You've come a long way, baby...

I must confess that Women’s Equality Day in August escaped me this year.  It celebrated passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, giving women the right to vote.  No matter, perhaps it’s better celebrated next Tuesday, November 6, when men and women march to the polls in the 2012 general election.

“You’ve come a long way, baby” was an advertising slogan developed by the Leo Burnett advertising agency for Virginia Slims cigarettes back in the 1960’s.  It was designed to encourage women to further break away from traditional female roles -- and, of course, smoke their brand of cigarettes.

It’s interesting that we’ve seen a resurgence of gender issues in this political season.   Probably an indication that while much has been accomplished – much needs yet to be done.

There are, indeed, still challenges for women in “breaking through those glass ceilings,” but there have been some successes over the years. 

Dean Finley Herbst

I was reminded of one such lady this week when I learned that Dean Herbst had died in Austin, Texas.  The wife of my boss at the University of Texas–Austin Communications Center back in the 1970’s, Dean was a lady who “broke out of the mold” many years earlier.  She had a remarkable professional career – and yet managed to also embrace the importance of rearing children and focusing on family.  Dean Herbst died earlier this year at the age of 88.

First, a disclaimer.  While I did not know Dean well, her husband and I worked closely at KLRN-TV/KUT Radio in Austin, where he was Station Manager and General Manager for many years.  Much of what I recount here was shared in her obituary.

Dean Finley was born in Houston, the daughter of Frank and Lila Finley.  Frank worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and spent most of his career in the federal building in Austin.  Dean graduated from Austin High School in 1940 and then went to the University of Texas, majoring in Journalism and serving as the first female night editor for the Daily Texan newspaper.

With her bachelor’s degree in hand, she headed for New York City, where she worked as a publicist for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).  She later moved in to the top floor of Washington Irving’s old home and became associate editor and production manger for Tide magazine.

She returned to Austin in 1946 and became a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman and later was promoted to Women’s Editor.

But in 1951, Dean was offered the job “of her dreams.”  She was off to Kabul, Afghanistan to become Assistant Information Officer at the U.S. Embassy.  She would become the Head of Public Affairs at the embassy and the “only ranking woman” in the Kabul diplomatic corps.

Dean Herbst’s obituary noted “At the request of the Queen of Afghanistan, she offered an informal seminar for wives of Afghan diplomats who were going to serve in foreign embassies.  When Dean left Afghanistan, she was presented parting gifts of jewels and needlework form the Queen and the Prime Minister in appreciation for her contributions to Afghan culture.”

In a story reminiscent of the many adventures of Julia Childs, young Dean Finley made friends with the King of Nepal during the sea voyage home from the Middle East.  It occurred only after she apparently “ordered him out of her assigned deck chair, causing great consternation among his attendants.  The only person laughing was the King himself.”  After the incident, Dean joined the King and his entourage and became his dancing partner for the evening.  It was an experience we might have more likely expected of Julia McWilliams Childs during her O.S. S. adventures during World War II!

Flight to Afghanistan

When she got home, Dean went to work again for the Austin American-Statesman.  In 1955 she married Harvey Herbst, another “media type” who worked for an Austin television station.  They would have two children:  Frederick Lawrence and Marian Alice. 

While raising her children, Dean wrote Flight to Afghanistan, a novel of mid-air adventures for a high school girl on her way to Afghanistan to visit her parents.  The book apparently received good reviews and was honored at the “Writer’s Round-Up” of best Texas writers of that year.

Tapped to conduct research for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board regarding medical education in the state, Dean accepted the three-year challenge, which resulted in her later being offered the job as Assistant Commissioner for Health Affairs at the Board.  She remained there until her retirement.

Dean's many achievements were impressive, but one particular event seemed to reflect her priorities at the time.

With children still in school in the 1960’s, Dean agreed to take a leadership role with Theta Sigma Phi, the woman’s national honorary journalism society that was based in Austin.  She presented the board with a plan to reorganize the society, which resulted in relocating its headquarters to Washington, D.C. in 1972 – and changing its name to Women in Communications (WIC).  The organization pushed hard for the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  Not surprisingly, WIC also chose to allow men to become active members of the organization.

Dean’s obituary notes that she was offered the position of national director of the organization, which she declined, saying, “I’m first a mother and a wife, and both those jobs are in Austin, Texas.”

Lorraine Collins

Good friend Lorraine Collins, whose book Gathering My Wits reflected her sound judgment, clear thinking, and crisp writing, is another woman who comes to mind during the election discussion about gender equality.  Her achievements, too, have been quite remarkable. 

While Lorraine no longer pens her thoughtful essays for the Black Hills Pioneer or our Black Hills Monitor website, her commentaries on South Dakota and the “outside world” are always fun to revisit.  You can read many of Lorraine's essays here. 

Her years as a journalist  -- including stints at Time magazine and as a free-lance journalist  – were achieved during those years when women were seldom found amongst the throngs of men who dominated journalism.

