Roger Chesley, editorial writer for the Virginian-Pilot, writes a column today that shows even more why the newspaper is useless when it comes to political discussion.
“Don’t you just love candidate forums? Most of the time, they’re dull affairs featuring scripted statements, dyed hair and silly campaign slogans.”
Not that I’ve seen Chesley at a whole lot of forums (none, actually) this year, at least not in Virginia Beach. You know, the city that happens to have the largest population of any city in Virginia. Ya know, that happens to have (or at least used to have) the most readers of the newspaper.
Chesley’s headline tells the tale. “The Newspaper Will Sell Ads. But Not News Stories. Sorry.”
Apparently, it won’t even do that well. One measly ad in the vaunted Pilot costs slightly less than the gross national product of Kenya, which I’m sure is some backhanded endorsement of Obama.
And although the Virginian-Pilot doesn’t sell news stories, it sure buys them! By page 9, the Virginian-Pilot has no less than 9 stories bought by subscription from the Associated Press. Good journalism, fellas!
And when the Pilot decides to get around to writing a token story covering the local campaigns in Virginia’s largest city, it gets buried in the local “Beacon,” where all good stories go to get ignored. I guess there’s too little space left over in the main paper after giving Roger Chesley his FRONT PAGE COLUMN complete with his smiling color picture.
Less than 3 weeks before the election, and the most coverage these local campaigns have gotten in the main paper, campaigns that have been running for 5 months now, is about whom Beach Mayor Will Sessoms endorsed, followed by a Beacon story centered on the same topic. I love how the press repeats their own stories and counts it as research.
Chesley, however, is proud of the Pilot’s yearning for (ahem) hard news.
He (Portsmouth candidate Lee Cherry) doesn’t seem to know the difference between “news” – reporting of legitimate events by journalists trained in the craft; and “PR” – activities and photo-ops with minimal value that are designed to distract from weightier issues.
An endorsement. That’s the “weightier issue?”
Besides, if there is anything that has minimal values and is designed to distract from weightier issues, it’s a Virginian-Pilot editorial board endorsement interview. One could have a fairly competitive drinking game watching them use the same reasons to endorse one candidate as the reasons to attack another. Watching the Pilot debate whom to endorse is like reading the back section of the maze puzzle book – they know who they are supporting in the end, but they have to find the path to take to get there.
Now reporters sit in on the editorial board candidate interviews. These are the same people who brag about the “wall” between news and editorial departments. It’s nice that the liberals in the press finally found a wall that they support tearing down.
“Leave the reporting and publishing to us,” says the arrogant Chesley.
We’d love to, if you’d actually do some.
There was a candidate forum last Saturday morning. No Press. There was another last night. No press. About a half dozen in September alone, and the press did show up to one. It was a lunch. Wouldn’t want to cramp the work schedule, now would we?
There are two this week. I’m not holding my breath. In the past few weeks there were no fewer than a half dozen with not even a hint of a newspaper reporter even driving past due to a wrong turn.
If candidates want to be in the paper, you have to buy advertising. That’s the message I got from Chesley.
“I know ad reps who will gladly quote Cherry a fee – and make sure the word “Advertisement” is displayed prominently in the copy.”
I’m sure you do, Roger. I also know what that fee is, and when you compare it to your competition, the many, many thousands of dollars you charge to be on some unknown, unpromised page of a section is simply laughable when you compare it to what television, radio and direct mail deliver. For the cost of one ad for one day on one page in one section of the Virginian-Pilot, I could mail every Republican likely voter in the city, and guess what? I don’t have to hope and pray that everyone opens to page 7 to see it.
So keep shilling for ad dollars, Roger. It’s highly ethical.
And keep writing your columns. Obviously, an editor thinks your column about campaign reporting is more important than the actual campaign reporting that will run in the Beacon this weekend.
