News-Record.com

Lex, I'm afraid my opinions will be of no help if you really are wondering if the N&R should be reporting about horse-sex or pollution at the headwaters of Greensboro's drinking supply and Fourth Amendment violations by the city inspections staff, but good luck figuring it out.

[[Tweety-Bird voice]]

He don' know me vewwy well, DO he?

[[/Tweety-Bird voice]]

Heavy sigh. Lex, I've tried, very very very hard, to give you and the News & Record the benefit of the doubt. But this post makes me want to feed Tweety to Slyvester.

How many times do we have to read the self-serving blog entries from the N&R staff . . . about the future of journalism . . . or how you-all make decisions? You ask the same questions over and over again, but never seem to listen to most of the answers you get.

I've begged and pleaded for the News and Record to help me by focusing some attention on what happened in Asheboro seven years ago - to physicians in public service who were totally and utterly screwed by people who abused their power and the public trust. It's a story that touches and ties to many issues that are now in the news - particularly ethics in government and fiscal responsibility in healthcare.

In helping me shine some light on this situation, you might help others (most importantly, young doctors in the wings who have the potential to be similarly used and abused). You might find out where some of our healthcare & tax dollars went - who filled their pockets on the backs of the poorest and sickest - who looked the other way - and who in government/law/medicine could do their jobs a whole lot better. It might lead to actually fixing things that are clearly broken.

The News & Record says it "cares" about Randolph County - and sells newspapers there (albeit without the insert anymore), but has made up every excuse in the world to dodge this story. You don't have resources. You don't have reporters. You don't make the editorial decisions (I guess that job really falls to your big advertisers). It's not considered "local". After a while the excuses get pretty lame - and actually become part of the (sad) story.

You (and John and your entire editorial board) want to know why newspaper circulation is falling down? When your readers say we want real news - investigative journalisn - relevant to our lives, we WANT it. Blogs are gaining popularity because newspapers still don't get it. Print and online readers DO want the substantive. And we'd like to see the free press do the one thing that the Founding Fathers wanted it to be able to do . . . help us "police" our world.

Sex with mules and horses - a website diversion that no doubt gets "hits" because some people see the tease and laugh/say to themselves, "What the H?", and take a quick look (it doesn't mean they actually care) - doesn't cut it.

The point is that you spent time on this - using newspaper resources - that could have been spent on other things. This post wasn't even what you were (no doubt) striving for - which was "cute".

Dr. Johnson, as I've said before, in my current assignment I don't report and I don't supervise people who report, so complaints about our coverage, or lack thereof, probably are better directed toward JR.

"Cute" is in the eye of the beholder, but there's an issue here I do take quite seriously: How do you stay in business when the public-service and investigative stories -- the reason I, at least, went into newspapers -- aren't the stories that people click on?

Because, like it or not, they aren't.

Lex, stand in line. I did not go into medicine or public service expecting to find or experience what I did in Asheboro. JR and his editorial staff talk a good game about wanting to get people involved in their communities - and caring about each other - and taking life seriously. Some of us did just that - and got badly burned. I just spent my seventh Christmas as a pseudo-exile from my own hometown, in no small part because people in your profession have all but stopped doing investigative reporting.

It's not cost effective. "Nobody cares to click on". Says you. Has the N&R tried it lately?

People don't know - and cannot care about - what they are not told. That's your job. "The business" is getting harder. Again, stand in line.

Wake up. The circulation is down because print journalists have lost all faith in their readers (as your last post resoundingly demonstrates). But wait. 60 Minutes has been on a really, really long time. Mike and his crew seem to be doing okay.

Opening the door to Tweety's cage and calling Slyvester now. Here kitty, kitty.

[["Nobody cares to click on". Says you. Has the N&R tried it lately?]]

Consider this post from a year ago, about our 10 most-read (online) stories of 2004: "You will notice -- I sure did -- that not one of the 10 constitutes 'hard news' as that phrase traditionally has been understood. The important work done by my colleagues on the enterprise/investigative team, Taft Wireback and Stan Swofford, on such issues as Project Homestead, video poker, school violence and crack cocaine appears nowhere on the list."