Alas, she recently moved from the Black Hills to Billings, Montana to be closer to family as she cares for her ailing husband, Keith.  Keith and Lorraine were good neighbors, and they are good friends.  We miss them both.

Like Dean Herbst, Julia Childs, and many other women of 20^th century journalism, Lorraine broke that “glass ceiling.”   We’ll soon be telling you about Lee Hall, another lady who left her mark on journalism in an era when it was unusual for women to be in the newsroom – let alone leading the way.

Perhaps all of these ladies were ahead of their time.  See you at the polls!

A small sign of the times...

By Larry Miller

Another setback for journalism has occurred with news that the New Orleans Times-Picayune is cutting back to publishing a print version of the newspaper just three days a week.  That sad news was delivered by visiting southern friend Jimmie Ray Gordon, whose late husband Bob was a respected veteran wire service reporter and newspaper editor in the south.

I confess that one of my long-time pet peeves has been the abandonment of local community service obligations by radio stations in favor of becoming part of a larger corporate operation.  Typically, such stations rely on satellite programming and minimal overhead to meet the bottom line profit expectations of shareholders.  Serious local news coverage is often the first “belt-tightening” step.

Clearly, technology evolution and a bad economy have significantly and negatively impacted many newspapers and broadcasting stations – particularly those that were not well run in the first place.

It was no big surprise, for example, to learn that KZMX Radio in Hot Springs, South Dakota, was slapped with a big fine last month (May 2012) by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its “failure to make the stations available for inspection” and for “failure to operate in accordance with station authorization.”   The forfeiture was set at $21,500.

For those of us who remember the early years of the station, then KOBH-AM in Hot Springs, it stirred memories of a station that was once well-operated and reached a pretty good audience across the Black Hills and beyond, including many listeners in Wyoming and Nebraska.

We don’t know about the other properties owned and operated by Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting – licensee of KZMX-AM-FM – but the notice from the FCC seemed to make a compelling case that KZMX fits the profile of a station that “willfully or repeatedly fails to comply with…the provisions of the (Communications) Act.  They wrote the following in their Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture:

On Tuesday, May 31, 2011, in response to a complaint, an agent from the Enforcement Bureau's Denver Office (Denver Office) attempted an inspection of the Station KZMX(AM) and Station KZMX-FM main studio, during regular business hours. The Stations’ main studio is located approximately one mile north of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and is clearly marked in large letters “KZMX” and a sign on the front door reads “Mount Rushmore Broadcasting.” The door to the main studio was locked and there was no staff or management present at the building. There was no contact information posted at the main studio location, consequently, the agent was unable to gain entrance to the main studio. The agent stayed at the main studio site for several hours, monitoring Station KZMX(AM), which was operating on the frequency 580 kHz, and Station KZMX-FM, which was operating on frequency 96.7 MHz.2 The agent telephoned multiple phone numbers, including two published phone numbers associated with Mount Rushmore and the Stations several times, but none of his calls were answered.3 During the time the agent was at the main studio location, an individual identifying himself as a former employee stopped by the main studio location and informed the agent that no one had been present at the main studio for more than a year.

On June 1, 2011, during regular business hours, the Denver agent returned to the Station KZMX(AM) and Station KZMX-FM main studio and again attempted an inspection of the Stations’ main studio. The agent stopped by the main studio several times throughout the day, during regular business hours. Each time, no employees were present and the agent was unable to gain access to the main studio.  Both Stations were in operation and during each visit, the agent telephoned several phone numbers associated with the Stations but his calls were not answered. The agent then visited a non-affiliated business in the area owned by the president of Mount Rushmore. After being informed that the Mount Rushmore president was in the area, the agent left his business card with an employee who agreed to have the president contact the agent, however, the agent never heard from the president.

You can go to the FCC web site to read their Notice of May 17, 2012 in its entirety, but it’s not a happy story.  Not for Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting, nor especially for the public, which apparently has been shortchanged by KZMX for a long time.

I received a copy of the FCC Notice from a long-time friend on May 19 – just a few days after it was adopted – so I thought I’d share it with a news outlet that purportedly covers news in the Black Hills region.   I sent a copy of the notice to the Rapid City Journal, which also owns the Hot Spring Star newspaper.  I was operating on the assumption that Hot Springs area residents were not likely to hear about the event from KZMX-AM-FM, and it seemed logical to me that the Journal might have an interest in the FCC action.  I e-mailed the notice to Kevin Woster at the Journal.

His response came two days later with a terse question:  “So what’s the issue?”

I replied that I thought the Notice of Forfeiture from the FCC was self-explanatory.  He responded that he gets a lot of mail, indicating that he hadn’t bothered to open or read the attachment.

Kevin is a good reporter.  I think he’s an even better writer.  But I was disappointed that nothing ever appeared in the Journal. Perhaps it was a pure editorial judgment call that this $21,500 forfeiture by a federally-licensed station in Hot Springs was too parochial – that the significance of the story was minimal.  And  maybe he’s right.

