Editorial: Let's think past preconceptions
Hear, hear. The unnamed Courier editor gets a cookie today.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Letter: Sharlot Hall treasures start slipping away
This is an example of an opportunity missed by the Courier editors. A letter like this is a news source volunteering, and a couple of follow-up calls to, say, the museum director and a state representative could promote it from the letters box to the front page, or a talk with a group of volunteers could turn it into a human-interest story with larger implications.
The loss of the museum will have broad follow-on impact for the entire town, and I'd hope the Courier might take that seriously. I dunno what might be on the assignment board for this, but since the Legislature began the process of defunding the museum, it looks to me that the Courier's coverage has been somewhere between diffident and neglectful.
Chief Randy Oaks resigns
Well, here's a surprise. We just had the chief in the studio last week for a wide-ranging talk about his life and work, and it made some pretty good radio. He was enthusiastic and positive about the department, and never gave any indication that a resignation might be in the works. He also came across as a really good, stand-up guy. I'd like to know more about this, and look forward to the comments.
Governor predicts Legislature will change its mind
OK, so Joanna was supposed to be covering the Governor's talk here in town. But the Guv made some news previously in the day by signing 79 new laws and vetoing nine, and questioners at the talk brought up some of those bills, so it would have been a nice segue to the real news, like new restrictions that could effectively eliminate practical access to abortion for hundreds of thousands of Arizonans (thanks to our own Rep Tobin) and add to my professional worries about guns in bars. Maybe that's all just out of the Courier's league.
Scenic and historic route nominations
I'm not sure what this story is meant to focus on. The news seems to be that Cornville is asking for scenic/historic designation for a section of Page Springs Road, and that this is the first application to the county program. But more space is devoted to explaining the program, which became county policy back in April.
The thing is, with all this explanation I can't seem to tease out much about what this designation would mean in practical terms, other than that the county will put up some new signs. If that's the extent of it, what's the point?
At the bottom Bruce Colbert directs readers to the Public Works "homepage" on the county site, which turns out to be a couple of levels down if you know where to look. Here's the PDF on the program. It turns out that the policy does supposedly offer some protection for designated routes from things like power-line crossings, ugly and excessive driveways, and vegetation impact from development using a 'least disturbance' standard. But the Supes can revoke the designation at any time and go around the restrictions when they feel like it, so it's pretty much toothless.
You could have told us all of that, Bruce.
Monday, July 13, 2009
How things can go wrong
I happened to notice another AP story posted after deadlines this evening, telling us that the peregrines are gone and the climbing area -- singular -- "on the cliff face of Granite Mountain and Thumb Butte" will reopen. I wonder who supplied the story to AP ....
Birds cause more than 1,100 APS customers to lose power
Wow, the Courier follows its usual practice of printing the official press release, and the commenters are suddenly out for blood! Who knew that an errant fowl might touch such a hot button, so to speak? Are you getting this, editors? People want you to ask the basic questions, even about the small stuff.
Editorial: Humane Society should get job
The City wants to privatize one of its services. The unnamed Courier editor seems all for it, the only question is which nonprofit gets the contract.
Speaking as someone who has run a nonprofit that operates a service for the City, I notice something important missing from all the coverage.
This says the City will pay about $50K, but there's no mention of how that will change in the future. Is it a year-to-year contract? Is there an inflation or population component? And very important, how much is the City currently spending? My guess is that it's a lot more, and the City is following its usual practice of dumping responsibilities and providing less money that it really takes to support the service.
I'd also be inclined to ask someone inside the Humane Society whether the City threatened to cut off all service and dump Prescott pets in Phoenix or some such, putting pressure on the nonprofits to take over or see a lot of animals killed.
In any case my bet is that the HS will be needing a lot more community support to deal with its new responsibilities. $50K looks awfully small for this. I hope they understand what they're getting into.
News to come: Basha's closing
The AP story detailing the closure of ten more Basha's stores, including the one at Frontier Village, posted a little before 7am. Let's see how long it takes the Courier to get a story up on it.