I cannot pull up the post (perhaps because your website has been restructured and things archived), but I must still ask, how does that so-called "lack of interest" justify not doing the stories? What people "click on" is often a function of what is offered is it not? If you offer popcorn, people will eat it.

Big gun lobbyist, Jack Abramoff just plead guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, tax evasion, and mail fraud. Congressional dry-cleaning bills all over Washignton went way up the second the deal got made - and the fat ladies are gearing up for their act, as it appears some really big boys will be going down. The public is apparently interested in the story - a CNN poll this week said that one-half of US Adults believe that our Congressional representatives are "corrupt". I wonder. Would we believe that if the "free press" was doing its job?

Mike Easley and the boys in Raleigh thought the public would not pay any attention to how the lottery got passed - but still Jim Black somehow wound up under federal investigation. Turns out the public WAS paying attention. Ethics is a "hot topic" in Raleigh these days. But will it stay hot - or will the NC press do the wink and nod act and let it fizzle?

I've heard reports that the West Virginia mine that blew to smithereens this week - killing twelve men - had safety violations out the wazzoo. People care about that. The "Mine Safety and Health Administration" is going to conduct an investigation. Where were they BEFORE the explosion? And where was the press to ask them where they were?

Where were the government regulators when North Carolina Medicaid was being bilked to the tune of over a half-billion dollars - by a scam literally endorsed by the apathy and notsobenign neglect of NCDHHS? Indeed, where are the reporters now - as state officials scramble to minimize the fallout and cover tracks - and our property taxes go up to cover the shortfalls?

Roch101 brought up a concern about the Fourth Amendment rights of citizens being violated by city insection staff. What's that about? Do people in Greensboro have the "right" to clean drinking water? I've pleaded for the N&R to look into my case - where my own "rights" as a public-service physician were violated - where a federal program was misused and the non-profit coffers plundered. I've uncovered evidence of blatant perjury and contempt. Where was NCDHHS, JCAHO, etc.? Lex, I've learned on thing in seven years if I haven't learned anything else, "rights" are only "rights" if they are enforced. And it's crystal clear that an individual's "rights" are only important if a lawsuit is filed (I know this from sad experience), because that's the only way it will merit a reporter from the N&R.

All of this begs the question, where were the newspapers before these scandals/stories broke - before the tragedy in West Vriginia happened? Because isn't it THE JOB of print journalists to investigate and report some of the badness before it gets really bad . . . and to maybe do something that might prevent the badness in the first place?

I honestly think that people/sources don't bother to call you guys up anymore when stuff like this happens, because they know the paper won't get up and MOVE unless it suits the paper's agenda. You're all too busy trying to sort out the "sex with mules and horses" thing.

But (as you point out), when the badness happens, it does sell newspapers and generate hits. Perhaps "benign" journalistic neglect has its pay-offs.

Dr. Johnson, please show me where I say that lack of interest justifies not doing investigative stories. I'm saying something quite different: The kinds of stories that, under our current business model (and all likely short- and medium-term variations) will make it most likely that we can remain profitable and thus stay in business are not the kinds of stories that draw the most online readership. I'm describing a problem, not justifying neglect.

Beyond that, I would simply repeat that I have no influence, either directly or through subordinates, on what the N&R covers and does not cover. When and if that changes, I'll announce it here. In the meantime, you're welcome to vent here if it makes you feel better. But making you feel better would be all it would accomplish.

There's a story in Asheboro, Lex. About a doctor & public servant who was threatened - then fired - for doing the right thing. Seven years after the fact, she is still on the road eating holiday dinners at Waffle Houses while the upstanding white male businessmen who used & abused her . . . and betrayed the public trust . . . are collecting their fat paychecks . . . protected by the circled wagons of their friends in high places. That's real life for "ordinary folks" in North Carolina. And the ordinary folks are your bread and butter.

The truth is actually not so far out there Lex.

But you DO have to look for it.

P.S. Thank you, I will.