I never saw a story appear in the Rapid City Journal about the forfeiture.  Admittedly, I don’t read the Journal from front to back, so maybe I missed it.  Nor do I subscribe to the Hot Springs Star, where it may well have appeared. 

When I cranked up various online search engines to see just who might have reported the forfeiture, I found only the FCC website and…….Wikipedia?

The fact that Wikipedia somehow captured and shared information about the KZMX forfeiture order – and not the Rapid City Journal or Hot Springs Star – may well be a subtle clue as to why traditional media are struggling…….and online sources are thriving.  Even the likes of Wikipedia.

Accepting the Journal's "Page Too"

My bride and I often vote for opposing candidates in elections, thereby cancelling any impact our votes might have upon public office holders from U.S. president to mayor.

But politics isn’t the only place we’ve seen things differently.

When the Rapid City Journal created its shrine to wayward celebrities on “Page Too,” my spouse became an almost instant fan. Curmudgeon that I am, I would not allow myself to forage through these juicy tidbits of “human interest” stories that have little relevance to my life. As a journalism school graduate, I thought there was just too much weightier stuff that I should be reading – everything from health care issues to the plight of Social Security. And surely the war in Afghanistan and our faltering economy deserve more of my attention!

But to get from the Journal’s front page to local and state news on page A3, I’ve always felt I had to hurriedly ignore “Page Too,” lest my eyes and curiosity be aroused by those fluffy features.

Alas, it’s no use. The longer that I worry that the Journal is only feeding the frenzy over all things celebrity, the more I catch myself shamelessly devouring the latest gossip about David Letterman, Lady Gaga, or Barbra Streisand.

I am a reluctant, if guilt-ridden, convert.

So now it’s time to pay homage to the Rapid City Journal for hatching “Page Too.” Without it, I wouldn’t know about the tax woes of actor Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee), the non-injury accident outside the home of author Stephen King, or the seemingly endless drug problems of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, rapper T.I., and a litany of other celebrities.

Commercial television long ago realized the value of dumbing down its programming to “give the people what they want.” And it’s so much less expensive than providing all that confusing news stuff.  Newspapers have just been slower to abandon their journalistic souls in adopting this “eye candy” media strategy.

Tomorrow, I may even discontinue my search for elusive world news in the back pages of the Journal, while also cancelling my subscriptions to Time and the Wall Street Journal. That way I can focus more on Page Too, contributing my “Two Cents” worth of anonymous opinion, catching up on “The Odd” blurbs, and maybe even digressing to more on-line computer time, Twittering and exploring Facebook.

Maybe Paris Hilton will be my friend.

Striving for objectivity

As a former staffer with Duhamel Broadcasting some 50 years ago – and as a frequent watcher of KOTA-TV news – I was surprised and a bit disappointed about recent developments surrounding Shad Olson.

Mr. Olson, an anchorman at the ABC affiliate, reportedly spoke at an April political rally in Rapid City sponsored by Tea Party folks. According to the Rapid City Journal, his remarks were in support of principles embraced by the Tea Party. By such advocacy, he allowed himself to be publicly associated with a political movement, thus undermining his role as a reporter.

KOTA News Director John Petersen – appropriately – suspended Olson from his on-air chores, but kept him on the payroll. Subsequent reports indicated that Olson, who has been with the station for about 10 years, would be reinstated.

We didn’t hear Olson’s remarks to the Tea Party group, and our information about all aspects of these events came from newspaper and web reports.

There’s been quite a stir created by this incident. Recent letters to the editor in the Journal suggest that KOTA unduly stripped Olson of his First Amendment rights to free speech. They believe that his First Amendment rights trump the First Amendment rights of KOTA, and that the courts should intercede. I smell a lot of lawyers fees.

Having watched and enjoyed Shad Olson quite a bit over the past few years, I was surprised and disappointed that he would step into harm’s way by getting publicly involved with partisan politics rather than reporting on them.

We believe KOTA took appropriate action. However, Olson’s reported reinstatement may be another matter. IF he acknowledged that his actions were the result of a lapse in journalistic judgment, then reinstatement is in order. If not – we wonder about KOTA’s commitment to journalistic integrity, and our disappointment would be compounded.

In a media world where the line between news reporting and editorial opinion seems to no longer exist, fairness and objectivity is truly an endangered species. Cynics are quick to argue that as long as human beings are involved, there can be no such thing as truly fair and objective reporting.

I would suggest that when reporters and media organization abandon their quest for fairness and objectivity, we all lose.

The grass roots league

Our neighbor Lorraine Collins always has an interesting perspective on a wide range of topics. This time she writes about journalism -- specifically, well-known columnist Ellen Goodman. It's a piece that might catch your interest -- and perhaps spur a comment or two. Lorraine's commentaries appear regularly in the Black Hills Pioneer, and this is her most recent offering. She graciously allows us to share it with on-line readers here.

