Mainstream Media’s Fall from Grace… It was just over a year ago that Investor’s Business Daily ran an editorial about the "old media" losing it’s way and the resulting rise of blogs and other new media. It’s even more compelling now. An excerpt:
The evidence is everywhere: plummeting newspaper circulation and industry consolidation, as demonstrated by the purchase of publisher Knight Ridder by McClatchy Newspapers; the falling viewership of network news broadcasts; the growing angst among journalism professionals over what went wrong. It’s not that complicated, actually. At a time of unprecedented media options — from blogs to talk radio to cable TV — the mainstream media has clung to its old ways. While the new media was learning to excel at connecting directly with people, the establishment media was perfecting its penchant for "navel-gazing" and distancing itself from "the everyday concerns of readers." Liberal bias certainly played a role. The stories that most excite mainstream journalists tend to assume that government regulation is always good, for instance, and that "other nations" are right while the U.S. is wrong. Meanwhile, the new media was tapping into something much deeper — its very existence came to represent "personal freedom" and the idea that no small group of companies or people should determine what is "newsworthy." The old media still doesn’t get it.
Here’s to personal freedom, a lack of government regulation, and the United States being the greatest country on earth.
Underfunding and the San Diego Opera… While the blogs were having a heyday the past week with the City of San Diego considering "fee increases" due to the "underfunding problem" at City Hall (an example), Scott Lewis at Voice of San Diego was pointing out one organization "hurting" significantly from the big city’s underfunding: The San Diego Opera, to the tune of more than $450,000 provided by the taxpayers via the council.
Lewis doesn’t focus on the expenditure as much as the credit the SD Opera gives the councilmembers instead of the taxpayers, but either way the point is made. The program for the Opera has a nice big juicy page with the council’s head shots and reads, "Because of the extraordinary leadership and vision of our City Council…more than 70,000 San Diegans and visitors will enjoy our mainstage operas, 80,000 children and adults will take part in our 14 different education programs, and more than 300,000 local citizens will enjoy our award-winning radio and television broadcasts." Scott Lewis pens this:
The message: These nine people are responsible for this great thing, the opera.
Never mind that these are tax dollars. Specifically, the money for the opera and dozens of other similar organizations comes from taxes charged to visitors who stay in hotel rooms in San Diego.
My mom came to town to visit this weekend. She stayed at a hotel. People like her are the ones who ponied up the taxes. The opera should throw them a little bone: "Thanks to the taxpayers and tourists for giving us so much money."
We could debate all day whether it’s worth it for the city to send $456,415 to the opera, but there’s no debate that Sanders and the City Council did little more than put another year’s rubber stamp on a surviving patronage program.
This "extraordinary leadership and vision" came, of course, during a time of extraordinary financial pressures.
It may very well be a worthy expenditure, but it’s one that all the hotel visitors paid for in the form of a tax. They deserve a thanks, it was their money — spending it is the easy part.
Read the entire Lewis piece and see the SD Opera program ad here.
Hunter to Run for City Council… In what is to be a newsworthy and extraordinary move tomorrow, Congressman Duncan Hunter will announce he is dropping his presidential bid, and will move to a yet-to-be-known district in the City of San Diego to run for city council and "join Mayor Jerry Sanders in the effort to clean up the mess at City Hall." This is big news, and I know many East County residents will seriously consider moving to the City of SD, so they can vote for him. More to follow on this one.
Have a great Sunday, a superb April 1, and a fantastic week!
April 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
I am putting my house here in OC on the market first thing tomorrow morning. I will move to what ever SD council district Hunter decides to run in!
April 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
While I agree that Duncan would be a great Councilmember (And we all know that San Diego is severely lacking in quality Council members!), however, it’s the moving into an area just to seek office that worries me. To me it sounds like “carpet bagging”. What we need are good citizens that have lived in a district for a while and are now willing to run for office for the area they have grown to love (Such as Barry running for Congress, hint, hint). Those are the real citizen politicians that we need, NOT politicians that move into areas just to run for an office that they might have a great chance of winning. Just look at Bilbray. Lots of residents have issues with him because of his residency issues. I admire Congressman Hunter, but I really hope that he doesn’t consider moving to San Diego just to run for Council.
Of course, JMHO
April 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
Dang it! It just dawned on me! It’s April 1st! Good one Barry! You got me. However, it’s not that bad. I did propose to my wife 17 years ago today and she did ask me (along with our friends) if it was an April Fools joke.