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30 December 2004
The opposite of hyperlocal journalism
The Chronicle's Austin bureau chief must have skipped town early to celebrate New Year's. Or maybe he's utterly consumed writing his weekend editorial column.
Otherwise, one wonders why the Chronicle had to rely on AP reporting on the fallout over a story broken by the Dallas Morning News yesterday.
One also wonders why there wasn't some adult editorial supervision of this Austin dispatch from R.G. Ratcliffe announcing that House Speaker Tom Craddick (R) has replaced press secretary Bob Richter:
"I want to thank Bob for his continued dedication and hard work," Craddick said in the release. "It has been a pleasure working with him."
Richter described Craddick as a "good guy."
Richter said he is supposed to talk to someone next week about a possible new job.
He's supposed to talk to some guy sometime about some job or something? Nice of the Chron to clear that up!
Then there's this:
As Richter's replacement, Craddick hired Heather Tindall, who has been the spokeswoman for the scandal-plagued Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Craddick is Richter's replacement?
There's really no excuse for this sort of copy to make its way into the newspaper.
The Chronicle has invested tons of money redesigning its type and layout, and has brought in a new Washington chief who surely didn't come cheaply to a bloated D.C. bureau. Meanwhile, it continues to do a poor job covering local stories (being scooped at least twice by the Dallas newspaper in the last three months on stories it should have owned), and a mediocre job with its Austin coverage.
Surely Jack Sweeney and Jeff Cohen can't believe that anyone would turn to the Chronicle for coverage of Washington politics. And surely nobody but MeMo believes that young readers are going to pick up the rag because the Features section is now identified by a giant * and has lots of skin on its pages. But since there is some evidence the Chronicle brain trust (don't snicker) actually does believe these things, here's a hint for them: Go Local! Cover this city. Cover this state. Bring in some fresh writers who revel in things Texan. Concentrate your resources on doing Houston and Texas better than any other media source in this state.
Or continue to lose readers and relevance.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/04 10:17 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
21 August 2005
The three stooges of state government?
On Friday, the Chronicle editorial board wrote the following about the close of the latest legislative special session:
Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick come away from this session looking less like statesmen and more like Larry, Curley and Moe.
It is hard to believe a major metropolitan daily would commit such insulting language to print.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 08:01 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
05 April 2005
Mean Republicans want to take $900 million from HISD!
Here's a good example of an agenda-driven, press release-inspired "news" story:
The Houston school district could lose up to $900 million over the first two years under various private school voucher bills being considered by the Texas Legislature[...]
This sounds frightening -- 'til you read the rest of the paragraph, and the subsequent paragraphs:
[...]according to an organization that opposes the proposals.
"Texas lawmakers need to solve school finance problems, not create new ones with vouchers," said Carolyn Boyle, coordinator of the Coalition for Public Schools.
The group released its report on vouchers' potential impact on Houston and other urban school districts Monday, the day before a House committee debates the volatile issue.
Zzzzzzzz. Yawn. Oh sorry, I thought this was going to be some "news." Instead it's a nice piece for the Coalition for Public Schools to add to its website, to show how important its "study" was. "Look, we're in the Houston Chronicle!"
And who makes up the Coalition for Public Schools:
Coalition for Public Schools Executive Committee
Co-Chairs
Brock Gregg, Director of Governmental Relations, Association of Texas Professional Educators
Craig Tounget, Executive Director, Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers (PTA)
Executive Committee Members
Harley Eckhart, Associate Executive Director, Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association
Richard Kouri, Director of Governmental Relations, Texas State Teachers Association
John O'Sullivan, Secretary-Treasurer, Texas Federation of Teachers
Amy Beneski, Associate Executive Director, Governmental Relations, Texas Association of School Administrators
Lindsay Gustafson, Staff Attorney/Governmental Affairs, Texas Classroom Teachers Association
M. J. Nicchio, Assistant Director, Governmental Relations Division, Texas Association of School Boards
Cindy Kirby, Texas Association of Secondary School Principals
Kathy Miller, Executive Director, Texas Freedom Network (self-described as a "counter the radical right")
Deece Eckstein, Texas Director, People for the American Way
The usual group of naysayers and Chicken Littles.
Is there anything from the other side?
The sponsor of one voucher bill, Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, disputed the coalition's numbers. She said her bill would apply to fewer than one-half of 1 percent of the state's 4 million public school students.
"Vouchers will not take any money away from the public schools," said Harper-Brown. "It's strictly a scare tactic."
Is the study a scare tactic? Yep:
Boyle said the projections on potential loss of school district funding were based on the maximum number of eligible students using the vouchers. She said the numbers are conservative because they don't include students currently enrolled in private school or home-school students who could qualify for funding.
The truth is out there, but it's best to hide it, when pushing an agenda.
And for a nice touch toward the end:
Voucher proponents, however, have powerful allies. Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick all support a pilot program to allow students in low-performing schools to use taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private schools.
Oooooo, powerful allies support allowing students stuck in low-performing schools to attend private schools to get a better education. Scandalous!
UPDATE: I missed this Dallas Morning News story on KHOU-11's website. It's hysterical, too (not "hahaha" hysterical):
"These three voucher bills are a mean assault on our urban school districts," said Carolyn Boyle, a spokeswoman for the Coalition for Public Schools.
[snip]
Staley Gray, a PTA leader from Austin, said state money would be handed over to "unproven private schools" with no requirement for public accountability.
[snip]
Virtually all public education groups in Texas are lobbying against the voucher proposals.
Gee, what a surprise! We wouldn't want the monopoly of power currently enjoyed by "public education groups" to be messed with, now would we? It's interesting that these "public education groups" never seem to worry about the poor education children are receiving at some public schools.
