News-Record.com

Seeing that the Rhino Times has enough money to send a reporter to Hawaii to cover our county officials, do you think they will send a reporter to Iraq to cover the war they feel is being so poorly covered (not enough GOOD news coming from the mainstream media). I'll be looking for it.

I agree with Susie. Get Hammer to send Yost to Iraq, you know, put up or shut up. THe only reason he sent Yost to Hawaii is because Hammer has a dull axe to grind and he's running short on grind stones here at home. Send Yost to Iraq so he can report on all the "good things" that are happening over there.

Am I to understand that you are sayinging the Rhino Times, is reporting FAKE NEWS?

Well, only in the sense that Jon Stewart uses the term, which is to say affectionately.

"Fake news?" No "compelling reason" to send your own reporter? Oh nonsense! Hammer's bold move was brilliant, laugh-out-loud funny, and could only be better if he'd managed to send along a video crew. Come on, you know you wish you'd thought of it first! And that N&R was as free as the independent and alternative Rhino to tell the unvarnished, unspun truth without having to duck and run from the fallout of said truth-telling. I look forward with eager anticipation to Scott's piece. And I know that all of you in the N&R newsroom will be reading it, too. Behind closed doors. With the shades drawn. And laughing out loud with the rest of us...

Um, gee, Missy, I'm not sure what you thought I meant when I said I loved the idea or that Yost's piece will be entertaining and funny, but I meant that, literally.

As for the Rhino's fearless truth-telling, I've addressed that before.

Not to veer off topic here (and heaven knows I loathe the Rhino as much as anyone), but I'm bristling at the implication that there is no good news to report from Iraq.

I take what I read in any paper with a grain of salt. But when soldiers who have actually been there tell me of the progress made, I believe them.

Please don't let CNN or others make your mind up for you -- they're even making London look like early-80s Beirut. Would you say there's no good news coming out of England these days?

John,

Sounds like sour grapes to me. You're on shaky ground on this one. Many don't trust the dems and don't like how they choose to spend our tax dollars. We should have the chance to know all they're doing on the taxpayer'd dime.

Thank you Lia, well said. I was just going to say the same thing when I read your post. Too bad some of the others seem to watch only ABC, CBS and NBC and read only the NY Times.

John,

Reading the "Letters to the Editor" that have been appearing in your newspaper and the impassioned responses on your blog, it seems that your readership "cares" a great deal about Paul Gibson and Bruce Davis attending a meeting in Hawaii. The very fact that it is "part business and part vacation at tax-payers expense" is the very heart of the issue with them, and why they are so upset and distressed. As the editor, don't you read your own letters to the editor?

So, this is local news that your readers care about, and the News-Record canceled their contract with the New Your Times to save $30,000 so that it could better focus its resources on reporting local news? If it is the perfect story for a partisan weekly newspaper, it would seem to be the perfect story for a partisan daily newspaper that claims to focus like a laser beam on local issues. I guess not, because you see it as fake news. Interesting. It sounds like the News-Record got out-hustled on a story by the Rhino, once again. Do you think that people were lined-up today, waiting to get their copy of the Rhino, so they could read about Bruce Davis' and Paul Gibson's week at a part business, part vacation at tax-payers expense? You betcha.

Dean,

I'm in line right now! I always pick my Rhino up at the Kaffini's on Main Street in Jamestown. There's a CROWD here waiting. It could get ugly when the truck finally comes. I would pay BIG bucks to have it delivered every Thurs. morning to my doorstep.

OOOohhh, it's here! Gotta go!!!!!!!!!!

If they have the money to send someone to Hawaii, when are they going to send someone to Iraq? That way we'd get some "unbiased" coverage of the war, not this MSM drivel, right? Of course it takes more nerve to go to Iraq and be embedded with a military unit than it does to stay in a fancy hotel in Hawaii.

John -- I bet you want linking Yost/Hawaii to Perkins/Iraq back. It was poorly thought out, inapplicable, and came across as whining. The Rhino made a funny -- enjoy it.

Man, y'all are taking this much more seriously than I intended. I'm happy the Rhino sent someone there. Really. It's the perfect assignment for Scott and the Rhino, and I mean that in a good way. Sun, I don't regret the link. It was one of those blogosphere throwaway lines.

Glad to hear that you enjoy the Rhino sending Scott over to Hawaii, since no one at the N&R can carry his jock strap. Oops bad analogy, I mean carry his laptop.

