Sunday Opinion: Ski helmets, Libya and newspapers in transition
Happy Sunday to everyone and thanks again for your generosity, pushing NCPR well over our $210,000 goal for last week. I think you’ll like some of the ambitious things we’re able to do with your support.
Now on to a wrap-up of this weekend’s opinion pages. The Plattsburgh Press Republican is endorsing the idea of requiring skiers to wear helmets, something the industry has resisted.
Opponents of government intervention — the same people who didn’t want to be forced to wear seat belts or be told they can’t talk on cell phones while driving — will say the decision about whether to risk their life should be up to the individual skiers.
But some people need help making the right decision because they are willing to take the risk of turning an enjoyable day on the slopes to something tragic.
The Watertown Daily Times embraces the idea of a limited US role in Libya, as NATO forces take a lead there.
Secretary Gates told Congress that there would not be any “boots on the ground” in Libya “as long as I’m in this job.” But the nature of U.S. weaponry raises some questions about that commitment…
Limiting a U.S. role is important to protect against “mission creep” that will put American troops at risk in an open-ended American commitment.
In the Glens Falls Post Star, managing editor Ken Tingley thinks out loud about what it means to transition from being a traditional paper-and-ink newspaper to a web-integrated media company.
We have become that multimedia company that we only dreamed about a few years ago and can now deliver news and advertising in a variety of ways that suit our readers’ tastes.
It is an exciting time to be in the information business, but I wouldn’t blink, you might miss something.
And in a nod to tradition the Adirondack Daily Enterprise is reminding readers that their spring break competition is underway again, with people urged to photograph themselves with the newspaper in exotic locales.
Readers are curious where their Tri-Lakes neighbors go over the winter or spring and love seeing them on location – posing, as always, with a copy of the Enterprise.
The contest is extremely popular, mostly because it’s a dose of positive energy during mud season.
Tags: adirondacks, politics, public radio
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Limiting a U.S. role is important to protect against “mission creep” that will put American troops at risk in an open-ended American commitment.
Those who claim there is media bias would say that under the previous administration, we got daily body counts, and more coverage would have been given to the 13 who were killed by friendly fire.
Those who claim there is media bias are astonished at the scant coverage of the “kill team” compared to the abu ghariab coverage that went on until well after the former president left office. Why, they’re still talking about it.
Those who claim there is media bias wonder why we are giving “humanitarian aid” to an oil nation, but ignoring the Ivory Coast and other non-oil nations. Isn’t this proof that the current president in bed with big oil?
But that’s only if there were media bias.
… whereas here on planet earth the u.s. media was basically cheerleading the early war efforts in iraq and afghanistan.
to be nice, i should also say that i totally agree with jdm’s first paragraph.
“Now on to a wrap-up of this weekend’s opinion pages. The Plattsburgh Press Republican is endorsing the idea of requiring skiers to wear helmets, something the industry has resisted.”
The PPR is clueless. Putting aside notions of individual liberty and personal responsibility, where does PPR think the state will get the money to enforce the helmet law? Will there be state troopers at every ski slope watching your every move? What utter nonsense.
No, really Scratchy, We’re quite overstocked with police folks here in Potsdam, and I think would gladly send some to the slopes.
JDM, The BP disaster was proof Obama is in bed with big oil. Just like Iraq was proof that Bush was.
Tell us something we don’t know.
Scratchy, you wouldn’t need to trouble the police: just make ski areas financially liable for head injuries that occur when skiers aren’t wearing helmets.
Why should the ski area be liable? Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Such a law could devastate ski slopes. Just what we need, more lawsuits by people acting recklessly.
There are a lot of opinions in the world, I wish NCPR would stop pandering to their old media buddies and find some meaningful opinions to pass along.
I mean Ken Tingley? Really? “We have become that multimedia company that we only dreamed about a few years ago”
That is a joke, and it’s a self-aggrandizing lie – why spread this nonsense? Why do you think it’s at all important to your readers?