And check this out, at the end:
A Hispanic group will stage a rally in support of school vouchers today, with Mr. Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick expected to attend.
The Chronicle's story failed to mention that.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/05/05 11:18 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
02 January 2008
Cohen: "The name of this newspaper is the Houston Chronicle...."
In the January 2008 Texas Monthly, Paul Burka writes about reductions in the size of the Austin press corps. His story includes snippets of a conversation with Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen:
I called Jeff Cohen, the editor of the Chronicle, to ask him about the reduction in the paper’s coverage, including the layoffs at the Hearst bureau. “I don’t feel bad about having only six reporters covering the Capitol,” he said. “Texas Monthly only has one in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city. The name of this newspaper is the Houston Chronicle, not the ‘Austin Chronicle.’ We often put Austin stories on the front page in session and out of session when they relate to the leadership or they involve watchdog reporting.” A lot of political stories, he said, can be covered with local reporters, such as a recent piece on the unfulfilled promise of electric deregulation. He acknowledged the financial pressures newspapers face: “Advertisers are unsure about where to spend their dollars in a fragmented media marketplace. That will resolve itself eventually, but in the meantime there’s a pressure to cut costs.”
In the long term, my concern, like Jefferson’s, is government without newspapers. How will people in Brownsville and Harlingen and McAllen know what they’re not reading about what’s happening in state government? They won’t. How will Speaker Tom Craddick’s claims to absolute power affect legislative races around the state if the media don’t remind the public of the controversy? Beyond these questions lies another: Will there still be newspapers—or newspaper readers—in the digital age?
Jeff Cohen says yes. “Chronicle home delivery is up,” he told me. “We’ve sold more college subscriptions in Austin, College Station, and Waco in each of the last three years. As long as there are informed and educated readers, there will be a place for newspapers.
So, how much better might the Chronicle be able to cover the Houston area AND Texas if the newspaper were to shutter its expensive (and ineffectual) Washington bureau and redeploy some of the resources to local and regional coverage?
We agree with Cohen that yes, the newspaper's base is the Houston area, and that means it should focus on Houston. Most people don't pick up the Chronicle to see what its stellar D.C. bureau is reporting. But they do pick it up to see what's going on in the area (and for coupons!). And if the Chron is truly selling more subscriptions in Austin, College Station, and Waco, then it suggests the newspaper should be broadening its regional/state coverage, not cutting it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/02/08 10:22 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (11)
25 November 2004
Heflin campaign goes nuclear
Republican Talmadge Heflin's campaign has now "gone nuclear" with regard to his most recent race against Democrat Hubert Vo (the certified winner of the race):
State Rep. Talmadge Heflin asked the state House of Representatives today to overturn the results of his failed re-election bid and either order him returned to the Legislature or call for a new election.
Heflin's attorney, Andy Taylor, said the election results in state House District 149 in southwest Harris County were fraught with voting irregularities and potential fraud, most of which occurred in predominantly Democratic precincts.
"The true outcome of this election was stolen from the voters in House District 149," Taylor said Tuesday. "We will prove that Representative Talmadge Heflin was re-elected."
Heflin, a Republican member of the House since 1983 and chairman of its Appropriations Committee, lost to Democratic businessman Hubert Vo by 32 votes earlier this month. But Heflin's campaign alleges that those election results include at least 248 irregularities that could have altered the outcome.
I'm rarely surprised by political events -- indeed, I make a living by predicting such events (at least in the international sphere) -- but this one surprises me.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/25/04 11:35 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
28 September 2005
DeLay indicted by Texas grand jury
The Associated Press is reporting that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been indicted by a Texas grand jury:
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
More details will surely be available shortly.
UPDATE: Here is an excerpt from Laylin Copelin's reporting for the Austin American-Statesman:
A Travis County grand jury today indicted U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on one count of criminal conspiracy, jeopardizing the Sugar Land Republican's leadership role as the second most powerful Texan in Washington, D.C.
The charge, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years incarceration, stems from his role with his political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, a now-defunct organization that already had been indicted on charges of illegally using corporate money during the 2002 legislative elections.
The grand jury, however, took no action against Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond or state Reps. Dianne Delisi and Beverly Woolley, both of whom sit on the political committee's board, for their roles in the election.
The grand jury's term ended today.
Delay's defense team will hold a press conference in Austin later this afternoon. The team includes defense attorneys Bill White and Steve Brittain of Austin and Dick DeGuerin of Houston.
[snip]
[A] conspiracy charge falls under the criminal code, not the election statute that bans corporate money from being spent on a campaign. And Earle has the jurisdiction to prosecute DeLay for conspiring with others to circumvent state law.
In recent days, the broad-based investigation has focused on one particular transaction during the 2002 campaign.
[snip]
As late as Tuesday, Travis County prosecutors were interviewing Republican National Committee staffers about their roles in the transaction.
That prosecutors were scrambling so hard against the deadline and pulled out a conspiracy charge makes one wonder about the likelihood of conviction. Nonetheless, the House leadership will be forced to go to its deep bench now, and partisans on both sides will surely be howling for a while.
UPDATE 2: Chris Elam posts two DeLay press releases (here and here).
UPDATE 3: Coverage from the Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, and Washington Post.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/28/05 11:44 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (12)
01 May 2005
A Sunday edition in a less-than-ideal state
Reading the Chronicle today made us tired. And we're feeling bratty on a Sunday when we'd rather be out catching some sunlight. So the following blurbs are just some quick observations about a Sunday edition that seemed below average even by the usual standards. Or, as they might say in the biz, the following are compiled from staff (that is, Anne, Callie, and Kevin) reports.
Posted by blogHOUSTON @ 05/01/05 07:39 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
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