A diversity of news

Here’s a shout out to Jim Buchanan, editorial page writer and columnist extraordinnaire for the Asheville Citizen-Times, who pimped Ashvegas’ blog in today’s newspaper.

Jim writes that media competition is a good thing. A diversity of sources helps keep everyone on their toes, says Jim, who mentions the Mountain XPress, Daily Planet, Smoky Mountain News and the Hendersonville Times-News, just to name a few.

Check out Jim’s column here.

Interestingly enough, Mountain X in a cover story this week also expounded on the diversity of news outlets on the local scene, noting the Planet, the Asheville Tribune and the Asheville Global Report, among others.

There are piles of other publications: the Bold Life; Spirit in the Smokies; WNC Woman; Iwanna; the Asheville Disclaimer; New Life Journal; etc.

Both reports fail to recognize the emerging class of citizen-reporter known as the blogger, but more on that in a minute.

Jim writes:

I hope the preceding paragraph forever buries a question I get out in the community: They tell you what to write, right? No, they don’t. The aforementioned folks are competitors for advertising dollars. But they are also all part of an ink-stained fraternity, and I say the more the merrier. The Gannett Corp. doesn’t deliver edicts to the umpteen editors at its umpteen papers, or tell us what political philosophy to hold. It’s not perfect, but independence is the rule of thumb. That would seem to make common sense, but take a look at what’s forced off on other media.

It’s a point well worth making, because the small independents refuse to believe it. Take Nelda Holder, the Mountain X writer, who seems to dismiss the influence of the Citizen-Times out of the box and gives full expositories on the creators of the Planet, Tribune and Global Report. Writes Holder:

Admittedly, many are labors of love produced on shoestring budgets, but together they ensure that area residents can get their news from a variety of viewpoints, rather than being forced to rely on information that’s been carefully screened to serve the interests (and bottom lines) of distant corporate owners.

I’m not sure what news is “carefully screened” by the daily newspaper. And just because you’re a low-budget operation churning out fishwrap doesn’t make that information any “better” than a corporation’s product. Maybe you’re just a poor businessman.

What Holder fails to grasp is that the Mountain X and Asheville Global Report and all the other invidual print products in Ashvegas offer a forum for just one point of view. They may be a diverse bunch, but there’s no diversity within those publications.

The daily newspaper is the last place to find that diversity of viewpoints and information. Look at it and you’ll see that, compared to other publications in town, the newspaper remains a gathering point for all kinds of voices.

What Holder also fails to say is that the Planet and the Tribune are both rags devoid of real reporting. They offer little attempt at fairness and balance and there’s no interesting perspectives offered.

The Global Report does stand out as a winner for doing some original reporting, tinged with its far-left agenda, although I could give a shit about what happens in Venezuala. Explain how it affects me, and I might, but the Global Report doesn’t ever come close to doing so.

So long as it’s different than a daily newspaper owned by a corporation, it must be good, according to Holder.

All this brings me to the blogging craze today. There are millions of blogs, with millions of agendas. But this new group of information collectors and screeners will have (and has had) an impact on established media. I don’t know how it will all shake out, but it’s where the action is.

With the Internet making original sources of information easier and easier to obtain, and with computer and other technology making it easier for people to put that information together in unique ways, who knows what the future holds.