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The Sunday, August 28, 2011, Coeur d’Alene Press contained an unattributed editorial comment decrying the deceptions the Press had supposedly uncovered in actions taken by the Coeur d’Alene city government and the North Idaho College Board of Trustees. One of the lines in the editorial read, “Shame on us for believing and reporting what city sources had told us, for accepting their word that no raises had been given the previous year.”
Yes, Press owner Hagadone Corporation. Yes, Press Publisher Jim Thompson. Yes, Press Editor Mike Patrick. Shame on all of you.
It has been the Press‘s pattern and practice for years to perpetuate the deceptions and conceal the incompetence and in some cases outright dishonesty of some Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County elected and appointed public officials. You have done that by consistently accepting officials’ comments and information at face value and without independent corroboration. You report what you are told by people, usually interested parties, not what you have found and confirmed by independent investigation. You have given those officials aid and comfort by intentionally ignoring their misdeeds rather than diligently reporting them as news . You have tacitly approved of them by avoiding reporting them.
By your shameful failure to perform your duty as a newspaper, you have intentionally withheld information readers needed to evaluate the performance of our public officials. You are not a news medium; you are a propaganda medium that selectively presents information in a way designed primarily to further your own financial interests rather than informing the citizens who trust you to report the news completely and accurately. Shame on all of you. You are no better, no more honorable, and certainly no more worthy of the public’s trust and confidence than the officials you accuse now.
At least they admit the mistake/oversight/problem now. Hopefully their Mayberry blinders have come off……. for good. Perhaps this one editorial might be a toehold for the FEDS?
Comment by Wallypog — August 29, 2011 @ 5:15 am
Wallypog,
Or the Press is trying to divert public attention from the 800-pound gorilla that the Hagadone Corporation and its cronies want: the Son of RiverPark Square Parking Garage and the removal of the boat launch. You will not see the Press acknowledging the hardly unintentional sloppy contract administration between the City and Miller Stauffer, and you will not see the Press standing tall for those who really cannot see any reason to spend millions of dollars on a new boat launch when the existing one is paid for and works just fine.
If Thompson and Patrick had been running the Washington Post when Watergate broke in mid-1972, there would have been no Post coverage of the news, only a single editorial written ten years later, wondering why Nixon resigned.
Comment by Bill — August 29, 2011 @ 6:32 am
I have no doubt that “H” has his personal motives. He did not get to his level by being naive or overly ethical for that matter. Still he could get his ‘cake’ without making these revelations so something has changed or is in the works. Perhaps circulation is so impacted that he feels a muckraking paper would garner more business? Maybe he is wrangling for some changes in these plans that are known only to him?
Given the other local newsprint option this CdA enlightenment is at least goods news if only superficial. Pray it is more than skin deep.
Comment by Wallypog — August 29, 2011 @ 7:06 am
Wallypog,
Both alleged news/views/skewspapers do their respective parts to keep people in the dark. People deprived of information don’t ask questions that power brokers and corrupt public officials would prefer not to have asked and not to be required to answer.
Comment by Bill — August 29, 2011 @ 8:46 am
Why NOW? Imagine all the “TAXPAYERS” money that could have been saved over the past 15 years had the press done its job then. This makes me sick. I have to agree that something bigger is in the works that the city is against or they stepped on Mr. H’s toes and he dont like that. I do not for one minute believe the article was to serve the greater good, the taxpayer.
Comment by concerned citizen — August 29, 2011 @ 8:48 am
If the public is “outraged” (read: distracted) and focused on the issue raised in the editorial, the public attention will be diverted from the ripoff associated with the unnecessary and inappropriately located parking garage and the unnecessary removal of the boat launch. The Press is an instrumentality of the Hagadone Corporation just as The Spokesman-Review is an instrumentality of the Cowles corp. Neither alleged news/view/skewspaper has the public’s interests at heart except to the extent those interests coincide with their owners’ interests. Those newspapers exist to exert influence and control public opinion, not to honestly and thoroughly inform readers.
Comment by Bill — August 29, 2011 @ 8:59 am
Yes, both papers are owned by private firms controlled by local moguls, and yes editorial policy can be influenced by those moguls. That said, there are still some true newspapermen in the local papers and now and then they do what newspapers have done since Poor Richard’s day.
At the end of the day, most inkstained reporters hate being lied to, manipulated or played the fool. When that happens, they often react this way.
Comment by justinian — August 29, 2011 @ 7:04 pm
Justinian,
Whom do you consider the good reporters to be at each of our two newspapers? What distinguishes them?
Comment by Bill — August 29, 2011 @ 7:07 pm
Maureen Dolan is a superb example at the press. At the Journal of Business Mike McClean does a solid, workman like job. Mike Patrick is clearly and old style journalist in the “Perry White” tradition. I see Greg Bever at the JOB in a similar vein. The SR folks have moved around so much, can’t name names, but I am certain that theyre exists in the SR editorial board room for journalistic umbrage if taken advantage of, lied to or abused.
Comment by justinian — August 30, 2011 @ 9:22 am
justinian–now that is funny. As far as being lied too…situation ethics is the grail.
Comment by Joe Six-Pack — August 30, 2011 @ 11:46 am
Bill, You and I and every other reader of the Press have good reason to ask questions of the newspaper’s investigative efforts, especially when it comes to local government. The Press is the newspaper of record, yet they are not checking the beautified information handed to them by city players?
Your criticisms are harsh, Bill, but unfolding realities show the Press should take note.
Comment by mary — August 30, 2011 @ 10:24 pm
Mary,
By informing their readers with timely, accurate, complete information, newspapers enable and empower them to exercise social, political, and economic control over their communities and establish some acceptable level of balance. Those controls in the form of feedback to public officials from their constituents serve to define the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable governance. When newspaper owners, publishers, and editors skew the news (whether by omission or commission), the public gets a distorted picture of what is happening that shouldn’t or not happening that should in their communities. The result is not news — it’s propaganda. Propaganda is deception.
Comment by Bill — August 31, 2011 @ 6:49 am
Mary wrote “Your criticisms are harsh, Bill, but unfolding realities show the Press should take note.”
I do not think Bill is harsh at all. These yahoos have treated the citizens very poorly. It is time for every citizen to stand and be heard. “One cannot reason with one that is unreasonable.” Or how about this, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” I guess we know how those in power want to be treated since we can see how they treat the citizens. And I agree with Bill that the cdamess is nothing more than a puppeteer and propaganda birdcage liner.
Comment by concerned citizen — August 31, 2011 @ 7:31 am
You don’t like harsh? Ok, let me choose a different word. I think Bill’s criticism of the Press was “unvarnished”… but it was stronger than that…”blunt”,”forthright”,”candid”?… yes, but those are not bold enough to describe his vigor.
I know Bill’s take on this matter comes from his core. He is a passionate, non-partisan truth-seeker, willing to call it like it is, no matter what, even if he has to step beyond the politeness of forthright, to the truthful grit of harsh.
Comment by mary — August 31, 2011 @ 9:08 am