Amnesia Perhaps?

Although I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me, I was taken aback that Chairman Kevin Martin of the Federal Communications Commission has such bad short-term memory. Martin apparently doesn’t remember the thrashing that then Chairman Michael Powell took just three years ago when he tried to update FCC ownership rules for broadcast stations.

“Update” in this case is a euphemism for tossing out ownership rules that are already skewed against the public interest and offer giant media conglomerates a continuing opportunity to stuff their pockets with profits. This, at the expense of many genuinely local radio and television stations that historically really have operated in the public “interest, convenience, and necessity."

Not surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal has weighed in supporting Martin’s plan. I took issue with their stance by writing this “Letter to the Editor” last week:

The Wall Street Journal’s assertion that media consolidation has “led not to monopolies but to a media landscape that is more diverse than ever” (Oct. 25, 2007) confuses variety with diversity. The growing media empire of Rupert Murdoch may offer a garden variety of pseudo-journalism and info-tainment, but it falls woefully short of truly diverse, local journalism.

Your suggestion that “free-market” consolidation might improve the media landscape ignores the declining, sorry state of local broadcasting in this country – almost as bad as network offerings. Your swipe at public broadcasting, which is often the only vibrant player in local radio and television, is unwarranted. Many of us pine for the days of locally-owned and operated stations that were a part of the fabric of the communities they served, producing content that genuinely strived to meet the needs and interests of the community – not just the corporate bottom line. There are still a few commercial properties that fulfill that role, but increasingly it is public broadcasters who have filled the void of local service.

Chairman Martin and the FCC would do well to further expand their efforts in encouraging more local broadcasting and abandon the numbskull notion that media consolidation will save the day.

Back when Michael Powell tried an end run to further "relax" ownership rules, even he might have been surprised to find media mogul Ted Turner opposed to the proposal. To his credit, Turner simply observed that further consolidation might have been good for big media – but it was bad public policy.

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"When you lose small businesses, you lose big ideas," wrote Turner in the Washinton Monthly in 2004. Admitting that he earlier had tried his own "clean sweep" of vertical media ownership, Turner observed that media companies have grown ever larger and more powerful, and that their dominance has become so detrimental to small, emerging companies, that there's just one alternative -- bust up the big conglomerates.

Let’s hope that efforts to quash the plan – and there are many – are successful. Among those leading the charge against further media consolidation is U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. Killing this proposal won't bust up the big media barons -- not by a long shot -- but it'll be a step in the right direction.

No, We Didn't Do That

Tom Friedman is a great writer. When my son bought me The World is Flat, Friedman’s masterpiece book, I was in awe of his insight and rare ability to put things in a context that we lay people can understand. The book helped me – and so many other folks – understand that we really are in a global economy, so we’d better get with the program!

But now comes his New York Times column “Did We Do That?” in which he thankfully stops short of answering “yes,” that we humans are responsible for the crappy weather that Friedman believes is occurring more frequently.

“I’d never seen that before,” he noted after seeing the “wild and prehistoric” smoke billowing out of mountain caverns from the expansive fires of southern California.

The day before, after playing golf in Washington, D.C. and observing the lack of fall colors, Friedman was moved to write…… “I’d never seen that before.”

I think Tom leads a sheltered life. To be sure, these massive fires are, thankfully, a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most folks. But chasers of beautiful fall colors have often been disappointed with their findings, long before we knew about carbon emissions.

“One should never extrapolate about climate change from any single weather event or season…” writes Friedman, and then he promptly joins the fray of doomsdayers who genuinely believe that mankind is singlehandedly going to hell – or rather creating it – right here on earth.

Thankfully, his column moves to a criticism about man’s inability to create good infrastructure – like levees that could have better protected New Orleans during hurricane Katrina. Now that’s a line of thinking that makes sense.

Let me offer an answer to the question posed in Friedman’s column. "No, we didn’t do that.” Oh, we may have unwisely contributed to it in an immeasurably miniscule way, but that contribution pales in the face of what Mother Nature can and does introduce into our environment. Not that we shouldn’t clean up our act and be friendlier to our environment, but let’s please not overestimate the impact that we humans have on the cosmos.

I applaud Friedman for introducing us to Dr. Heidi Cullen’s notion that people need to get more focused on an infrastructure suffering from a “creaky power grid or leaky water pipe.” That’s something we really can impact – big time.

In the meantime, if Tom Friedman won’t suggest that we humans are a primary cause of record high and low temperatures, we South Dakotans won’t claim responsibility for the beautiful Indian summer we’re enjoying.

