David Sirota's lamentations on media

[Colorado Media Newsroom]

From the Denver Post:




It is with thinly concealed glee that talk-radio host, blogger and author David Sirota discusses the tough times for newspapers in the digital era in a piece for Harper’s (to be published Tuesday). He recounts the downside of single-newspaper towns (like Denver since the Rocky Mountain News folded), the trouble with media baron owners (like Dean Singleton), the trouble with newspaper publishers having too much local political clout and the trouble with reporters losing the sense of competition in single newspaper towns. There is some truth in these things — we all wish there were still multiple newspapers flourishing in America’s cities –but if you’re going to describe life inside a newspaper, where are the quotes from local reporters who are living in the one-paper newsroom?

The Rocky is gone, but what about the solid investigative reporting by several TV stations in Denver, the efforts of the alternative weekly Westword, the increasing role of public radio, the Denver Business Journal, and Laura Frank’s I-News investigative reporting collective? All are doing good work and posting/publishing/broadcasting and pushing into social media on a regular basis, more than filling the void.

Sirota is free to dump on the Post (his contract with the paper was terminated). From personal experience, I can say I have never been directed to write anything, politically or otherwise, by the folks at the top. To the contrary, I’ve had numerous conversations with Singleton in which he said he disagreed with me (on concentration of media ownership, on duopolies, on cross-ownership) but respected my right to make my arguments.

Sirota is a good thinker, but he’s oversimplified the picture in “The Only Game in Town” in Harper’s. He talks about what he calls a “deathbed resurrection” by the Post without looking at the hustle, the work of those on the inside.



More...