March 7, 2010

Journal Times, public relations tool ...

We take some heat for pointing out shortcomings in our daily newspaper, with critics often saying we're just beating on the competition. But there's more to our concerns about the JT than poking a stick at our chief rivals.

In many ways, The Journal Times plays as important role in local issues as any politician or company. They're the primary source of information in Racine. Their stories determine what people think about issues, and often influence how policy plays out. They're a big-time local player, and they should be held accountable as such.

That said, two baffling stories jump out of Saturday's paper. The first is the JT's lead story on the front page, under a six-column headline: "Wheaton: Patients can aid billing." The story attempts to shift the blame for Wheaton's billing problems from the health care system and on to patients. Essentially, if you go to the hospital and they screw up your bill, it's your fault because you didn't provide appropriate information or you tried to call customer service on a Monday, or over the noon hour. Seriously.

Information in the story may help some patients. Writing your account information on your payment or providing current insurance information are good tips when dealing with Wheaton. But when did the JT become a public relations arm of a corporate health care provider?

Journal Times reporters, it's not your job to help corporate flacks pass off fundamental flaws in their billing system as the public's mistake. Wheaton may be paying the newspaper for advertising, but they're not paying anywhere near enough to get a front-page, lead story deflecting responsibility for years of billing incompetence onto the public.

Please see this point. At its best, a newspaper's job is to investigate and reveal short-comings of the powerful in our community, and hold them accountable for their actions. "Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable," as Finley Peter Dunne put it a century ago. It doesn't matter if they spend money on advertising or they promptly return your phone calls. You have to dig deep, investigate, ask questions and uncover what's really going. You represent the interests of your readers, because without readers, you have no advertising, and worse, you have no purpose.

For the past few years, some in the JT newsroom have been content to sit back and wait for others to dig up scoops and then pass them off as their own. This won't continue to work. If a little website with two people working out of their homes can routinely scoop a multi-million dollar operation with over 150 years of history in the community, it's time for the institution to take stock of their actions or risk collapse.

Today's Wheaton story is embarrassing. It's PR journalism at its worst, reading like a three-fold pamphlet you can pick up in All Saints' lobby. The reporter shouldn't have written it, the editors should never have approved it and the page designer should never have placed it at the top of the front page. It's a systemic failure of a newsroom that values quantity over quality and surface over depth. Just because you slap a "Watching Wheaton" logo on your stories doesn't mean your eyes are open. Perhaps a better title would be "Obeying Wheaton."

The second story in the paper that shouldn't escape comment is the lead on the Local page, "Bookseller may skip industrial park." This story originated Friday on WRJN-AM 1400's Sound Off program when Mayor John Dickert announced that Treasures Media may not build an 80,000 square-foot distribution center in Racine's Southside Industrial Park. We heard WRJN reporter Tom Karkow report the story and did a quick re-write, crediting WRJN and linking to their report.

The JT story in today's paper makes no mention of WRJN, which broke the story, and makes it look like the reporter discovered this information and broke the news himself. This may seem like quibbling, but it's another example of the JT's arrogant refusal to acknowledge any other local media. We're used to the JT taking our stories without credit, but it's surprising to see them do the same to WRJN. It's dishonest and dishonorable work. JT management should put a stop to it.

Update: Unbelievable. The JT has apparently worked a deal with Mayor John Dickert to publish a monthly puff piece from his office.

53 comments:

  1. Nothing Dickert does EVER turns out. Point Blue, The Riverview Condos, Tresures, etc......The guy blows smoke up all our asses. He raised our taxes, lied, gave jobs to friends. C'mon people read into this garbage and be smart. Is this really the guy that we want representing this city? We deserve better!

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  2. Here we go folks, Let's have "MY" public information officer start sending out and promoting how great "I'am" and how great Racine will become under my dictatorship! AS if when Eickhorst was hired we couldn't see this type of thing coming! Seriously corrupt and embarressing!

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  3. They gave Paul Ryan his own column, so why not Dickert? The JT was just bing consistent with their established policy of letting incumbant elected officials say what ever they want without question. I think more officials should join in! I want each alderman to have their own column, as well as every CEO of Racine companies or at least their PR people.

    Come to think of it....that is kind of like now! Paul Ryan, Dickert, Wheaton.....the list goes on and on. That's not corruprion, that's business!

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  4. Watch their Feingold video. The story says the crowd was 50/50, but all of their video highlighted people against healthly citizens.

    They put JT Topics out there to deliberately start fights, and not have good dialog. This is done to increase "page views" so that they can market those figures to advertisers. They could care less what people really think. Anyone posting on their site is being used. We're all the suckers in their money game.

    They don't write articles, they publish press releases and put their name on it. Either they are lazy or they just don't care anymore. I guess a paycheck is a paycheck, but I'd think they would also want to take pride in their work.