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A very fine columnist for the Boston Globe, syndicated in many newspapers including some in South Dakota, retired this month. Her name is Ellen Goodman and I met her a couple of times more than 30 years ago. Just as she was retiring, she was interviewed on the Public Radio show, "Talk of the Nation." She sounded great, laughing when asked why she was retiring. Her answer was, "My editor asked me that, too, and I said, 'Why not?'" She had been a journalist for 41 years.

She still is a journalist, of course, just no longer regularly employed . I'd say we're in the same boat, except she's been on an ocean liner and my craft has been more like a canoe. I was interested to hear her say that she once worked for Newsweek Magazine in New York. A few years earlier I had a similar job at Time Magazine. We were both "editorial researchers", all of whom were women, gathering data, contacting correspondents, interviewing people, getting whatever the writer needed, handing him the file. All writers were men. After the men writers had written their articles, we would have to check those for facts. If the guy said "This is the longest bridge in Venezuela" we had to find out whether it really was.

Ellen Goodman said that people she has talked to in the intervening years were not surprised that she was discriminated against for being a woman, but they were surprised that it was legal. This was before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Ellen Goodman's career has been much more straightforward than has mine. She left New York, as I did, but she went home to Massachusetts and continued to be a journalist for the Boston Globe. Eventually she won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Well, I went home to South Dakota and eventually was named The South Dakota Presswomen' s Woman of the Year, but it's hardly the same. I first met Ellen in Mitchell in 1977 when this was the site of the South Dakota International Women's Year Conference. She was our Keynote Speaker and I was co-chair of this event.

Later that year, at the National IWY event in Houston, Ellen was there covering the conference and interviewed me. This long ago event, now buried in the detritus of history, was very controversial at the time. Betty Friedan was on one side, and Gloria Steinem was on the other. Should we be concerned about Gay Rights, or just Women's Rights? I sided with Friedan, thinking that the only issue we had was that gay women should have the same rights as gay men, just as straight women should have the same rights as straight men. Our side lost and the huge arena erupted with celebrations of pink and blue balloons up in the gallery. It was some experience, I tell you.

I've thought, sometimes, about Ellen Goodman and me, our similarities and differences. She continued to be a very good journalist and commentator in a very good venue, sophisticated, metropolitan, East Coast. I came back here to the hinterlands, which seems to be a place I like. Although apparently her life has been devoted only to journalism, I've been active in politics and public office, have ventured into writing fiction, which I love doing. I think well, she's been in the big leagues, and I've been in the minor leagues, but I'm comfortable with that.

I think of the Rapid City Rush hockey players, the minor league baseball players, the golfers who never quite make it to the PGA tour. Life is pretty good out here in the minor leagues, and sometimes I think I can still make a difference in some small way in how this community, this state, this nation runs its affairs. I call this the Grass Roots League.

Lorraine Collins is a writer who lives in Spearfish. She can be reached at collins1@rushmore.com.

Little to cheer about

This October 11, 1954 photograph of Deadwood-born actress Dorothy “Dotty” Provine appeared in the once ubiquitous Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Provine was then a 19-year-old co-ed cheering for the University of Washington in their football battle against the University of Oregon.

There was little to cheer about that day, since Washington lost to the Ducks, 26-7.

There’s even less to cheer about today around Seattle. The economy is a mess, Boeing Aircraft is struggling mightily, and the newspaper has gone under.

Unable to find a buyer, Post-Intelligencer has announced that it’s shutting down print operations. This dire situation was suggested in our earlier posting about the Post-Intelligncer. Declining advertising revenue and subscriptions have taken their toll. After 146 years of serving the Pacific northwest with a printed newspaper, today (3/17/09) is their last edition.

More details about the Seattle shutdown can be found in this New York Times story. The upshot is this: while the print version is folding, Hearst Corporation says an on-line version of the Post-Intelligencer will continue. Reports indicate that only about 20 jobs will remain in the newsroom.

Here’s the statement made yesterday in the Post-Intelligencer newsroom by publisher Roger Oglesby:

- 30 -

for the Post-Intelligencer.

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"All the ads fit to print"

It was a first – another a sign of the continuing hard times for the newspaper industry – as display advertising appeared on the front page of the New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal has been adorned with front-page advertising since 2006, but it wasn’t until this Monday (1/5/09) that “The Gray Lady” began accepting front-page display ads. The Times is the largest metropolitan daily in the United States.

In their own story about this new strategy, the Times on Sunday (1/5/09) acknowledged that the move would likely be seen by traditionalists as a "commercial incursion into the most important news space in the paper."

Yup.

What happened in St. Paul?

Watching helmeted police officers wield batons outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul was a little disconcerting. Nonetheless, knowing that there would likely be thousands of demonstrators ranging from curious idealists to seasoned agitators, it’s not surprising that local authorities wanted to make sure that the demonstrations didn’t get out of hand.

In retrospect, it appears they did a pretty good job, despite the severe criticisms leveled by advocacy journalist Amy Goodman and a handful of others, including Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver. Goodman and two of her colleagues at Democracy Now! were among the reporters covering demonstrations in the streets of St. Paul when they were hauled off with demonstrators during an altercation. They were given citations and then released. They've not yet been charged with anything.