Today's Rhino is priceless reading. If only that paper was a daily, rather than a weekly.

Mr. Robinson, you are correct when you call the Rhino "politically partisan", however the only difference is the Rhino admits up front whereas the News and Record continues to say they are unbiased, when the fact remains it is not. Didn't the News and Record form a committe to find out why readership was falling off and one of the main reasons was because of your biased news? The general public might take the News and Record more seriously if you would admit that you are politically partisan.

Politically partisan??? This from the left of the world NR. Surely you jest. When a liberal boobs your paper comes running with the paper.

Doug: "When a liberal boobs your paper comes running with the paper."

Well said. Wait ... what?

I think sending a reporter to the islands to pick on people who are going to a conference there makes sense for the Rhino. It's sort of their MO. But I'd be very disappointed if the News and Record did it.

Sure, almost every business conference in every profession (including journalism) is held at some vacation destination. Sure, it's not any more expensive for them to be in Hawaii than some of the pricier vacation spots in the continental US - especially with a conference. If we looked back at where Republican politicians in Greensboro have gone throughout their careers at taxpayer expense, I'm sure we'd get a laugh as well -- not that the Rhino will attempt that. Sure, we could spend all day grousing that most people on government payrolls (and many who aren't) get to go someplace they'd enjoy personally while they'd work. But what's the point, outside of some laughs? And is that really how we want a newspaper spending it's time and money?

I think the Hawaii/Iraq analogy was actually great. I dont' see how it's inapplicable at all. Two newspapers made a decision about how to spend money/copy on sending a correspondent to some far-flung destination. The Rhino chooses Hawaii, for the journalistic equivalent of throwing spitballs that yielded nothing anyone paying attention doesn't already know. The N&R's reporter is in Iraq making our biggest, most important national news story local and telling us how people from this area are playing their part.

Speaks volumes to me.

Joe,

I can't say that you took the words out of my mouth because my mind honestly had not articulated what you wrote.

But what you've written is deep and well-worth considering.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment value of the Rhino's coverage of our two commissioners in paradise.

But you do have to wonder why a newspaper so often critical of the liberal media's bias has not put money behind fielding a reporter in Iraq so that it might provide the kind of fair and balanced reporting the conservative media has a monopoly on.

Sincerely,

Hardy

I think you're right, I did take it too seriously. Sorry. Why do you hate America?

You got it wrong, Sun. See:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/059534724X/qid=1122064146/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/002-2174582-2149624?v=glance&s=books

Mr. Robinson what stops you from doing both? Sending a reporter to Iraq and Hawaii? I mean it is not like the N & R is hard up for money, you did after all donate what like $150,000 to the museum. How much would it have cost, I assume if a free weekly can afford it why not the daily paper?

Lia,
When a liberal takes a crap, the NR comes running with the toilet paper!

Trish, Joe got it right. It wasn't an either/or proposition. It wasn't a question of money. It wasn't politics. We simply didn't see the point. We had reported the trip and reported the controversy. We didn't see that following them around Honolulu reporting that they were at the conference, by the pool and eating prime rib would serve much purpose for our readers, who, we felt, understood that this was more than a conference.

It's nice that the N&R to initial reporting on this issue; however the N&R dropped the ball by not following up and reporting on the actual waste in Hawaii.

I can certainly appreciate some local reporting from Iraq, but why not leave that to the pros over at FOX News? If the best you can do is play Single A Ball don't pretend to play on a Major League level.

We do, except that the pros at FOX don't give us information on soldiers from the Triad in Iraq. We will. As for "the actual waste in Hawaii," we'll get that in the next week or so when they submit their expense accounts. Otherwise, we don't know whose money they spent.

From John Robinson: "As for "the actual waste in Hawaii," we'll get that in the next week or so when they submit their expense accounts. Otherwise, we don't know whose money they spent."

Well now that the Rhino's reporter has pointed out that at least one of the commissioners had no pre-conference activities scheduled, and indeed, wasn't required to be in Hawaii until Sunday (rather than Thursday when he actually arrived), I would not expect to see that pre-conference hotel stay appear on the commissioner's expense account as a charge to the county.

Perhaps having a reporter along has saved the county money. Hmmm... That's a fun thought, isn't? ;) Maybe the Rhino should send a chaperone on all county trips? Really, our whole county commissioner saga would make the best reality show. The upside: It does keep people tuned in to local politics.