    The best thing we can do now is ignore the Journal Times just like they are ignoring us. Their management is just as bad as Wheaton and I wish 50 reporters would threaten to leave.

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  5. That's a real change. Used to be radio stole newspapers' stories.

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  6. I just cannot believe that Dickert's first column was on his 10 year plan. Apparently he is going to ride that horse, but what he does not realize is that it has been dead for months. Come on Dickert the flies have been circling that corpse for a while.

    My advice would be to never mention it again and hope everyone else forgets about it. Every time you mention it, it just reminds people that it is a nonexistent campaign promise. It is not a good idea for an elected official to remind the voters that he is a liar.

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  7. Well the video stole the radio stars

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  8. If I had a good tip on a story, I personally wouldn't feel comfortable going to the Journal Times with it. I just don't trust them anymore, with all of these sell out things they are doing.

    Their Whearon coverage has been a real eye opener. Almost everything they published was Wheaton PR. I thought they were supposed to be on OUR side. Now on every article, I find myself wondering who paid for it. If they did it for Wheaton, they will do it for others. I don't trust them and that's sad.

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  9. If I had a good tip on a story, I personally wouldn't feel comfortable going to the Journal Times with it. I just don't trust them anymore, with all of these sell out things they are doing.

    Their Whearon coverage has been a real eye opener. Almost everything they published was Wheaton PR. I thought they were supposed to be on OUR side. Now on every article, I find myself wondering who paid for it. If they did it for Wheaton, they will do it for others. I don't trust them and that's sad.

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  10. Dickert can't ignore the 10 year plan. Everyone remembers it.

    If you read his column though, he is taking his lack of respect for our intelligence to a new level. He is implying that everything he is doing is part of the plan. He is doing this because he wants people to be satisfied enough with progress so he won't actually have to put anything on paper, and thus avoiding all of the real work.

    The good news Dustin, is that the mayor is apparantly willing to discuss his plan now. Sounds like a good q&a session to me. You should be the one to do it because we can't trust the Journal Times anymore.

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  11. I don't have a big problem with Dickert's article, he should have done this months ago. At least his commentary is attached to a comments option (unlike Ryan's) so if you think he's full of it you can tell him so.

    However, I do fault the JT for not doing any kind of reporting and just printing press releases instead. It has become a PR firm for whoever takes out advertising and is now in a position where they refuse to question those very same people about community issues. The Wheaton headline is a perfect example.

    The video from Feingold's town hall is another, with half the people supporting reform, they chose to not interview one person who could have given the story balance. Is this an agenda or just laziness?

    I think it's both. I canceled my subscription a month ago. Between the Journal Sentinel and the Racine Post, I don't miss it at all.

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  12. Dustin:

    (1) For you to consider the JT "competition" would infer that your blog is of the same profession as the daily newspaper. If that's the case, perhaps you should quit denying your status and start developing and adhering to acceptable standards for the field. (i.e.: censorship of comments, personal comments in "articles")

    (2) I am amazed that you have the audacity to throw this stone inside your glass house. Both you and JT select and/or censor stories based on your personal affiliations. Both of you use your connections as protection and defense when these indiscretions occur. Perhaps, when you first started Racine Post, with your passionate intent for real community journalism, it would have been believable that you would point out this flaw. Now, it's just sad. It's easy to point out the obvious flaws of JT, but what are you doing to correct the flaws of Racine Post? Distraction with complaints about your "competition" will not make them go away.

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  13. 1:54

    I'll take personal comments in a story over corporate comments driving the entire story any day.

    I can't think of anything the Journal Times has actually investigated and reported recently. Nothing! Unless of course you count their topic about the fake Racine Olympics.

    Dustin and Pete are the reason tons of these stories ever see the light of day. That's the kind of professional quality I want. You keep your JT ignore-the-issue corporate PR pieces disguised as stories and I'll take the sometimes opinionated investigative journalism stories that I find on the Racine Post.

    You tell me what is more professional or what is more valuable.

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  14. You guys are no better. You might get some better scoops, I'll give you that. But then you editorialize on everything as if it's news.

    Stick to facts.

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  16. Dustin-
    I think you guys are making a valid point with this piece. However, since this is your opinion shouldn't it be labeled as such? Why do you post articles as news when they are clearly editorials?
    That said - what is wrong with the mayor writing an editorial column for the paper? Its not like these pieces are writtn by the JT staff...they are clearly from Dickert. If anyone disagress with the content they can express their opinion through a letter to the editor.

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  17. Now that is something that I would like to hear about. Sounds juicy.

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  18. Right on Dustin! Almost exactly like your "review" of Sebastian's.

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  19. Haven't you heard? "The Journal Times investigates for you:" http://www.journaltimes.com/corner/

    And Dickert still thinks someone believes that ten year plan horse poop.

    ROFLMAO!

