[This is a courtesy copy of an article posted to Usenet via Deja News]

In article <5aj8ui$84h@nina.pagesz.net>,
  ejlamb@nina.pagesz.net (Eric Lamb) wrote:
> 
> 
> I am really getting tired of the whiny nature of the Independent.  Earlier
> this week during an NPR All Things Considered break, WUNC did a local
> feature in which they talked with newspaper editors from around the state
> about what they considered to be the most important story/event of the
> year.  Of course, the resounding answer was Hurricane Fran from most of
> the papers in the eastern half of the state.

Yeah, and it got kind of old, too. You'll recall that not *one* person, 
not a single one, mentioned, oh, the fucking Election, for instance. Why?
Well, maybe because the Your Voice, Your Vote program got dissed by the 
national media and instead of sticking up for themselves, they're rolling
over. Or maybe not. anyway.

> Every editor featured in the article was from a city or town paper, except
> for the editor from the Independent, which was the only weekly periodical
> featured.  Their editor proudly announced the most important story of 1996
> was their three-part piece about NC politics.  

That was Steve Schewel, the publisher. And it was their three-part piece on
The Pollution Lobby, and how they participate in the writing of environmental
legislation. See also: ruptured hog waste lagoons, both before and after
the fran-related flooding.
> 
> I am of the opinion that a regional newspaper that overlooks an act of God
> that affects almost 1 million people in its region does a tremendous
> disservice to its readers. 

Then you're a fool. The Independent is a weekly paper. They don't cover the crap
that the dailies call "news." There's no point. There is no way to get
in-depth into a fucking hurricane. If you're not on the story the day it
happens, you pretty much miss it. And if you do write about it a week later,
there's not a whole fuck of a lot to say, which you might have noticed if
you read the ongoing, lame, dragged-out coverage in the N&O over the course
of the 2 weeks after the storm. yeah, there are trees down. But one more
human-interest story about some family having to replace their roof, and
I'm gonna kill somebody.

 I think it's a particularly narrowminded
> approach to news,

Uh, *you're* the one being narrow-minded, Mr. "weather is more important than
politics." But read on.

 not to mention an overestimation of ones' self-
> importance.  I get indignant about self-righteousness in just about any
> form, and I think the Indy editor probably got a little heady when
> presented with the opportunity to be different from the big guys.
> 

Now, I will admit that I got rubbed a little the wrong way when I heard
Steve in comparison to all the other guys, at first. But thanks to the
vagaries of  WUNC's ATC broadcast, I got to hear this particular piece
twice, and the second time, it occurred to me that the *question* being
asked was intended to give us a year-end recap of the major things which
happened this year.

*All* of the editors questioned took the narrow-minded approach, and replied
with the story which had been their own biggest *personal* pain-in-the-ass
this year: Fran.

But come on. It happened in September. The point of the piece was to give
us an overview of regional news from around the state for the whole year,
not for every fucking editor in the state to come to a consensus that Fran
made for good newspaper sales for one month. Geez. 

So while I initially found Steve's tone of voice to be annoying, I shortly
remembered that he *always* sounds like that. After I got over that, I
realized that at worst, he was doing no different than everybody else they
talked to: answering with the story which had eaten up more of his paper's
resources this year than any other.

At least he *did* say something different than the rest. 

At best (and I think this is, in fact, what's true), he listed the *only*
worthwhile news story in the whole bit.

I mean, what the fuck? You walk outside and drive around for 20 minutes, 
and you've pretty much got the story on Fran. It doesn't take a squad of
fucking reporters to tell you that it's gonna cost the neighbors 50 grand
to replace the front half of their house.

But it actually takes hard reportorial work for somebody to dig up all
the gruesome information about how in-pocket the big hog farmers and other
industries have our legislators. It's not something you can see just by
walking outside. 

But I'll wager that the amount of money at stake, and lives affected, by
what *they're* doing, is far far greater over the next 20 years than 
anything Fran did. 

> Eric ah who am I kidding I'm still bitter about the whole Comic Review
> thing Lamb

I hope that's the case. I'd hate to think you actually thought "Twister"
was a good movie.

Ross
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
      http://www.dejanews.com/     Search, Read, Post to Usenet