Journalists should be free to practice their craft. They shouldn’t be harassed. But despite their press credentials, they shouldn’t be treated any differently than the rest of us. If they choose to imbed themselves in a crowd of demonstrators, they must know they run the risk of being caught in a mess, if a disturbance occurs. If police tell demonstrators – or journalists – not to cross a line, it’s prudent to heed their directive. Apparently, Democracy Now! anchor Amy Goodman felt she should be given celebrity treatment.

Almost immediately, Free Press mobilized an e-mail campaign, asking tens of thousands of people to sign a petition demanding that all charges against all journalists be dropped. They delivered that blanket petition to St. Paul City Attorney John Choi. It was during a classic television ambush of Choi that the overblown egos of a few attending journalists were revealed.

Dennis Moynihan of Free Speech TV unabashedly asked Choi, “couldn't you, with your power, waive or dismiss those charges right here on the spot with all these cameras here? Don’t you have the power…in recognition of the 50,000 people who’ve seen the arrest video?”

Choi didn’t miss a heartbeat in responding.

“Sure, I have the power, but let me tell you why that would be the wrong decision. When you make decisions about prosecution and justice, you shouldn’t do it because a lot of people have cameras in your face and want you to make a decision on a whim. In my opinion, justice requires that we review the cases carefully and seriously, and then make the right decision.”

Amen. And good for John Choi for standing up to the intimidating media folks who invaded his office. We trust, however, that there will be a serious investigation into exactly what did happen in the streets of St. Paul, and to what degree -- if any -- police might have overstepped their authority. That would be an even finer moment for Mr. Choi.

I admire some of Amy Goodman's work. And freepress does a good job in battling media consolidation. We applaud them for those efforts. But better they continue that fight than whimsically interceding on behalf of advocacy journalists who care less about objectivity than creating headlines.

Nice graphics, but...

We sometimes pick up a copy of USA Today while traveling; otherwise, we seldom read it because most of its stories lack the depth necessary to gain an understanding of the topics covered. That’s okay if they're reporting on the misadventures of Paris Hilton – but a disaster when covering suicides in the military (USA Today, 5/30-6/1, 2008).

Even Pentagon consultants appear to provide data that supports the headline, "Army tallies record number of suicides among soldiers."

Near the end of Gregg Zoroya’s story lie the naked facts that “one in four of the victims had never deployed overseas” and that less than one-third of the 115 Army suicides in 2007 were personnel stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Nonetheless, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash) cites the statistics as “a tragic reminder that repeated deployments …are taking a heavy toll.”

Contrast that statement with the fact – also buried near the end of the article – that the Army suicide rate is lower than among civilians, “when adjusted for age and gender similar to military demographics.”

Loss of life is a very sad event. Suicides are more so. It is unfortunate that the USA Today format doesn’t allow for greater depth on covering such sobering subjects. This story suggests conclusions that on closer scrutiny appear misguided, and it raises even more questions – questions not likely to be addressed any time soon by USA Today.

Have military suicides tracked civilian suicides? What are the longer term trends? How do we reconcile “multiple combat deployments” as a key factor, when the highest percentage of victims have never deployed overseas?

USA Today is an economic success story, with circulation second to none. Perhaps that’s because its glitzy graphics and superficial stories satisfy a citizenry seeking entertainment and superficiality rather then substance. On-the-move citizens apparently find the publication meets their needs. Some of us, however, believe that USA Today nurtures only our shortened attention spans and desire for colorful graphics. It’s like overdosing on sweets and snack foods.

Perhaps it’s time to order a full healthy meal and renew our subscriptions to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Gaining an understanding of complex issues is important, if we are to seriously address the issues facing our country.

Looking for world news

I’m sorry. I’m just a bit old fashioned and think the media in general -- and newspapers, in particular -- should do a better job of providing us with world news.

In general, television news has become increasingly glitzier and full of fluff – but that’s nothing new. Radio news, except from public radio, is on the endangered species list. And newspapers have shriveled news content perceivably, particularly world news.

Most of us now acknowledge that we live in a global economy – but you’d never know it reading the front page of the Rapid City Journal.

Never mind that tens of thousands of people were killed by a cyclone in Myanmar this past week. In the minds-eye of the Journal, that story wasn’t worth putting on the front page. Instead, we found stories about:

· Hillary Clinton speaking at a Sioux Falls airport hangar
· A non-fatal vehicle accident in north Rapid City
· Students making pancakes for Teacher Appreciation Week
· Retailers baiting shoppers with rebate specials
· A tourism consultant focusing on “locals” for a city makeover
· An enticement for the Journal’s newest feature – “Page Too”

The front page of the Journal did an excellent job covering the blizzard that wreaked havoc on much of western South Dakota, and other important stories with decidedly “local” angles. But if Christ were to make a second coming, it would be relegated below the fold on page 7.