By constantly linking to the same old tired editorial writers, NCPR does its readers here a disservice.
Are you reporting on our world or not? I would guess that there are a number writers with a lot more important things to say than “look at us, we’re great!”
We deserve better.
John –
In future, if you want to accuse people of lying — a very serious charge — back it up with facts and argument, not ad hominem stuff.
We don’t do name-calling here.
Here are the facts of this particular matter:
The Post Star’s website, on any given day, receives far more visitors than your Adirondack Almanack.
It also includes more original work, including video and photography, which is often better researched and better written and better produced.
Indeed, your website often fills its pages by reprinting press releases and tourism announcements, with only small modifications.
Another staple of the AA is links to other people’s work.
The Post Star also pays its writers, videographers, and web producers, which is what good “multimedia companies” do.
I don’t make these points to be insulting. I happen to think that the Adirondack Almanack is an interesting project in community journalism.
I read it daily and I’m curious to see how it evolves.
My point is that if you don’t think the Post Star is a “multimedia company,” — as Ken Tingley argues — then they are at very least much farther along on that path than you are.
Tingley throws out some specific ideas about how his newspaper is changing, and how that change will affect the community he serves.
If you disagree with him, or want to challenge his thinking, go for it. But if you want to do this sort of name-calling, keep it on your own website.
–Brian, NCPR
A minor, but important point worth noting. The piece in dispute is not a well-researched news article, which the Inbox seems to link to on non-Sundays. It’s not even a collective editorial, like the other ones in this entry. It’s Ken Tingley’s personal opinion. I happen to think Tingley is pompous and self-important, so I understand John’s annoyance (the linked to opinion is self-aggrandizing and not particularly insightful for that matter). But if you’re going to link to him, then I’d recommend you linking to other local columnists as well.
-Brian (MOFYC not NCPR)
The helmet requirement is a great idea.
As for the search for the elusive “personal responsibility”, I think you will find that ship sailed a long time ago.
Come to think of it, there are a lot of good local blogs out there. Yes, many are crap but there are definitely some that are good. John’s Almanack. Bob Conner’s Planet Albany, I’d like to think my own, even if I don’t blog about local issues exclusively. Some of the stuff in blogs (if you know where to look) is a lot better than the columns in most newspapers. If you’re going to be linking to the personal opinions of journalists, why not those of us ordinary folk?
Well Brian,
I didn’t call Ken Tingley or anyone else a name, I stated my opinion that the editor of the Post-Star calling his own paper some kind of amazing multimedia company of note is a self-aggrandizing lie and that there was much better OPINION writing out there than the two self-promoting pieces you linked to, just because they are old media.
As far as your efforts to taint my comments as name-calling, I’ll remind you that you called local online writers unprofessional, unethical, and filled with commenters who “shout rather than discuss, and flame rather than engage” just last week. Claims so without merit, that you later backtracked.
I get it, you feel threatened by people producing media because they do it for reasons beyond money. You see that as a threat to your way life, which it’s not. But if you are going to claim the mantle of fairness, and accuracy, of an unbiased approach to our world, then you ought to use more significant criteria in linking than “Ken Tingley said so.”
Old media no longer has a monopoly on which opinions are valuable and which are not.
People can read and decide for themselves the value of Adirondack Almanack and whether the work of the some 20 writers (all your neighbors) who contribute there is worth reading.
The more I think about it, the more I disagree with Tingley’s opinion on this one and Brian M’s for thinking his self-serving column is enough of a big deal to link to. Something like the Adirondack Almanack is a true example of community journalism. Even the Times-Union’s approach of being a centralized host of blogs for ordinary people with something to say on some theme is more useful.
The Post-Star is not really a “multimedia” company, not anymore than the Press-Republican or WDT. It’s a newspaper with a website that shows a few videos about subjects articles were done about and blogs for journalists who already have columns. More of the same. The website is not really transformational in any meaningful sense (although their accountants might disagree). Unlike the Almanack, which really is much closer to transformational, the Post-Star website doesn’t really give space to a broader diversity of viewpoints. It merely gives more space to the same old, and often tired, viewpoints. I’m not saying it’s useless. I’m just saying don’t make more of it than it really is.
