford County Elections director who is still trying to foist insecure, inaccurate and overly expensive electronic voting machines on the voters. These machine have a very bad track record for reliability and are much more expensive than the more accurate and reliable optical scan units. More on this later.

Let's turn to page A1

Stories that did not belong on the front page

Kiser suspension rates rises by Bruce Buchanan - Yes, it's local news, and yes it is of some importance to the populace, but B1 importance, not A1. While school discipline is certainly a concern of the community, problems in a specific school affect only that small portion of the community. Also, while we get a helpful bar chart showing us suspension rates in all the schools, the chart is really not that helpful because it omits the size of each school's student population. A better chart would rank suspensions as a percentage of each schools student body, which I think would give a better idea of the problem. They quote Kiser's student population at 950, but we are not told how this compares in size to other schools.

Stories that could have told me more

Campaign law could apply to bloggers (AP wire) - This story outlines a new law which could have profound effects on the First Amendment rights of bloggers across the country AND in the Triad, yet we only get a four graf wire story which is little better than a summary. The N&R does insert a box with how local representatives voted, which is nice, but not very helpful without a more in-depth explanation of the issue.

After praising the N&R yesterday for engaging bloggers, they promptly let me down. This is a story that has a local angle and could have been explored from the context of how it would affect local and state political campaigns, instead we are left in the dark.

Kiser suspension rates rises - See above comments about lack of context for statistics.

Something I just noticed

Why do we have results from the Virgina Lottery in the paper? Up until recently, the lottery was illegal, so wasn't the N&R aiding and abetting a numbers racket by printing the results?

Kudos

Stengthy, Honor by Allison Perkins - A sensitive story on the death of Marine Andrew Russoli.

Stories that should have been on the front page

CIA detention policies come under fire from lawmakers (Washington Post) - The fact that the United States governement is running secret concentration camps is an issue of great importance to readers since such activities greatly inflame world opinion against the U.S. and greatly increase our danger from terrorist retaliation.

Who gets vaccinated - A summary box explaining the priority that will be in affect in the event of a flu pandemic.

Editorial page round up

Homestead report needs public airing - A call for the Guilford County district attorney to get off his ass and release the SBI report on the Project Homestead scandal. The scandal involved the misappropriation of public money to build low-income housing, a scandal that ultimately resulted in the suicide of the project's president, Michael King.

The editorial call is perfectly justified, but I do disagree with these comments as being rather hyperbolic.

Some are waiting as anxiously as young readers anticipate the next Harry Potter book.

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are full of spells, wizards and strange plot twists. The SBI report about Project Homestead might offer the same.

The volumes are written. They can't be allowed to vanish into thin air.

Having read a number of investigative reports, I can tell you that J.K. Rowling is a far superior and more engaging writer.

Ready to rumble in DC - A summary of the Alito nomination and the forces lining up for a fight. While the editorial does a good job of setting the stage for what is coming, they completely skip over any discussion of the actions of the Republicans and their shifting opinions of filibusters, everyone being entitled to "an up or down vote" and the absence of "litmus tests". Before they forced Harriet Meirs to fall on her sword, the GOP leadership was prepared to filibuster, applied a litmus test, and ultimately denied Miers that "up or down vote". This week They are back to "no litmus tests", an "up or down vote" and invling the nuclear option to prevent a filibuster.

Doesn't such bald-faced hypocrisy deserve some mention?

Why Bush didn't pick Alito sooner Clarence Page (syndicated) - A pretty cogent discussion of the Miers-Alito nominations which addresses Bush cluelessness, indifference or miscalculation of his own base. The only part that gives me pause is this observation:

Conservatives don't meet in a room somewhere in a true right-wing conspiracy any more than left-wing liberals and progressives do. But in the anti-Miers backlash by conservatives, they proved themselves to be a strong movement, like-minded enough to unleash columns, commentaries and blogs within days that cooled Miers' support in the Senate like rain on a prairie fire.

I would suggest that Page read The Republican Noise Machine by David Brock, a former darling of the Right who was part of the "vast Right-wing conspiracy" that Hilary Clinton was derided for mentioning.

To think that the opposition to Miers wasn't coordinated is to be terribly naive. The support of Miers certainly was. In fact, I believe that the real reason Miers had to withdraw was so Bush could provide cover for James Dobson. The idea of Dobson being subpoened by Arlen Spectre (who owes Dobson for almost costing him his chairmanship on the Judiciary Committee) and being forced to recount his conference call with Kark Rove, made tossing Miers under the bus an imperative.

The lessons of scandals past by Lou Cannon (syndicated) - A decent analysis of scandals past and how Bush has not learned anything from them in dealing with his own scandal. It pretty much boils down to Bush's pathological inability to admit error.

An answer to Ray Nagin by Mary Sanchez (syndicated) - I had missed this stupid question from Ray Nagin, and he should be ashamed of asking "How do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?"

Instead of slapping him, Sanchez launches into a discussion of the complexities of poverty in New Orleans and racial tensions between blacks and hispanics.