After considerable public outcry, Journal editors appear to have eliminated the routine front-page placement of area sporting activities and relocated it to the front-page of the sports section. Good move.

Now if they’d only acknowledge that world events deserve a shot at front-page coverage.

The subtle relegation of important world news to the back of the paper is like being shoved to the back of the bus. If it’s out-of-sight, it soon becomes out-of-mind. And a whole new generation of young Americans will continue to know the floor plans of most U.S. Wal-Marts, but won’t have a clue about what’s going on in the rest of the world.

In the past, we’ve justifiably been able to blame television for much of the dumbing down of America. Newspapers – at least the Rapid City Journal – seem to be a witting co-conspirator.

Newspaper Videos Blossom

We received a most welcome e-mail from our niece in Texas today. It provided an internet link to a video produced by the Lubbock (TX) Avalanche-Journal, telling the story of our grandnephew, Sergeant Shawn Walton, who was seriously wounded earlier this year in Iraq. We posted the video on the Galey Archives family web site.

Shawn has spent most of the past four months recuperating at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He’s been going through some aggressive physical therapy, and this video provided some good news for family members far and wide. The production quality of the video won’t win any awards, but it was still good news.

And these kinds of videos may also be good news for the newspaper industry. As the Fifth Estate becomes more adept at using video, perhaps they’ll also land upon a business model that will allow them to continue and expand creative uses of video and other internet tools.

Last week, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, pushed through a new media ownership rule. It will allow newspapers to own television stations in the largest markets of the country. It’s a dumb idea. There already is too much concentration of power within the media.

Chairman Martin waxed eloquent about the plight of newspapers, citing significant declines in subscriptions to many well-known dailies. He neglected to mention that despite such declines, profits within the newspaper industry remain quite high, thank you very much!

While I’m opposed to the kind of increased concentration promoted by the cross-ownership rule, I fully support the blossoming video activities being pursued by newspapers and reported extensively in a recent article in the American Journalism Review.

Even the Rapid City Journal has been getting into the game of late. I find their video offerings -- categorized under "Multimedia" to the right side of their on-line news page -- a bit sparse. The interface is a bit awkward, but I suspect that they’re still taking baby steps with the new technology. Look for them to improve over time.

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Happily, Journal Editor Mikel LeForte told me some time back that the paper plans to continue its emphasis upon print reporting. They view video as merely complementing their print effort. And that’s the way it should be.

But for those of us who’ve advocated converging technologies to maximize journalistic efforts, this is a move in the right direction.

Merry Christmas, Rupert

Yup. They went ahead and did it. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday voted 3-2 to overturn the newspaper/television cross-ownership rule in major markets across the country. Read the summary in the New York Times.

That should make Rupert Murdoch and other media barons very happy. It lets them off the hook in markets where they've been operating under waivers allowing such cross-ownership, and it's sure to open the floodgates of cross-ownership all across America.

It's a sad day for local journalism. But the battle isn't over. A move is afoot in the United States Senate to nail the FCC for its transgression. There aren't many things I get excited about having Congress get its nose into -- but this is one of them. The public airwaves are too important to be left to corporate bean counters trying to squeeze even greater profits out of every market at the expense of the public.

Read the revealing remarks of FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. Their two minority votes just couldn't do the job. As you read their comments, it's apparent that much skullduggery has been going on behind the scenes; the Commission has demonstrated institutional ineptness, and I'm still dumbfounded as to why Chairman Kevin Martin launched this death march upon local services. It reached a new low for doing the public's business clandestinely and at the 11th hour....and later.

Kudos to Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Trent Lott of Mississippi for leading the charge to bring the FCC back to their senses. We're hopeful that South Dakota Senators Tim Johnson and John Thune will join the bi-partisan effort to pass S.2332, the Media Ownership Act of 2007. Among other things, it will correct the sloppy and irresponsible way the FCC conducted their hearings on media ownership. It will also breathe new life into efforts to examine the impact the media consolidation has on local services, and it'll finally give attention to the problem of under-represented minority ownership of broadcasting stations.

Local journalism, a bedrock of our democracy, is in peril. We need to find ways to engender an expansion of local broadcast services, and further media consolidation is not the way to achieve it.

Stay tuned.

Courage of Your Convictions

Good neighbor Lorraine Collins is a free-lance journalist. She and her husband Keith have lived the world over -- including Singapore and London -- but now they're retired and back home in South Dakota. They live in Spearfish. Lorraine was kind enough to let us use one of her recent columns from the Black Hills Pioneer.

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A while ago I received a phone call from a fellow who had read something I wrote in this paper. He said liked what I had to say, and then he went on to discuss various things in the community that he was unhappy about. “What did you say your name was?” I asked. “I didn’t say,” he answered. Then he said he was writing a letter to the City Council about some of these things but he wasn’t going to sign it because he had some relatives who might get in trouble if he did. He sent me a copy of the letter but there was no return address.

