The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

All Politics News Breakfast Is Local

Posted on | January 21, 2010 | 18 Comments

FITCHBURG, Mass. — Two eggs over medium, corned beef hash, wheat toast, orange juice and coffee yesterday morning at the Fifth Street diner:

The Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise has this:

Vincent FratAntonio, 49, of Leominster, went to vote Tuesday despite recently having major surgery, and cast his vote for “(Scott) Brown, of course.” . . .
FratAntonio, who owns George’s Barbershop in Worcester, said the vast majority of his clients also planned to vote for Brown, because they are struggling with high taxes and unemployment numbers that don’t seem to budge.
“I run a cash business, and when people don’t have the money in their pocket to come in for a haircut, that’s when I know they’re hurting,” he said. “The Democrats, the people in control, they’re out of touch.” (Emphasis added.)

Here’s the lead story in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette:

BOSTON — In a stunning reversal of decades of Democratic control, state Sen. Scott Brown defeated Attorney General Martha M. Coakley in yesterday’s special election.
The Wrentham Republican’s victory, practically unthinkable a few months ago, will have immediate national ramifications as Democrats in Washington scurry to push through President Barack Obama’s health care bill — a measure Mr. Brown has vowed to vote against.
“The voters of this commonwealth defied the experts. Tonight the independent majority has delivered a great victory,” Mr. Brown said last night to a packed, frenzied crowd at the Park Plaza Hotel. . . .

These local reporters do the kind of straightforward, Joe Friday “just-the-facts-ma’am” reporting I was taught to do back in the day. The prospect of losing that Old School attitude is one reason I am reluctant to join the online cheerleaders for the decline of dead tree journalism.

On the campaign trail up here, I spent some time talking to John Monahan of the Telegram & Gazette, a reporter who shared a byline on the lead story and also did a very interesting analysis of the results. Is Monahan a liberal who voted for Coakley? I’d bet $20 on it. But is he also committed to good, factual, accurate reporting? Absolutely.

If Monahan is biased, the intelligent reader can discern and critically engage that bias, but the solidity of his reporting has a value that transcends such considerations. Monahan couldn’t possibly have more liberal bias than I have conservative bias, and certainly I believe my American Spectator reporting on the Massachusetts Senate race had value:

Not to mention the reporting I did at the Hot Air Greenroom:

I’m a big fan of the Army of Davids concept of New Media enabling Ordinary Americans to speak truth to Old Media power. I’m also in favor of the kind of citizen-journalism that allows 73 Wire, Pamela Geller, Da Tech Guy and Dan Collins to compete on the same playing field as Norah “Pudding” McDonnell. And I love the way New Media allows Jake Speaks to expand our knowledge:

For the first time since 1953, a Kennedy will not be the elected holder of this seat (Benjamin A. Smith II and Paul Kirk have both held this seat during this time, but they were appointed to it). Furthermore, for the first time since 1947, Massachusetts will not have a Kennedy as an elected member of its Congressional delegation (the two gaps where the state was Kennedy-less between 1947 and now, but those instances were those of the aforementioned appointed Senators).
For the first time since 1966, when Edward Brooke (coincidentally the first black senator of the modern era) was elected to what is now John Kerry’s seat, the Republican party has won an open Senate seat in Massachusetts.
For the first time since 1972, when Edward Brooke was reelected, the Republican party has won a Senate election in the state of Massachusetts.

This is great. What’s not so great is the kind of blanket anti-media hostility that celebrates the death of dead tree journalism as an end unto itself. Old School journalism thrives best in the dead-tree environment. Media bias is a story as old as Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer-winning Stalinist propaganda. But the answer to bias is not a Samson-in-the-temple frenzy to destroy the entire commercial enterprise that employs the majority of America’s professional reporters.

It annoys the hell out of me when people act as if that the expression of opinion is more important than the reporting of facts, and that TV talking-heads are more important than reporters whose medium is the written word. Conservatives who disdain reporting and disrespect reporters — and, oh, could I tell you some stories about that — are guilty of a recto-cranial inversion, suffering a self-defeating delusion about the nature of media.

KILL THE BIAS.

SAVE THE MEDIA.