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  20. 2:52 has a good point. The JT cozies up to Wheaton and RP to Sabastians (where are all the other restaurant reviews?). I know one is bigger than the other but fundamentally the issue is the same. We need a good, fair source for news here.

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  21. Gee anyone wonder what Dicket would have done if his crony would be controlling CAR 25?

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  22. Anonymous 1:54 pm - I couldn't have said it better.

    "....start developing and adhering to acceptable standards for the field. (i.e.: censorship of comments, personal comments in "articles")

    (2) I am amazed that you have the audacity to throw this stone inside your glass house. Both you and JT select and/or censor stories based on your personal affiliations. Both of you use your connections as protection and defense when these indiscretions occur...."

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  23. What's supposed to be wrong with Mayor Dickert doing a monthly piece for the JT?

    I think the only problem is the racine post is jealous.

    Perhaps if you started operating like a legit news source and quit running by the seat of your emotions and personal opinions you'd be taken more seriously?

    Perhaps develop standard guidelines as to why you delete comments other than the fact you personally like/dislike someone?

    Oh and the sensational "National Enquirer" type headlines probably need to be polished up a bit too.

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  24. To the blogger who doesn't think it is right for the Post to call its self competition to the JT. I believe the Post is the only competition the JT has since the Journal Sentinel left town.

    JT's continued slide in subscriptions, much of which is corporate, is a sign that their time in business is short. They are old media by being newspaper and by the way they behave. Look how quickly big name papers are going under. The JT will likely only survive as a printed paper a few more years at the most.

    I know for a fact that much of the JT's content is taking emailed press releases and putting a by line of staff reporting on them. In a past job I used to see press releases go out electonically and they were printed word for word with a staff byline. I was also in a volunteer group that tried to get information in the newspaper. Our group was told to send a well written article to the reporter in email, not an attachment, so the reporter could copy and paste it into his word processor. The reporter didn't know how to open an attachment, he could only copy and paste. Sure enough the email versions would appear, unchanged with the reporter's byline.

    From the looks of things that lazy reporting goes on today. You can't exist as a serious media outlet when your reporters put their name on what others are sending and call it their work. It is lazy and anything can get printed even if untrue when it is done in that manner.

    Yes the Racine Post is competition to the JT and likely the future of local news.

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  26. As I have stated numerous times before, the J.T is more infamous for the news it doesn't report, than the news it does. You both may be accused of editorializing, but it's opinions on newsworthy events unheard of in any other local media. Great job!!

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  27. The door never opens at the JT, all news is by phone or hear say. Dickert is just using this rag of a paper! On Sat. Dickert is in there (JT) shining shoes. What a suck A$$! Lie after Lie Dork John

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  28. The problem with giving the mayor a monthly column is the JT is granting one elected official valuable editorial space to say whatever he wants, unchallenged. Paul Ryan gets the same treatment (though one commenter is right, at least they allow comments on Dickert's commentary).

    Typically, newspaper editorial pages request pieces on topics, or give prominent figures occasional space to write on a specific topic. But if you read Dickert's column, it's blatant campaign literature.

    Would they do the same for Gov. Doyle? County Exec McReynolds? DA Nieskes? Sheriff Carlson? Sen. Lehman? Rep. Mason? Any aldermen?

    It just doesn't make a lot of sense to give one local elected official a monthly column with the unstated goal of boosting their re-election chances.

    (I should say, we'd give anyone the opportunity to write a commentary on RacinePost. But we reserve the right to put the pieces in context, and we trust the comments to suss out the issues in any piece.)

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  29. Dustin,

    Can I have a space on "The Post" to writa an anti-Dickert column?

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  30. sorry that should be write not writa

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  31. Why does the mayor get a different deal than Paul Ryan? They don't allow comments in the Ryan threads but they allio comments on the Dickert ones. How does that make sense?

    Their policy is really confusing to me.

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  32. The Journal Times is way out of bounds. Neither Mayor Dickert or Rep. Paul Ryan should have their own free campaign space. Plus, these exclusive deals pose a potential conflict of interest. How can the JT do neutral reporting on either when they rely on them for content?

    Isn't anyone asking these questions over there?

    Thus is fundamentally unfair to future challengers of either men. Incumbants already have enough of an advantage without the benefit of free campaign space all year round. This is bad for democracy.

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  33. where is Shields job plan??? I need a job and he had all the answers.

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  34. Shields isn't the one that says he has one. He's the one that wants to see the one that has been promised to Racine. Nice way to deflect criticism from our useless mayor. You must be one of his hired relatives.

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  35. All I asked for is what he promised. Guess he cannot deliver on what he said he got. Dude, he is worse than our mayor. He lied in a campaing I am used to that. Shields he just lies.