In a sense, this fellow, right-minded person though he may be, is in my opinion just like the guy who arranged to give $750,000 to State Senator Roger Hunt to fight a ballot initiative campaign, but who now is hiding behind what may be a loop hole in the law. He is reported to be afraid of “violence” if anyone knows who he is. The issue he opposed concerned abortion rights, and I watched that campaign closely. I don’t recall that there was ever any violence. Once I did attend a meeting that featured the Rapid City doctor who was supporting abortion rights, and as a precaution the sponsoring group asked that a policeman be nearby, just in case. There was a brief and very discreet police presence, but it wasn’t needed. One man showed up to argue against the doctor, but he was definitely not violent. This doctor had endured weeks of pickets in front of his office, which must have been unpleasant, but he never came to harm because of publicly stating his convictions.

In that same campaign, I also observed an event on the BHSU campus when some anti-abortion people from out of state came in their bus and set up a big display, so people who disagreed with them organized their own group to oppose them. There the two opposing forces stood, a few yards apart. Now and then the local supporters of abortion rights would go over to talk to the people who came on the bus, and there seemed to be vigorous discussion, but there was certainly no violence.

So, I wonder, just what is that anonymous guy with all the money afraid of? And also, what is the fellow who called me afraid of? Believe it or not, I do know how hard it is sometimes to speak one’s mind. It can be scary, and uncomfortable, but after a pretty long time of speaking my mind and sometimes being nervous, I can report that I have never felt in danger of my life, or even my living.

Many years ago I saw a sign in a store that said, “I have to make money from my friends, because my enemies don’t come in here.” This may have been a subtle way of telling us not to ask for a discount just because we knew the owner or belonged to the same church or lodge, but it also accepted the fact that perhaps those who were of a different opinion, religion, political affiliation, might avoid doing business there unless they had to, and the shop owner realized that. He accepted it.

Journalists do get murdered, but not, except for one or two spectacular cases in the last forty years, in the United States. Political leaders and opposition members do get murdered, but not in South Dakota. We in this nation and this state and this county do not have much to fear from those who don’t agree with us. In many countries around the world people do die because of their adherence to their beliefs. We’ve seen the image of the young man standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square. We’ve seen people under house arrest in Burma, imprisoned in South America, tortured in many countries because they disagreed with the people in power. Compared to that, just what do we have to fear in South Dakota or Lawrence County? Not much.

My name is Lorraine Collins. I believe in the First Amendment. I encourage all of us to use it, and to have the courage of our convictions.

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Lorraine Collins is a free-lance journalist and lives in Spearfish.

Got My Journal to Keep Me Warm!

In reflecting on past postings about the Rapid City Journal, I believe I’ve been a bit unfair. They do much good work, even though I think their priorities sometimes get screwed up – like many of their headlines.

As have several Journal subscribers, I even toyed with the notion of cancelling my subscription. However, the Rapid City Journal is the major daily in our little part of the world, so I’ve abandoned that idea. I’ve simply widened the scope of papers that I read; it’s more time consuming – but what the hey, I’m retired!

And now, I’ve found an additional reason for continuing to pay the paperboy for the RC Journal.

I’m a fair weather bicyclist. And now for those who roll out their two-wheelers in the dead of winter, there’s a way to beat the cold – newspapers.

It seems that some cyclists in the Tour de France stuff newspapers under their jerseys as thermal insulators. Partly tradition, we’re told, but apparently newsprint is a good insulator and will trap body heat.

I learned of this little trick from a front-page article in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. (Note to the Rapid City Journal: that’s the front page of the weekend section – not the front page of the newspaper!)

Thanks to good friend and retired public broadcasting colleague Bill Campbell for the use of this photograph. It was taken near Bowman, North Dakota while Bill was trekking from White Sulphur Springs, Montana to Chicago during the balmier summer months of 2006.

Kunerth: Legislature Has Work To Do!

Good friend Bill Kunerth of Belle Fourche is on a panel that regularly provides viewpoints to the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader on a variety of issues. It's part of what they call Dakota Comments. The Legislature has been studying whether to adopt a code of conduct. Do we need one, in light of Ted Klaudt's actions in the past year? And if we do, what ought to be included in the code? Here's Bill Kunerth's take on the topic.

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The state definitely needs a conduct code for legislators, and more. Some state codes spell out specific conduct prohibitions. e.g. improper sexual activities, alcohol and drug abuse. Others refer to general behavior.

I prefer the latter, such as in the Illinois code (I know, it’s a lousy state to use as an example) which cites “conduct unbecoming to a legislator or which constitutes a breach of the public trust.” Then, allow a bi-partisan ethics committee of legislators and/or an ethics commission of parties outside the legislature to define and enforce the rules.

The South Dakota Legislature does not have a permanent ethics committee but formed an ad hoc group to hear the case against Senator Dan Sutton. It was dissolved after the hearing.

