COMPLACENCY

Obviously the Local Area Watch is hard on the local media, especially the Grand Rapids Press.  What President Bush just finished telling the Ukrainians a few minutes ago about the importance of a free press explains why.  The Ukrainians are embracing a burgeoning democracy after staring down the remnants of the old Soviet regime that tried to steal the recent presidential election from the reformers.  The President advised these new democrats that a free press was vital to ensuring the "transparency" of government.

Indeed, it is.  But here in the U.S. where we don't worry about the foundations of our democracy, we can become complacent.  It is especially easy to become complacent when our watchdog, the free press, prefers to lull us into ignorance with splashy graphics, huggable front page news, and features that tug at our heartstrings than do the hard work of revealing the news behind "business as usual" in our local communities.

It has struck me as a little bizarre that people are generally better informed about the national political scene than what is happening in their own backyard.  But then getting that local info means editors have to push their reporters to go out and find it.  There are no services, like AP or Reuters, collecting this stuff for them.  Nothing short of hard work is needed to report on local government and public institutions.  Therefore, what happens at townhalls and city halls often goes unreported.

Our newspaper of record, the Grand Rapids Press, is unfortunately a prime example of what's wrong with local media.  This is an insipidly-designed newspaper that happily went without a reporter at Grand Rapids City Hall for several months not so long ago.  Nor does it help when the publisher of the Press hankers to pal around with pyramid-builders like Rich DeVos and his ilk or sit on the boards of powerful organizations like Spectrum Health Care.  (Little wonder long-time editor of the Press, Mike Lloyd, has gone silent on Spectrum's machinations.)  Conflicts arise and the light the free press must shine on those who claim authority or privilege in the name of the public good grows dim.

Without that light, government cannot be transparent.

Comments

[Mike S.]

I found your website via a small postcard that proclaimed, "reporting the news the news won't report." Curious, I spent a while reading your reports on various topics, and I've drawn a few conclusions. Please correct me if I am wrong:

1. To paraphrase Wil Rogers, you've never met a politician, reporter, or business you've liked.

2. You are generally shunned by area media outlets for your outspoken views, and you seem surprised by it.

3. Your use of words like "hankering" and "ilk" mark you as a likely senior citizen. Not that there's anything wrong with senior citizens. I'm sure the language of my generation will sound dated when I hit my golden years, too.

4. You aren't exactly reporting the news, which is interesting because it seems to be a point of contention between yourself and the Grand Rapids Press. What I've read of your work is mostly commentary, some based on facts (I can only assume here, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt), and some based on supposition and suspicion.

5. There's nothing like a good conspiracy theory.

6. You truly love Grand Rapids, but not the current version; you prefer the one we see in photographs at the VanAndel museum. You're probably not too crazy about that confounded bridge they ran to the Upper Peninsula, either.

You certainly are entitled to your opinions, and there are probably a few that we have in common. I don't want to discourage you from excercising your right to free speech, but you should know how you sound to those on the receiving end.

[The Executive Director]

Hello, Mike.

Thank you for your comments. Kudos are always nice, but criticism is usually more helpful. From your remarks I think we have not made our charter clear enough to readers. Let's see if I can fix that here.

You note it looks like we are against everyone. Not really. Our purpose is to identify and report conflicts of interest, incompetence, and malfeasance in government agencies, non-profit organizations, and public institutions. Unfortunately, this does mean our articles are going to focus upon those who are doing wrong rather than right.

You also note that there's a lot of commentary in the news we report. Guilty. We make no pretense of what we think about those who disguise their private agendas as the public good.

As for media coverage of the problems we have reported in this website, their lapses are why we exist. There is a journalistic culture in Michigan and in Grand Rapids in particular that is inexplicably acquiescent to public corruption. How did the McNamara machine last so long in Wayne County, except for the lack of investigative fervor by the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press? It's the same problem here in town with the Press. Keep in mind that the Press felt it could go several months recently without a City Hall reporter!

As for being an old fogey, all I can tell you is that I am young enough to have been enrolled in the first Head Start class in Grand Rapids. So thank LBJ and the Great Society for my curmudgeonry, not the old folks home. If you are drawing your conclusions from my disdain for public projects like the "Cool Cities" program, I'm all for people being "cool" with THEIR money, but not on the TAXPAYERS' dime.

Regards,
Bill