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  36. Now the JT is trying to get to the bottom of the mis-used referrendum money. It is about time. My understanding from insiders over the years the push for referrendum money was a way to gauge support. There is always money according to insiders, it is just a game. Now they are getting caught redirecting the funds. I have supported these in the past but no more. The trust is completely broken.

    There have been major issues in Mt Pleasant ignored by the press too. Election violations and now the revelation that the total cost to replace the village hall will be over $25 million, not the $13.5 million presented. In one Board meeting one of the board members explained truthfully that when all the various building and road changes required for this move are done the whole move will be over $25 million. There's something else to investigate.

    The City of Racine, Mt Pleasant, RUSD are all lose with the truth and taxpayer money.

    Hopefully all these many bad actions can be brought to light for the voters before upcoming elections. The voters have the right to what is really going on.

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  37. Dustin - I would not be throwing stones, you guys are so biased,and twist the news and stories so bad that you should not be hitting on your competition. I'm certainly not saying the JT's is perfect by a long shot, but your negative commentary concerning them is totally unacceptable.

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  38. Mike Shields had a metting on March 6th. The problem is nobody was allowed to attend it. The Journal Times reported the meeting was kept private and 25 people attended.

    A private meeting held at our city hall for a non-government entity (The NAACP). I don't know if it is legal or not, but it sure sounds interesting.

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  39. "but your negative commentary concerning them is totally unacceptable"

    What are you a JT employee? Criticize away Dustin. This newspaper has overstepped and needs some accountability. They are being spoon fed stories from Wheaton management and running with it. They were the only media allowed in the room for the special doctor meeting. They openly attacked doctors and their salaries, they blamed patients for poor billing, they downplayed physician concerns, they published pieces from the Nurse Association as if they were investigative stories, the list goes on and on.

    The JT worked feverishly with Wheaton management to cover this whole thing up. Neither can be trusted. Far too much money and power going on there to be any good.

    So yeah, please criticize them Dustin. Feel free to do so on a daily basis for all I care. The end result can only be good.

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  40. Not only is this commentary unaccetable, it is infantile and very unprofessional. I have yet to see any news source continually try to defame another. I have never seen the JT bash the post, granted you kids were asked to resign, and I'll refer to you both as children based on your behavior, but it is time to grow up if you ever intend on being a legitimate source for information.

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  41. "I have yet to see any news source continually try to defame another."

    Watch MSNBC.

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  42. MSNBC, Fox, CNN, That's opinion and talk not news>

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  43. 10:38

    The JT doesn't bash the Post because they refuse to acknowledge they even exist! Now that's childish. But I suppose not giving credit on stories is the epitome of professionalism.

    Give me a break.

    Clearly this poster is a JT employee. Go back to your rag -we're a little too smart for your garbage here.

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  44. 3/07/2010, 1:14 PM:
    I couldn't have said it better myself! Anyone who doesn't understand the purpose of the headlines is not using their brain. The mentality seems to be to use the public, repeat, and repeat. Anything for a buck.

    Then again, The Racine Post is no garden of Eden either. Sorry, boys. You, too, are extremely transparent. It is too bad we don't have a real news source to go to.

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  45. Shields holding private meetings on city property....illegal! I think there should be an investigation.

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  46. Don't lose sight of the issue! DIckert is a failure! Both publications should be able to agree on that!

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  47. Dustin,
    You act as if a Dickert or Ryan column in the JT means they are some conservative/Republican shill.

    Hardly.

    The JT is a liberal lefty rag.

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  48. 9:07

    The NAACP meeting was taped by CAR 25. Why is it not on the air? I understand that City Hall does not want that on the air and will prevent CAR 25 from showing the tape.
    Is that not censorship? Does the City want to be sued again? I can see a headline now, Racine Mayor Mayor Dickert prevents NAACP from showing meeting on City Cable" or "City of Racine sued for censorship" I am sure many companies would want to move to Racine after reading those headlines

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  49. Interesting. I created an organization to assist the flood victims & the JT wouldn't even acknowledge us! Why wouldn't they promote something positive for once? JT is only interested in warped negativities. Thank you again Dustin, for promoting the good side of Racine! It's nice to read about the positives & the underdogs rather than how slumish Racine is!! Keep up the good work!

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  50. Anon 1:14pm...

    Just because people may be opposed to this health care plan does not mean they are against healthy citizens.

    It is rhetoric like yours that is contruting to the partisan divide.

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  51. contruting ?

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  52. Dustin / Pete -
    Curious to know what other publications you currently freelance for. If I remember correctly, I thought Dustin was writing for the Daily Reporter for a bit (maybe I'm mistaken). Are you guys writing for any other publications now (besides the Racine Post)?

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  53. I'll keep all these thoughts in my mind the next time I go to Walgreens, Pick N' Save, Walmart, the mall or any other public location where a JT employee is standing at the entrance hawking year long newspaper subscriptions to any body that has $4.

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