News Content

[Scott Fybush]

Bill O'Neill wrote:
> The scaling back of good old fashioned beat and political reporting has 
> had a big impact on the diminishing of local news content for a long 
> time, especially local Boston city news.  Even in the 80s I was 
> surprised at the paucity of reporting on the Boston City Counsel and 
> Boston School Board.  Forced busing faded in the 70s and nothing seemed 
> to take its place.  When I read Howie Carr's book last year one question 
> that kept creeping in was "Why didn't we know about this stuff?" other 
> than the key events that would involve court activity.  Regional news 
> seemed to take more of the leads while smaller cities like Lowell and 
> Haverhill had the benefit of their local signals providing hometown 
> political news.

A great example of this is in Garrett's backyard. When I was an intern 
at WKOX circa 1990, we were out covering all manner of night meetings, 
not only in Framingham but as far afield as Southborough and Marlborough 
and Weston.

Needless to say, no radio stations are covering those meetings now. I 
presume the Middlesex News, er, MetroWest Daily News, still covers them.

But even the newspapers aren't what they used to be.

Our Gannett daily here in Rochester still tries to be fairly 
comprehensive, but the combination of stripped-down staffing, buyouts 
that drained most of the experienced staffers from the newsroom, and a 
shift in priorities that favors a bunch of (IMHO) gimmicks such as 
"interactive" websites and advertiser-driven specialty sections has 
resulted in a watered-down news package compared to the old days.

Here's a particular example: the business section, which has borne the 
brunt of many cutbacks, ran an article a few weeks back about the move 
of the old-line Jewish funeral home in town from its longtime building 
in the old neighborhood in the city (imagine Blue Hill Avenue for an apt 
Boston comparison) to the suburbs.

On its face, it was a fine article - but it completely missed every bit 
of nuance that anyone with any history in the community would have 
known. It turns out that one big reason for the move to the 'burbs was 
stiff competition from a new Jewish funeral home that opened in suburbia 
a few years back, run by a former employee of the old home. Not a word 
of that made it into the story, nor was there a word about the family 
that had owned the old home between its founders and its recent purchasers.

The result was an article that would have been completely unsatisfying 
to anyone to whom it would have had meaning, and would have been of no 
value to anyone else.

And don't get me started on the "Living" section that's now almost 
entirely syndicated fluff, or the editorial page's bizarre obsession 
with rap music lyrics...

s