Carole Hillard dies at 71

We were saddened this morning to learn that Carole Hillard had died in Switzerland. According to the Rapid City Journal, Carole died Thursday, October 25, 2007, in a Lausanne hospital of complications following a broken neck suffered in a boating accident the week before. She was 71 years old. Her son Todd was quoted as saying, "She just had a vivacious zeal for life." That was certainly my impression of her last month in Chamberlain, when she was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame. She led a fascinating life and was certainly an "achiever" rather than a spectator. How fortunate we were to have her in our midst while we did. Below is my posting from last month, when Carole was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

Talk about a role model for women! Carole Hillard has dedicated her life to public service. A life-long social and political activist, she served on the Rapid City Common Council and two terms in the South Dakota House of Representatives before being elected to two terms as Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota. Her compassion for those less fortunate led her to founding the Rapid City women's shelter and Cornerstone Rescue Mission, as well as long service on the South Dakota Board of Charities and Corrections and the Children's Home Society. Amazingly, she has worked on over 70 democracy-building projects in developing countries around the world for the U. S. State Department and other international organizations.

Born and raised in Deadwood, Carole graduated from the University of Arizona, earned M.A. degrees at both the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University. In 2005 she received an Honorary Doctorate from Dakota Wesleyan University. Among her favorite places in South Dakota: ghost towns of the Black Hills. In her travels, Carole has fished for piranhas in the Amazon, tracked mountain gorillas in Uganda, and parachuted with the Air Force Golden Knights parachute team. And we have photographic evidence that she also has pursued hang-gliding in Brazil and bungee-jumping in Zambia. What a gal!

Carole and her husband, John, operated Rapid Chevrolet for many years. She dedicated much of her life to public service. She is survived by her five children, 18 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. How proud they can be be of her -- she was truly a wonderful person, who lived life to its fullest.

Still Looking for News

I had just gotten off the telephone with my brother in San Diego. He was still in his house, but upwards of one million people had either evacuated their homes or had been urged by fire officials to get out. Strong Santa Ana winds were fanning flames up and down the southern California coast. It was the worst area fire my brother had seen in the 30 some years he’s lived there.

This story, which had caused all of the major television networks to converge on the area for in-depth reports and special broadcasts, was big. I picked up my Rapid City Journal, hoping they might recognize its importance. Well, they did…..sort of. Not above the fold on the front page, or even below the fold on the front page. For that matter, it wasn’t even in Section A. I had to thumb through sections B, C, and D to find the story in section E. At least it was given precedence over Sports, which was way back in Section F. Uh….well, maybe not entirely.

Right there on the front page, where I had hoped to learn about the fires in California, was a headline and photo about Sturgis upsetting S.F. Lincoln and Mobridge defeating Bennett Co. in high school football playoffs. There was also about six column inches that told about underwater pumkin carvers in Florida, and a cute photo about “care packages” for students away at college.

While there was a rather obscure “teaser” telling me to go to E1 for news about the fire, the only real news story on the front page was a Steve Miller article about John Thune promoting ethanol provisions in the Senate farm bill. Well, that may not be hot news, but at least it resembles some form of journalistic integrity. I must confess that I almost missed it. The headline was obscured by a nine-square inch advertisement sticker reminding me that this is GMC Truck Month.

The Rapid City Journal isn’t the only newspaper that’s trying to generate revenue from front-page ads. It’s a trend followed by the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many other big city papers. It reflects the hard economic times upon which the newspaper industry has fallen. Front page sticker ads. Advertising fees for obituaries. And who knows what’ll be next.

I suspect much of this comes from “giving readers what they want,” although I certainly didn’t ask for a Spearfish Motors ad on the front page – or anywhere.

I’m among those who thinks it a bit tawdry to put “Annie’s Mailbox” across from the comic section. While my granddaughter is reading "Peanuts," it’s only a hop-skip-and blink across the page to bold headlines luring readers to a weird variety of titilating if not morbid details of all sorts of social problems that readers feel compelled to share with the world. There’s usually deliciously deviant "lifestyle" articles there at least once a week.

Now my fear is that the Rapid City Journal will succumb to reader requests and move “Annie’s Mailbox” from the comic section.........…….….to the front page!

Go Stand in the Corner!

The Black Hills of South Dakota is a wonderful place to live. We’ve waxed positive on the numerous reasons for our love affair with this region – but there’s a fly in the ointment, and it might be categorized as “politics as usual.”

South Dakota ranks among the worst in the nation in the disclosure of campaign finances for political candidates. You can read the depressing details at the web site “Grading State Disclosure,” a project supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Results were announced October 17, 2007, and South Dakota received a big fat “F”!

While the report acknowledges improvements were made in campaign disclosure laws this year, we’ll likely remain near the bottom of the barrel when they do the survey again next year.

South Dakota is among the 10 states with the weakest public access to campaign finance records. Among deficiencies cited: our state does not have electronic filing; only Oklahoma and South Dakota don’t require the name or identity of campaign expenditures, even though they do require that the amount of expenditures be disclosed; and if you want to get a written copy of disclosure reports from Pierre, you’ll pay $1.00 per page – the highest in the nation. Most states charge between $ .10 and $ .25 per page.

