Yesterday, Stew Rieckman told Michelle Monte that the Oshkosh Northwestern is not interested in "Gotcha" journalism (scroll down). Ron Heilmann, Jane Van De Hey, Joe Maehl, and LuAnn Bird will be happy to know that.
Today readers of the print version of the Oshkosh Northwestern saw a new kind of journalism on page one above the fold: DON'T GOTCHA JOURNALISM. The page featured pictures of 7 of the 9 candidates for Oshkosh Common Council. Missing were the two female candidates, Michelle Bodgen and Mary Meyst.
No doubt if Meyst or Bogden were to inquire why the absence of their faces from the page, they would be told that "we don't gotcha pictures on file."
Now I'm sure we all agree that it is a candidate's responsibility to provide the press with photos, and Bogden and Meyst should know that they are going to have to be twice as good just to be treated equally in this race by an old boy MSM establishment. But in this electronic age, when Meyst and Bogden could have emailed a jpeg file to the editors almost immediately, would it have been too much trouble for the paper to request photos from them? Or let them know, when they took out papers indicating an intention to run, that front page pictures would be running?
For all I know the paper requested pictures and the candidates refused to provide them, or the paper invited them to have their pictures taken at the Northwestern and they refused. But it sure looks like a case of Don't Gotcha journalism.
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11 comments:
What stopped any of the candidates from submitting a press release to local media, complete with a photograph, announcing her intention to seek office? Wouldn't you agree that a major part of a first-time candidate's challenge is making herself known to the community? It is a candidate's job to earn her own name recognition and her own votes. An effective candidate would go TO the media, not wait for the media to come to her. You don't open a new business and say, well, I hope someone notices; you seek out every possible forum to advertise what you're selling. It seems logical, given your frequent, harsh criticism of the local media, that you would have realized this challenge and urged your candidates to proactively, pre-emptively overcome their low-profiles, rather than waiting for the newspaper in which you apparently have so little faith to come to them. That a newspaper would use a file photo should not surprise any self-proclaimed media critic.
If only they would have learned these things in a communications class...
I already said that it is the candidate's responsibility to provide photos. But when there is not a photo on file, an editor needs to make a decision: (1) do we publish only the photos we have on file, (2) do we publish none of the photos, or (3) do we make an effort (a very minimal effort I might add) to get pictures of the candidates we do not currently have on file.
If you're an editor and your view of candidates is that they should be savvy about the PR side of campaigns, then you go with option #1. If you're an editor and your view of candidates is that they are too often judged by PR agility as opposed to substance, then you might choose option #2.
But if you're an editor and your view of candidates is that they all deserve to be treated with common courtesy and respect regardless of their PR savvy, then you probably go with option #3. And if the candidates refuse to provide photos or do not get them in on time, you place a little editorial note somewhere near the photos that says "candidates Bogden and Meyst did not provide photos for this story."
I'm not suggesting anything out of the ordinary here. Newspapers regularly request photos from people they plan to write about or ask them to come to headquarters to have their picture taken.
Something similar happened last year in Northwestern coverage of a 54th district debate. Gregg Underheim did not show up to the debate, yet his photo appeared along with mine and Gordon Hintz's. Independent Dan Carpenter WAS at the forum, yet his picture did not make it in. Forget about the ethics of that kind of editorial decision, it just seems incompetent--as if the reporter wasn't even at the debate. (Dan Carpenter is not a very PR savvy guy either--was that the reason his picture didn't get in the paper?).
The Northwestern (Alex Hummel) contacted me last Thursday to request a photo and to answer 10 questions. I stopped right away on Friday (unfortunately I had just missed him) and scheduled an appointment for Yesterday (Tuesday) to have the picture taken and answer his questions. That is the photo you see today on the front page of the Northwestern. I cannot say that he was successful in contacting the other candidates but I would imagine that he did leave messages at the very least. I would look to the two people who did not appear and ask why they are not pictured.
Kent Monte
I The Northwestern saying hten that it has adopted this "No Gotcha Journalism" as a new policy then? We readers cannot possibly be expected to think this describes the Northwestern's attitude thus far. The Northwestern has a fine tradition of serious put-downs to various individuals and the projects they become involved in.
Not that long ago there was a very "Gotcha" anti-UW Oshkosh editorial. The foundation of this editorial rested upon the way in which Dr. Palmeri spends his time, specifically his personal time. Perhaps he recalls this. The University employs a great many residients here, and not just professors. This state-wide University bashing we are seeing is very short sighted and destructive. And some of us were wating to see if Dr. Palmeri would sue the paper as a result of these insults to his career.
Another Northwestern article with a very Gotcha tone was the piece dealing with the Troop Withdrawal Referendum. That had a decidedly mocking tone.
As a final point - I do feel the comparison of candidates to businesses resposible for their own advertizing is not particularly apt. The newspaper's duty is to inform the public, and they have paid employees that are supposed to expend effort to, as they used to say, "scoop" that information. Then isn't it really up to the people we are paying to do the work? That was how it was in the old days. And there was considerably more effort involved in getting pictures for the paper too. I think the Northwestern should spend more time getting honest work done and less time patting itself on the back.
I know my family would comment if I served dinner half-cooked.
Way to go Kent! Defend the Northwestern no matter how unfair, biased, sexist, and blatantly arrogant it is and you're sure to get an endorsement from it! Always dismiss people who ask for fairness and accountability and you'll fit right in with the good ol' boys on the council, too.
Well, that IS what it says to do in the Brown Nosing Shithead Handbook. Consulted by council members more often than Robert's Rules of Order. Available at Amazon.com
Get a copy, win elections.
Now let's watch while the people who ARE Shitheads jump all over the fact that I SAID "shithead".
And what's with that Anonymous up there who says people are suppposed to go chase the newspaper and not expect them to come out of their building? Dude, I want that job.
Probly the reporter's Mom anyway.
You people are thick. Kent just stated how he was contacted by the Northwestern. He neither defended nor ridiculed the Northwestern, but because it isn't the griping you do, it is brown nosing. Get a grip. I don't see you questioning the candidates whose pictures are missing to see if they were the ones to drop the ball. You people bark when things in the paper are one sided and then do the exact same thing. As far as hints about the two missing pictures and the gender of the candidates, ask some of the other female candidates how they were contacted. BTW I noticed there were pictures of other women candidates. Ask Michelle and Mary what happened since you obviously would never trust the answer of the Northwestern. I dumped my subscription for a variety of reasons so don't think I am defending them either.
So you ride yourselves over the fields
and you make all your animal deals
and your wise men don't know how it feels
to be thick
as a brick.
What in the world does this mean and what does it have to do with this discussion?
no idea, but anyways, I was with Gary and we ran into Mary Meyst the other night and she said that the northwestern never even contacted her about a photo and when she saw the paper that's when she realised it.
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