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| This email (above) was sent, unsolicited, to members of the BOCC Friday evening. It mirrors the sentiment(s) I have heard from many area constituents. I wonder if Gannett and Gate House Media realize that this is how their local affiliate, the Pensacola News Journal, is percieved by the community they serve? Or the larger more ominous question is obvious: If it is profitable---do they even care? |
Late Friday evening, the members of the Escambia Board of County Commissioners received the email above. It was ironic as I read it the following afternoon as I had heard earlier from another dissatisfied PNJ reader while I was playing tennis in Milton Saturday morning. The individual on the court expressed a lot of the same frustrations that the email above describes. I can't help but wonder if the PNJ (and more importantly their corporate handlers at Gannett and Gatehouse, realize this is how they are percevied by many in this conservative community?)
My conversation with this area resident, a retired military veteran, started on an unrelated topic.
"Hey Jeff, how are you doing?" to which I replied "I'm doing great, we are getting a lot done and making a lot of progress on a number of projects for citizens--although you'd never know that looking at the PNJ and their coverage of us." At this, he walked over toward my court and said, dryly, "We all know, a lot of us stopped taking that paper because of that---they just don't tell the truth and they don't represent this community!" I thought that was interesting to hear----especially given Friday's unsolicited email from someone else which essentially echoed this sentiment.
I've actually heard that from a lot of citizens and constituents that pay attention to things locally.
And so I also see in this email from Friday evening (above) that this person actually sent it to the PNJ--as well as to the members of the BOCC. It will probably NOT be printed, though. Like several of my submissions that PNJ wouldn't print. Or like Judge Tom Dannheisser's very timely article on Fatherless Families leading to more incarcerations locally. That truthful op-ed by a local Circuit Court Judge last May was printed by Rick Outzen on his blog, but it was never printed in the PNJ--even though it was sent to them. The message didn't apparently suit their narrative, I suppose.
At one point, the viewpoints and LTE's were handled at the PNJ by a gentleman named Carl Wernicke. Now, he and I did not agree on a whole lot, but he always printed my submissions. In fact, he once told me "Our unspoken rule on the editorial board is that we print all LTE submissions that do not violate our guidelines."
Looks like PNJ has definitely moved away from that policy.
The shift seems like the pivot a lot of the mainstream media has made over the last decade and a half; facts are unimportant, slanted coverage and political agenda's are the order of the day--particularly secular progressive pieces grounded in preposterous, outlandish, and destructive social justice constructs that actually "promote" racism toward asians and caucasians. Sickening.
And meanwhile, outlier small local publications like the PNJ continue to make money and survive. With white, privileged liberal cartoonist Andy Marlette using the "N-word" with no remorse(he
actually was subsequently "awarded" a syndication slot for his cartoon strip), --- and ridiculous bias in coverage of local politics the norm.Yes, the advertisers like "Rooms to Go" and others continue to spend big dollars advertising with this company. And locals continue to patronize the advertisers while simultaneously lamenting the bias in the PNJ...........
This juxtaposed with RABID calls for advertisers of conservative talk shows to be targeted with boycotts. (Look what was done to Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, and what was attempted on Tucker Carlson?)
Amazing and fascinating, how this ecosystem works here. Surreal, actually.
Maybe someday soon the citizens will figure out the power they have and actually exercise it, instead of simply "tolerating" a biased, mediocre hometown tabloid parading as news.
I hope so, we deserve better.
6 comments:
I’m a registered Democrat, and even I refuse to subscribe to PNJ. I won’t watch CNN or FOX either. I really believe it’s a form of brainwashing. It’s an insult to my intellect when the media refuses to show all sides of an issue. I’m quite capable of forming my own opinion when I have all of the facts. I don’t like biased media that shoves their opinions down my throat in an attempt to reform my way of thinking.
After 50 years in Pensacola I’ve decided to relocate elsewhere, and move my business. The small minds here whom are militant like when it comes to forcing their way of thinking onto others, has made me feel claustrophobic and it’s become stifling. Some of the more intellectual crowd tries to encourage progress, but the same small minds interfere every time to vilify them. We all have our limits and I’ve reached mine.