BTW, I’ve had seven hours sleep since Monday morning and just sent an e-mail to Smitty explaining that I am on the verge of a cerebral thrombosis. I am about to catch an 8-hour train ride home.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Shoe Leather Fund, and thanks to all the bloggers who have linked our coverage of the Massachusetts Senate campaign. Smitty is preparing an aggregation of the coverage, so make sure to e-mail Smitty your links.

Category: Blogging, Da Tech Guy, Election, Journalism, Massachusetts, Politics, Senate, Shoe Leather Fund

Comments

18 Responses to “All Politics News Breakfast Is Local”

  1. uberVU - social comments
    January 21st, 2010 @ 3:59 am

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by TCOAmerica: RT @rsmccain: @TCOAmerica KILL THE BIAS. SAVE THE MEDIA http://bit.ly/6cWAUi #media #tcot #teaparty #ocra #hhrs #rush #ampat #sgp…

  2. It’s 3:35 A.M on Thursday… « DaTechguy's Blog
    January 21st, 2010 @ 4:11 am

    […] dead) McCain was still typing at the dining room table, has there ever been a person who works so hard for such a small amount of […]

  3. Bob Belvedere
    January 21st, 2010 @ 2:03 pm

    Spot-on, Stace.

  4. Bob Belvedere
    January 21st, 2010 @ 9:03 am

    Spot-on, Stace.

  5. Mr.K
    January 21st, 2010 @ 2:46 pm

    I agree 100% McCain. As a regular reader of a local paper in New York that sells less than 5,000 papers a week (weekly paper), local journalism is the good journalism we strive for, and I have even attempted to land a job…with the local paper.

  6. Mr.K
    January 21st, 2010 @ 9:46 am

    I agree 100% McCain. As a regular reader of a local paper in New York that sells less than 5,000 papers a week (weekly paper), local journalism is the good journalism we strive for, and I have even attempted to land a job…with the local paper.

  7. El Cerdo Ignatius
    January 21st, 2010 @ 2:55 pm

    Stacy, have a good trip home, and I hope you get some rest. You did a great job again reporting from the field.

  8. El Cerdo Ignatius
    January 21st, 2010 @ 9:55 am

    Stacy, have a good trip home, and I hope you get some rest. You did a great job again reporting from the field.

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    January 21st, 2010 @ 11:43 am

    […] weeks makes. Compare this post with my one on Election night after 900+ miles around the state with Stacy McCain talking to voters everywhere we […]

  10. Stogie
    January 22nd, 2010 @ 2:40 am

    Hmm, are those GRITS I see just underneath the potatoes? That makes me hungry.

  11. Stogie
    January 21st, 2010 @ 9:40 pm

    Hmm, are those GRITS I see just underneath the potatoes? That makes me hungry.

  12. dustbury.com » Quote of the week
    January 22nd, 2010 @ 7:57 am

    […] covering the Massachusetts Senate race, Robert Stacy McCain encounters, to his delight, actual reporters, mostly at medium-sized papers: These local reporters do the kind of straightforward, Joe Friday […]

  13. Jake W
    January 22nd, 2010 @ 5:06 pm

    Thanks for the mention, Stacy! I have to agree with your comments about the media, and I certainly do appreciate how the New Media allows me to post such things as well!

  14. Jake W
    January 22nd, 2010 @ 12:06 pm

    Thanks for the mention, Stacy! I have to agree with your comments about the media, and I certainly do appreciate how the New Media allows me to post such things as well!

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    January 23rd, 2010 @ 10:12 am

    […] a bit ago. Normally I write Amazon reviews during the week and schedule them on weekend but I was otherwise engaged so this weekend I’m linking to some of my older reviews of various things […]

  16. Robert Stacy’s 3rd to last photo from Massachusetts… « DaTechguy's Blog
    January 23rd, 2010 @ 2:48 pm

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    February 14th, 2010 @ 2:57 pm

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  18. Your Lenten Fish at the 5th Street Diner Fitchburg… « DaTechguy's Blog
    February 25th, 2010 @ 5:14 pm

    […] was here where the other McCain established the important fact that all breakfast is local. Stacy can vouch for the food as can Dan Collins […]