In addition to rules on moral conduct, South Dakota needs to strengthen its accountability and openness laws. Our state ranked 50th in a 2002 Integrity Index of state governments which evaluated these areas. It was conducted by the Better Government Association and the Ford Center for Global Citizenship (check “BGA Integrity Index”) and judged freedom of information laws, whistle blower protection, campaign financing, gifts/honoraria, and conflicts of interest. Not much has changed since the study, except for a commission named by Attorney General Larry Long which is helping close some of the gaping loopholes in the state’s open records law.

South Dakota also received an F in a 2007 study on campaign disclosure by the UCLA Law School and Center for Government Studies. These reports make clear that the South Dakota Legislature has work to do in the areas of ethics, accountability and openness.

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Bill Kunerth is an Iowa State University Emeritus Professor of Journalism.

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.

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!

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.

Jack and "The War"

The airing of Ken Burns' The War on PBS this month stirred memories of my friend Jack Shelley.

For just about anyone around today who lived a decade or more in Iowa during the 1900s, Jack Shelley is a familiar name. Born in 1912 near Boone, Iowa, Jack is as close as you get to being a "living legend.”

A journalist of the first order, Jack's career with WHO radio and television in Des Moines was punctuated with historic broadcasts of World War Two. From live broadcasts at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 to covering the Japanese surrender ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in 1945, Jack reported from a variety of war venues. After the war, he served as News Director at WHO-AM-TV for some 25 years.

Fortunately for a new generation of aspiring broadcast journalists, Jack moved from the newsroom to the classroom in 1965, accepting an appointment to the faculty at Iowa State University in Ames. By 1969, when I was News Director at KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa, I had become acquainted with Jack through the Iowa Broadcasters Association. That was a factor in my return to Ames in 1970 to pursue a Masters degree in Journalism. Jack Shelley was my major professor.

In 1982, Jack retired from his second career as a college professor -- but not before touching the lives and positively influencing hundreds if not thousands of young men and women. What a tremendous career this gentleman has had.

In the 1990s, he was a staunch opponent of WOI-TV being sold by the university and was rather outspoken on the topic. While the sale occurred anyway, it didn't diminish Jack's capacity for being active and involved in the community and across campus. While his pace has slowed a bit -- at 95 years of age, he's entitled!

To capture a bit of his remarkable careers as a broadcaster and educator, I heartily recommend Robert Underhill's excellent book, Jack Shelley and the News (McMillen Publishing, Ames, IA 2002). Last I heard, Jack was still giving weekly news reports at Rotary meetings in Ames, but his good friend and long-time colleague Bill Kunerth tells me that Jack has recently had a few setbacks with his health. We'll hope it's only temporary!

And then, there's Bill Kunerth, but that's a story for another day.

Fair winds and following seas to a good friend and mentor, Jack Shelley.

Kunerth on Public Service

This piece was authored by our good friend Bill F. Kunerth of Belle Fourche. Originally published March 12, 2007, it's a timely topic worth re-visiting.

I recently attended a presentation by Rep. Stephanie Herseth at Black Hills State University in which she did an excellent job of outlining the current political situation and offering her well-thought-out positions on significant issues. Included was a plea for greater participation in civic activities by our youth.

As a retired educator with 35 years under my belt, I could not agree with her more.I tossed out a suggestion to her and the audience, an idea that I think should be more fully exploited in our educational system, especially in high schools, colleges and universities.It involves the formal incorporation of community and public service components into the curricula of secondary schools and higher education institutions. I realize that students at every college and university, and most high schools are involved in such activities, often as a part of their course work. Black Hills State is proposing a major community service effort for the coming school year to the South Dakota Board of Regents.

However, what I am suggesting is that such activity be required of all students.Most of us, at some point in our lives, become involved in community service, but too often it is later in life when our families are well along and we are somewhat secure financially. In fact, the sooner we become involved in such work, the more we realize its self and public benefits. And after our first venture, we tend to continue and increase these activities.

Although such programs can be, and are established locally, there is a national organization, Campus Compact, which for more than 20 years has worked with institutions of higher education - from community colleges to major research universities - in helping them implement community service initiatives. Campus Compact is "committed to educating students for responsible citizenship in ways that both deepen their learning and improve the quality of community life."Students involved in these programs work in such areas as health, literacy, hunger, homelessness, care of the elderly, voting, and the environment.Only one South Dakota university, the School of Mines, is a member of Campus Compact. There are two colleges in Nebraska, three in North Dakota, 15 in Montana, 17 in Iowa, and 47 in Minnesota that are members. Its dues are based on enrollment and are easily affordable for most schools.

I think it's worth looking into for the administrators, faculty and students of South Dakota's private and public institutions of higher education. If it hasn't already, the South Dakota Board of Regents should consider this approach.A comprehensive and compelling package of information is available by typing in "Campus Compact" on your browser.

Thanks, Bill, for allowing me to include this piece at Black Hills Monitor. By the way, Bill Kunerth is an Iowa State University Emeritus Professor of Journalism. He retired in 1988. Absent his photograph, I've posted a shot of the ISU campanile, something of a landmark at the Ames university.