Conditional kudos should be extended to those persons responsible for making some progress on strengthening disclosure laws. And we presume Secretary of State Chris Nelson is among them. If you visit the South Dakota Secretary of State web site, you’ll find a nice-looking template for campaign information, but not a lot of substance that’s easy to find. And when you do find it, you’ll likely have to work at deciphering many of the reports. Handwriting in some of the scans is very hard to read.

South Dakota is improving a bit with campaign disclosure – but it’s too little and too slow. We hope to see further improvement in the near future, but it’s not likely to come easy.

A Slippery Slope, Indeed!

I’ve not been a huge football fan over the years, but as a native Nebraskan, I’ve been proud that the Cornhuskers have generally fielded outstanding football teams with exceptional records. For me, the fact that Nebraska lost to the Oklahoma State Cowboys last weekend 45-14 in Lincoln was softened by my fondness for the Cowboys. Karen and I lived 10 years in Oklahoma, and we attended lots of Cowboy basketball and football games – even though OSU was usually at the short end of the stick while competing against the rival Sooners or the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

But this blog is not a soliloquy that joins the chorus of invective against NU coach Bill Callahan. I know very little about the man, and even less about his boss, Athletic Director Steve Pederson, who was fired today by NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman. I do know a little bit more about the University of Nebraska and its history – and I’ve always feared that this wonderful institution would forever wrap too much of its soul around a successful football team.

But this blog isn’t even about that endless friction between academics and athletics.

My subject in this blog is the Associated Press – the “AP.”

In the Rapid City (SD) Journal’s sports section on Monday, October 15, 2007, the Journal turned over huge headlines and 26 column inches to the Associated Press for an understandable fomenting of frustration about the Huskers and Callahan.

In an earlier day, I believe the Associated Press (AP) might have labeled this story as something other than news and perhaps would have put a by-line with the story.

Is there any doubt of the intent of the writer as the piece is ended?

“To win big, you need a wealth of resources and revenue, decked-out facilities and a big stadium that is packed beyond capacity seven or eight times a season. You also need strong leadership at the top. Which of those is Nebraska lacking?”

Perhaps the Rapid City Journal dropped a by-line or disclaimer that this is an opinion piece. Or maybe the Associated Press doesn’t much care that the line is blurred beyond recognition between AP news stories and things that are NOT news stories.

“Huskers hit a new low” was the headline. I suspect the Huskers will eventually overcome their adversity and prevail. My greater concern is that the Associated Press, a wonderful institution itself with a proud history, will continue its ill-conceived path into the world beyond factual news stories – without appropriately identifying it as such.

Worse, I fear it will spill over from the sports pages into other areas of reporting.

Lawrence County Next?

On a late winter day earlier this year, the temperature topped 83 degrees at Rapid City airport. It was just March 20th, but that temperature was high enough to land a place in the record books as the warmest March 20th on record – and the warmest day in March since records have been kept.

Now that might sound like a harbinger of “global warming.” As readers of this blog well know, I believe there is global warming, but I doubt we humans have as much impact on it as we might think. And it borders upon the ridiculous to think that we can have much impact on changing the climate.

Nonetheless, as it has done for millennia, climate change will provide us with an endless variety of irregular hot, cold, wet and dry weather. Unfortunately, if the past is any indication, severe weather will take a heavy toll.

While efforts to alter climate change may be laughable, there are many things we can and should do to be user-friendly to Mother Earth. And there are some common sense things we should be doing in anticipation of severe weather that dogs South Dakota constantly, ranging from drought and flooding to severe thunderstorms and blizzards.

StormReady is a nationwide preparedness program created to help community leaders and emergency managers strengthen local safety programs by providing guidelines embraced by the National Weather Service.

It’s encouraging to see our good friends in Butte County take steps to have their county designated a StormReady Community by the National Weather Service. Among other things, that means they have established a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center; they have multiple methods to receive severe weather forecasts and warnings and to alert the public; the have the capability to monitor local weather conditions; and they train severe weather spotters and hold emergency exercises.

Congratulations to Butte County Emergency Management Director Misty Peck and the other Butte county folks who’ve put together the resources to earn this designation. It’s no guarantee for avoiding disaster, but it reflects good planning and meaningful efforts to mitigate the impact of severe storms.

They’ve installed sirens to warn boaters and campers of storms approaching the Belle Fourche Reservoir, developed a safety plan for the Black Hills Roundup Grounds, and have nurtured a high level of participation in the Skywarn spotter program of the National Weather Service. I’m proud that many of my fellow amateur radio operators are active Skywarn spotters.
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On Tuesday, October 2, 2007, Susan Sanders (left) and Dave Montgomery (right) from the Rapid City office of the National Weather Service delivered to the courthouse in Belle Fourche the official designation of Butte County as a StormReady County. Emergency Management Director Misty Peck (center) receives the designation.

We hope other Black Hills counties won’t be far behind.