There's no such thing as free web by Edward Wasserman (syndicated) - Another missed opportunity for the N&R to solicit comment from the local blogging community. After all, Wasserman is discussing something they have a vested opinion about.

Wasserman sets out to disabuse us of the "cherished lie" that content on the web is free. Our hero is essentially correct in his explanation about the secret costs of online content, but misses on a few points.

There IS free content on the web, like this site and many like it. Of course, you gets what you pays for. Also, once you understand how the web works, you can avoid much of the involuntary payments it tries to extract without cheating the content ptoviders. This posting for example, uses N&R content to a degreem but doesn't deprive the N&R of any revenue and may in fact sell a few papers (I buy mine each day at full retail). I will be linking to articles that the N&R posts, therefore generating ad revenue for them when a reader clicks through to read the article in question.

As to music, ITunes is doing quite well, proving that people will pay for quality content that is REASONABLY priced. Audible books provides audio books cheaper to the consumer and at a higher profit for the publisher.

Wasserman mentions micropayments as the ideal system for helping content providers get paid for their efforts and I agree with him completely. Trouble is that most people are waiting on this system to arise from the private sector, which won't touch it because there isn't enough profit in it (It doesn't make any sense to pay a twenty-five cent fee on a nickel transaction.

The answer, of course, is to designate this function as an extension of the Federal Reserve system. The Federal Reserve already provides many services to facilitate commerce and stabilize the economy. Designing and implementing a system that facilitates micropayements would create a whole new sector of the economy. It would also answer a lot of problematic questions about collecting sales taxes on-line, something that threatens to derail e-commerce in the near future.

This is the start of something I hope to do on a regular basis, and that is a review of my local paper, the Greensboro News & Record. Now, the paper likes to call itself simply the News & Record because some marketing suit told them they were alienating their surrounding communities and losing sales. This would be the same marketing idiots who persuaded them to change the paper's layout to match that of USA Today about 15 years ago, so we know how much credence to give that suggestion. Fortunately, for my eyes and stomach, the paper has drifted away from it's USA Todayification.

The paper is a fairly decent effort and it's flaws are mostly those related to its being owned by a soulless media conglomerate (Landmark) i.e. an editorial page dominated by right-wing and center-right columnists with the rare true liberal (Molly Ivins) thrown in; too many "fluff" stories that have no business on the front page of any newspaper; and accepting ads that try to look like news stories and failing to boldy mark them as ads.

The paper's virtues are solid enough, specifically it has embraced bloggers in a manner I have not seen in any other corporate newspaper. It solicts stories from local bloggers and makes it a point of policy to credit bloggers for story leads as well as quoting local blogs on the editorial page. The local reporters are decent sorts who are fairly professional with an appropriately adversarial relationship with the county government (a group mostly populated by hacks, prima donnas and the odd racist). The paper occasionally wanders into investigative journalism and when it does, it kicks ass.

The paper's main nemesis is a weekly NeoCon rag call The Rhino Times which has a devoute folllowing among the local Hitler Humpers who view the N&R as to the left of Stalin. I would consider doing a review of the RT, but that is a task for someone with a stronger stomach than mine.

So, let's look at today's paper:

Stories with no business on the front page

Elvis has left the building by Jonathan Jones - While the theft of an Elvis statue from the roof of a local business is certainly newsworthy (and humorous), it is hardly of compelling importance.

'G' movie not what it used to be (AP wire) - This is one of those "culture issue" stories whining about how G-rated movies now have lots of violence and sexual innuendo. This is, of course, an complaint about cartoons dating back to the Sixties when some people decided that their "precious darlings" might chuck their siblings off a cliff because they saw Wile E. Coyote fall off a cliff five times in 8 minutes and suffer nothing worse than "accordianitis". In other words, more histrionics from "we must protect the children" crowd who take all the fun out of childhood. These cretins would mandate laws requiring snakes and spiders to have orange warning labels affixed to them, rather than simply telling their snot-nosed issue to stop molesting the local fauna.

This story belonged in the "Life" section or buried in the back of the weekly TV listings supplement.

Stories that should have been on the front page

Senate closes doors for Iraq question (AP wrire, A3) - The ass-whuppin' dealt out to the Republican leadership was THE story yesterday, and for the editor to relegate it to a scant 8 column inches on page 3 is just wrong. The Dem leadership finally showed some spine and short-circuited BushCo's attempt to change the subject away from endangering national security and lying about Iraq. Arguably, the Alito announcement should have been on page 1 as well, but instead, it was banished to page 5.

Defense contractor deaths in Iraq triple in past months (wire story, A6) - One of the most important and under-reported stories of the Iraq invasion and occupation is the "privatization" of the war. Using civilian contractors (mercenaries) to perform jobs traditionally performed by the military has been an unmitigated disaster in terms of lives lost and in tax money wasted. Given that the vile mercenary firm Blackwater USA is based in our own state, you would think this would get more coverage. Currently a force of civilians equal in size to over half our military force are in the middle of a war zone. 428 have been killed, 3,963 have been wounded and yet this story only rates three paragraphs.