Brian (NOT NCPR BRIAN) –
I happen to disagree with your points about the Post Star’s content.
I find very interesting, thought-provoking things on their website, from many different voices and points of view.
I don’t think an attachment to a traditional media organization disqualifies a “new media company” from contention.
(I also agree that other experiments — ones that don’t rely on these ties, or on paid writers — are worthy.)
But I respect your argument and understand it.
I also like your idea of keeping an eye out for good opinion from sources other than the region’s newspapers for my Sunday posts.
I’ll do that.
–Brian, NCPR
John –
You are welcome here to make your arguments here, but I’ll say it again very plainly:
You can’t accuse other people of ‘lying’ when they make their own arguments.
(Or, as in this case, when I link to their arguments.)
That’s not the tone of this effort at civil conversation. Please engage on those terms or take your comments elsewhere.
–Brian, NCPR
Brian M: Just a clarification, my point wasn’t that you should exclude traditional media sources. A true diversity of POVs includes them, just not only them.
Brian,
I’ll say it again, because you seem intent on making me out to be some awful offender of civil conversation (despite my six years of helping foster conversation about the Adirondacks at the Almanack) and because you have now put in quotes – “lying” – a word which I didn’t use.
I said, Tingley’s piece was “a self-aggrandizing lie” – and it is.
If you are self-aggrandizing are you telling the truth?
Merriam-Webster says that self-aggrandizement is “an act undertaken to increase your own power and influence or to draw attention to your own importance”
If you can do that without including a lie, I’ll eat my hat.
I’m glad you’ll be “keeping an eye out for good opinion from sources other than the region’s newspapers for my Sunday posts”
That was, despite your sidetrack into my off-the-cuff critique of Tingley’s advertisement/opinion, my whole point.
John Warren said:
“I said, Tingley’s piece was “a self-aggrandizing lie” – and it is. If you are self-aggrandizing are you telling the truth?”
Let me take a crack at this. Tingley’s piece made a “claim,” self-aggrandizing or otherwise. To call it a “lie” means not merely that it was mistaken, but that it was a deliberate falsehood. It is disingenuous to say that you weren’t calling Tingley a liar–just calling what he said a lie.
Words matter, and “lie” is one of the most loaded expressions one can use in conversation. Hence the pushback.
And it is perfectly possible to be self-aggrandizing using nothing but the truth. As an egomaniac in recovery, I can testify from experience. I am, after all, the very best web manager at North Country Public Radio.
Dale Hobson, NCPR
Dale,
I’ll get the salt.
To me, whether you consider his piece merely a “claim” or “lie” is dependent on what you think his motives are and here they are suspect to say the least – the piece is nothing more than an advertisement for the newspaper he edits.
Or maybe you believe him when he says “Down the road and coming fast will be an app for the iPad that will take multimedia coverage to a new level.”
Really? Multimedia coverage to a new level? Could that be a lie? Or are we to believe that the Post-Star is about to blow away the tech industry with its new iPad app? I can’t wait.
This is semantics, but frankly, it’s annoying to be treated to disparaging remarks last week about how unprofessional and unethical local blogs are, and then to link to this nonsense as if it were something more than self-promotion. It seems a lot more like good ole boy back-slapping.
And I agree, you are the very best web manager at NCPR.
Looks like I was closer to the truth than even I knew, according to this BLOG report –
http://mofyc.blogspot.com/2011/04/lees-last-stand-guest-essay.html
“In the broadest possible terms what the Post-Star figures illustrate is a general decline in print circulation on the order of 23% since about the time Lee’s stock price started sliding [in 2004].
That doesn’t sound like “an exciting time to be in the information business” – that sounds like a newspaper on the verge of collapse.
So much for professional reporting on this subject.