Let’s just call a spade a spade why don’t we - - Pensacola’s true description is Studerville. Marlett’s man crush on Studer is pretty understandable really. Mediocre talent can only go so far on its own merit, and Andy has bills to pay. He’s no “kudzu”
This is a good article to read for anyone that has the time. The comments are even more interesting to read.
https://thepulsepensacola.com/2016/01/studer-reaffirms-interest-in-politics-as-records-reveal-past-contributions/
I remember Wernicke. All the conservatives who read his column hated him, but all the conservatives who knew him personally said he was a straight shooter. I think he's still around Pensacola, but no longer part of its so-called "liberal media." Too bad- a different era I guess.
Anonymous 3:30--Yes, it was a different era. Even his successor, Tom Ninestine, with whom I had significant disagreements and a few heated phone calls---was reasonable. He would publish letters and OP-ed's I submitted--even though he totally disagreed with me, and frankly did not care for me. One thing he told me stuck with me when we talked one time after I submitted a letter to the editor: "I wish the other elected officials would submit LTE's and Viewpoints--but you are the only one that does...." Since that time, I have seen a few from the Mayor and a smattering here and there from some others....but with Andy and Lisa filtering what gets through---I wouldn't be surprised if there were not a bunch more submitted but that never made it through their ideology filter and subsequently went to the "round file".....Too bad folks can't put their positions out and debate honestly---all we get from this bunch in there now is attacks, false light articles with actual malice, and selective coverage and lots of stuff omitted. People see it though.....
FYI, Emma Peterson did an excellent, fair job of covering Ms. Childers's latest bit of boneheaded grandstanding in the PNJ today:
https://cm.pnj.com/comment/?storyUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pnj.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fescambia-county%2F2021%2F07%2F28%2Fchilders-provides-emails-showing-escambia-county-annuity-program-no-longer-option%2F5379941001%2F&marketName=pnj&commentsopen=false
The editorial board, however, either removed the comments from that article altogether, or boxed me out from seeing them. When I click on the "comments" button, I can't see any comments there that I could previously see.
Wonder if they will let my following comment stand on their Facebook page:
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The BOCC should have foreseen that their attempt to recoup retroactive retirement benefits--legal or no--was going to be wildly unpopular with the citizenry, for very good reason. Ms. Childers is upset that Ms. Gilley, who had given her office unprecedented--and unwarranted--intrusion into the County budget process by hiring a close friend of Ms. Childers', was terminated. She then took up the cloak of instant gender folk hero by claiming a conversation that nobody else heard had happened in which three of the commissioners who are the targets of Downtown's power play on the County disparaged her in varying degrees of chauvinism and gender discrimination (also playing into the gender war games commenced by the previous administrator of the County). Underlying all of this is that she apparently feels threatened by a potential audit of her handling of TDT funds that the TDC and BOCC voted to pursue (which may or may not happen, given the politics on a State level), so she wants plenty of distraction from that.
When pushed by the BOCC at a previous meeting, she finally blurted out what her own lawyer would not enunciate, which was that the BOCC's adoption of the local option retirement benefit was "illegal." Having no proof of that whatever, she got up to trying to concoct it with some very acrobatic emailing and by going back on her own story--and story is the appropriate word--that she had been investigating this issue for years. (Then it was two years; now it's since June.)
The crazy thing is that she has roped in her own office, as if there was anything illegal, or even unethical or improprietous, that would necessarily implicate her office in having cut the checks for it. In addition, it seems possible that her office may even be on the hook, legally, for making up the difference.
While the BOCC should have never pursued the retroactive benefits in a lot of people's opinion (and mine), the Clerk seems to have really gotten herself into a jam by trying to capitalize on it politically. As Rick Outzen made clear, even if there was some change clear back in 1999 that knocked elected officials out of the local option, clearly the Clerk had no clue about this herself, and nonetheless is trying to fashion herself as some sort of fiscal super sleuth who caught the BOCC out on intentional bad actions. It's a whole lotta drama for nothing, and a major waste of bandwidth and energy.
What are our local options for unbiased reporting? I want to hear all the facts from all sides on every issue, not one sided reporting to control the narrative. Who’s really calling the shots at PNJ that wants to brainwash us? Brainwashing is exactly what biased reporting is.
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