11am: Nothing so far. Here's the story as carried on the CNBC site.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Election: Gooding touts problem-solving skills in run for Prescott mayor
Heads up, voters -- this series will likely constitute most of the Courier's background election coverage. I'm glad Cindy Barks is doing it, and this first installment seems pretty clean, although very light on issues.
Letter: Does most important news make paper?
I don't think Ms Holt would have written her headline as a question. She has a good point.
Editorial: Plan on aging is a bad precedent
Okay, so I read Cindy Barks' Thursday story about this Commission on Aging thing, and today I read the unnamed Courier editor coming out against it. But nowhere in the coverage do I see anything about what this proposed commission would actually do.
So I went over to the Mayor's 2050 site to have a look, and, after some digging around, found these snips:
Recommendations (to Council)
• Create a Commission on Aging for Prescott to aide (sic) the Mayor and City Council in prioritizing the issues and driving solutions for problems of older adults.
• Develop and execute an ongoing Adult Information Campaign for adults of all ages to encourage planning ahead for future health, family, and fiscal requirements.
• Create a central information and referral system – a one stop repository of information about all the existing public and private adult & senior services available- to promote the general public’s access to these programs.
• Enlarge the workforce of caregivers and other employees of senior industries by appropriately training, paying, and efficiently supporting them with information.
Recommended Commission on Aging Duties:
• Advise the City Council, Chamber of Commerce, and other City agencies on senior issues and on intergenerational programs of benefit to the community.
• Identify, improve, and develop services and opportunities for the senior population.
• Create implementation plans for programs, utilizing available community resources including volunteers.
• Establish the Commission on Aging’s long-range goals.
• Advocate on behalf of older individuals, including legislative actions.
After he cribs most of his space allotment from Cindy's story, the editor offers this smackdown:
"But a commission on aging would have even greater standing - on and (sic) equal level with the Planning & Zoning Commission."
Leaving aside that the 2050 group apparently uses the Courier's crack proofreading team, from what I read in the 2050 report, I don't see this proposal seeking any real power for the 'commission,' nor even any money to accomplish anything. The goals of the proposal are clearly well-meant, but tepid and I have to say vision-free.
The actual proposal to form the 'commission' reads much like the original proposal to create the nonprofit that operates Access13, amounting to seeking the City's blessing on a volunteer group. The difference is that in that case the City actually gave the group some significant responsibility along with its utter lack of funding.
Perhaps the mistake was in calling the proposed group a commission, which would indeed imply a certain significance to people who infer the relative power of organizations from alphabetical lists.
Maybe I'm still missing something, and there really is a subtle plot somewhere within the 2050 organization to divert more public funds for senior issues, or perhaps frog-march everyone under 65 into reeducation camps that feature daily screenings of South Pacific. If you know, enlighten me.
Till then it appears to me that both the Council and the editor have blown the whole thing out of proportion and reacted reflexively to ideas that no one's proposing. That said, I agree the proposal is a dumb one, but primarily because there's just no vision here worthy of special attention.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Busy weekend
Here's another great image by Ross Hilmoe.
I'll get back to the blog on Sunday, probably. Have a blast!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Editorial: Increased pool fees better than closure
As I have in the past, I have to point out the unnamed Courier editor's habit of ripping copy from yesterday's front page, massaging it slightly, adding one or two original sentences and passing it off as an editorial. I appreciate that by staying within his comfort zone he doesn't do any damage, but I imagine that with a little more gumption he might be able to come up with something worth the read. Waste of time.
Letter: Innovative show sent Elks out with a bang
I don't imagine that anyone in the Courier offices remains unaware that Kim Kapin is the City communications director. So why does that title not appear on the letter? This is bald PR for the City, and the paper should inform readers of that.
If the City's PR flack feels compelled to pump up the event in this shady way, I suspect the event was another dud. Would any witnesses like to illuminate me?
Supervisors want to modify land-swap terms
I'd like to hear from anyone who knows more about this story, it seems like something important might be missing. The really odd thing here is the unexplained accompanying pic, a Remax promotional map of Prescott at resolution too low to read on the site. Is the Courier selling a new kind of ad?
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