Editorial page roundup

Smothers deserves new term as mayor - An endorsement of Becky Smothers for mayor of High Point since her opponent has bothered to mount much of a campaign and he's one of these "no new taxes" nuts.

Build nuclear power plant, but 'where' is the question - An endorsement of new nuclear power plants in the state which trots out the same tired justifications that come straight from the Nuke industry talking points memo. Mention the drawbacks and dangers, but conclude that energy demands make building nukes inevitable and that, (all together now) WIND AND SOLAR SOURCES ARE POSSIBILITIES, BUT FOR NOW NUCLEAR ENERGY IS THE MOST VIABLE OPTION.

This comment has been around since the 70's and you would think that these folks would have twigged to the fact that the energy industry has never really made an effort to exploit renewable energy sources. The reason they are not really interested in investing in making solar/wind economically viable is that it would mean the end of their monopoly on energy. After all, if you can slap solar panels on the roof of your house, what do you need Duke Power for?

To summarize this editorial:

We haven't solved ANY of the problems related to nuclear power like waste displosal, secruity, and safety, but since nukes haven't killed anyone lately, we should go ahead and build a plant in North Carolina.

Panhandlers need code of conduct by Doug Clark (Local) - This column meanders about on the topic of panhandlers and how they should behave in a manner that makes them less troubling to society in general and Mr. Clark in particular. We learn that our hero is of that particular brand of Christian who will only perform his Christian duties to the needy if he is in a good mood, or sufficiently entertained by the antics of the needy.

Despite the great build up to a "code of conduct" for panhandlers (when was the last time anyone accosted you for money with a "pan" in their hands?), when Clark finally gets to the point, he only has two entries for the code:

1) Don't go into buildings where children are present to beg for money (How these folks are supposed to know this is not covered, but I would think that homeless individuals possessing X-ray vision or mind readings skills would not be begging on the street).

2) Don't knock on people's door late at night looking for money (sensible advice as Mr. Clark may set the dog on you).

Clark then whimsically states that if panhandlers have a "trade association" they should adopt his two rules and then he would be more inclined toward excercising Christian charity. Of course homeless people, suffering as they do from abject poverty, mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction and a host of other problems, do not have an association, nor very many advocates for their welfare. One could wonder why a local newspaper columnist might not take up such a cause, but it seems that such people have more important things to write about.

It occurs to me to wonder whether when the day arrives where Mr. Clark stands in judgement before his God, that God might not whip out this very column and read it back to him, word-for-word.

Wouldn't that be awkward?

The devolution of feminism by Kathleen Parker (Syndicated) - Feminism BAD. Feminism BAAAAAAD!

Favorite quote:

Meanwhile, when we're not bashing men, we're diminishing manhood. Look around at entertainment and other cultural signposts and you see a feminized culture that prefers sanitized men - hairless, coiffed, buffed and, if possible, gay.

Excuse me, how can you be "hairless" AND "coiffed". And doesn't being gay exclude them from a discussion of women's choice of husbands?

By the way, Parker's actual title for her column was Feminism's devolution from hoaxers to whores, but some soul with taste "castrated" the title. Probably a feminist.

We've come long way on racism by Eugene Robinson (Syndicated) - Robinson recounts visiting Rosa Parks as she lay in state in Washington, marvelling at how people of both political stripes had come to pay their respects. He ignores the harsh reality that some of those folks were crass enough to use Park's corpse as a prop in a photo op (Judge Alito, j'accuse!), so that people would forget they represented the kinds of vile people who promulgate racism today.

Yes, we have come a long way since blacks were killed by the police for trying to enter a segregated bowling alley. Today cops shoot them 20+ times for pulling out a wallet. This later is considered to be a "justified" use of force by all white investigators.

Answers to letters to the editor

Newspaper keeps good news hidden

You know, when I wrote this "good news is no news" letter, I had a hunch that it would not be printed, because it is true. I, and the majority of your readers, would prefer hearing good news. So put the bad news, if you must, in fine print in the middle of the paper, where you are now hiding the good news.

If you were known as a paper that printed the good stuff, I firmly believe that your circulation would increase, rather than decrease, as I suspect is happening now.

Tommy Cox
Greensboro

Dear Tommy:

You are an idiot.

I am fed up with this polly prissy-pants view that the world would be much better if the news media would just ignore the bad things that go on and just report the "good news".

Bad things happen in the world, and many times bad things happen to people who can't be bothered to keep track of all the bad things happening in the world. sadly it doesn't happen often enough and we keep getting letters like yours.

That said, I will agree that the news media (particularly the electronic media) seem to enjoy hyping some bad news with ghoulish delight, but that is what you get when you watch Fox, CNN,MSNBC and the rest of the All Missing White Women 24 hour networks.

While it might please you if the paper would put the bad news on the inside of the paper where it wouldn't offend your candy-assed sensibilities, this is the real world and some of us like to know what is going on. It pisses me off when I have to dig through the B section to find news of the hurricane bearing down on my house.

If you don't want to read bad news, may I suggest a subscription to The Weekly Reader?