Local Media

Over the last couple of weeks while reading both the Highlands Today and News Sun websites, I have found myself wondering, where is the actual journalism? For those that may not know, the Highlands Today is a daily publication owned by the Tampa Tribune. In my opinion, they are not the best and most well rounded group of journalists that have ever existed. Sometimes I wonder if their reporters actually live in Highlands County. There have been many instances in the past that the "fact checking" appeared to be a lost art, along with spell checker. The News Sun is published 3 times per week and at one point was the better of the two. Although there are still a few good reporters there, it has been told to me that the News Sun management has a issue with bowing to advertisers, sitting on stories, and an overall lack of responsibility when it comes to reporting the news to the citizens of Highlands County.

The publisher of the News Sun, Clarissa Williams, recently issued this statement, "Many of you may not know me, my name is Clarissa Williams. I am the publisher of the News-Sun. I enjoy reading the forum, redesigning the newspaper and our website and reading your posts. After several months of inappropriate postings by several we felt it was time to take this action to better manage our site. Many of you are respectable and offer wonderful ideas that give us leads, however many have abused this portion of the web with little regard to the post. This simply is the best means for the forum and expression to continue and to protect our business, the News-Sun and you, the reader. I would also like to set the record straight, I have not been pressured about any story running or not running. I certainly have never backed away from an assignment; having a journalism background and marketing experience I fully understand the importance of maintaining credibility. I stress these values to our staff because they are critical. It is our mission to serve Highlands County through timely, quality service and editorial excellence. We have the power to affect our community while offering a history record or keepsake while adding accountability measures. Our content is an irreplaceable news source for our community, displaying the uniqueness of Highlands County. Our goal: Foster, preserve and encourage the News-Sun and www.newssun.com as the fair and balanced voice, influence and watchdog for the community. We will provide locally-focused content that is important to our readers. Ethics and standards of the News-Sun, especially the newsroom, will never be compromised or questionable. Anyone that believes otherwise should email me at clarissa.williams@newssun.com or make an appointment and stop in. "

This was posted in response to a thread that I started regarding a new policy regarding commenting on articles. In the past, a person was able to comment on the website to an article, but recently, a policy of screening comments before they appear on the site has been instituted. I have no problem with a screening process, I know that not everyone is who they say they are here in cyberspace. But the heart of my post was simply this, a policy of this nature allows for the News Sun to screen comments and also allows for the possibility of the powers that be to not post comments that may be negative to advertisers or elected officials. Now I am in now way suggesting that this is what they are doing. I am only pointing out that it is possible to happen.

Recently the online forum of the News Sun (www.newssun.org/forum) had what the paper said were "technical errors". Now, there were a few things that happened during the "error" that makes me think that it was more than an "error". The first item is, the links from the main page of the paper's website to the forum was removed. Now, I am not a computer or website wizard,but I do know that a "technical error" on a free standing site will not disrupt another free standing site or cause the links to that site to disappear. This was explained by the paper as "The techie guy removed the link while he was looking at the issues, and then when they figured them out, everything was back working again. " There was also the instance that administrative privileges were removed as a result of this "error". But that was explained away because the person's employment with the paper had ended a month and a half prior.

An interesting story was told to me over the weekend about the "technical error". My source tells me that there was a phone call made to the News Sun from a local business owner and advertiser. During the course of the conversation, the business owner complained that the forum and comments were, "making Sebring look like a redneck town" and "it is going to affect my business and make it difficult to get customers to come in from out of the county." Now, unless I have missed something, the Highlands County area has never been confused with New York City or Chicago. It is a rural county, so why would anyone from outside the county be "shocked" to learn that there may be some "rednecks" amongst us? Secondly, do those same "rednecks" not have the right to express their opinion, although granted, it may not be in the most eloquent manner possible. Third, I am certain that this business owner has no problem in accepting "redneck money". A news outlet should never have to bend over backwards to please an advertiser, especially at the cost of freedom of speech.

Yes, I am aware that freedom of speech in this case is that of the News Sun. They own the website and forum, so it is their property to police how they see fit. But this is my blog and I have my own website, therefore, here I have freedom of speech. And I am using that right to point out things that I feel are potentially damaging for the average citizen. The News Sun recently held on to a story about an investigation into a Clerk of Courts candidate by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into campaign ethics violations. The allegations were determined to be without merit and no charges were filed. But I know for a FACT that the News Sun was going to run a story the Sunday before the General Election. How do I know this? The person who was investigated told me that it was going to run. This person was nervous about the damage that it could do to their campaign and hopes for winning, rightfully so. This person told me that if the story were "framed" the right way, it would "kill my campaign." The story did not run that following day, but it did eventually run. I was told that the reason it did not run was because a person in the article had called and retracted their statements to the paper. Now, that is fair and responsible journalism. But I also know that the story was supposed to run much earlier than even the candidate thought. A source told me that it was going to run in both papers just before early voting began. It did run in the Highlands Today, but only as a blurb that mentioned that a few people in the Clerk of Courts office had been served with subpoenas. And do not get me started on the "Fill Dirt Issue" that is currently ongoing in the county.

I often wonder what happened to the journalists that simply reported the facts and did not worry about hurting feelings. Woodward, Berstein, Cronkite, and many others, where would this country be if they had not done what they did. Would Nixon have gotten away with Watergate? Is there still "journalistic ethics?"

Many people say that CNN or MSNBC are where journalism went wrong. That the "Spin Era" of journalism is now in control. I have to agree with part of that. News media all put a spin on the story in order to sell. But when did it start to go downhill, you ask? My opinion, when Fox News Channel was created. They began the downward spiral of journalism. They began reporting things from the "Right" and getting high ratings for it. That then forced the other media entities to report from a side, instead of simply just reporting.

And that's the way it is...