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Nov

4

Surprise! Traditional media makes factual error that could lead to perception of bias


You know, it is just such a drag to find this kind of thing. From the News-Herald.com site (out of Willoughby, OH):

Lake, Geauga and eastern Cuyahoga counties will be affected by upcoming actions of area state Reps. Matt Dolan, R-Russell Township; Lorraine Fende, D-Willowick; and Carol-Ann Schindel, R-Leroy Township.
State Sens. Tim Grendell, R-Chester Township; and Lance Mason, a Cleveland Democrat whose district includes Euclid, voted for Substitute Senate Bill 221 bill last week.
Most legislators want to be optimistic about the bill’s effect on consumers, but will be asking questions this and next year.
The bill will go before the Ohio House Energy Public Utilities Committee.
State Rep. John Hagan, R-Alliance, is committee chairman, and Rep. Josh Mandel, R-Lyndhurst, is vice chairman. Ranking minority member is Rep. L. George Distel, D-Conneaut.

Now, you would think that the paper, being somewhat local compared to the major urban dailies like the Plain Dealer, the Columbus Dispatch, the Youngstown Vindicator, Toledo Blade and Akron Beacon-Journal, would be local enough, even if not hyper enough, to know that State Rep. Josh Mandel has been removed as Vice Chair of the House Public Utilities Committee while he’s volunteering for a second tour of duty in the military. All you have to do is go here – it is a very, very, very easy search. Especially if you are, you know, a “real” journalist who doesn’t give money to anyone and only reports the truth.

Why do I suggest it’s a “perception of bias” error? Because it gives Mandel ink and stature for something that isn’t true. This fact drives me nuts because I don’t like that I don’t have a house rep in the statehouse while he is abroad. I don’t think that he isn’t a patriot so don’t even go there. This is about how district residents might be cool with Mandel’s feeling an obligation to go back to the military, but not be cool with not having the person elected to represent us actually in Columbus to work and vote.

Before people tell me I am being too hard because it’s a simple error, don’t try that either.

I’m in Mandel’s district. I checked the status of his position on that committee as soon as that energy bill was introduced because I wanted to know what the deal was – would he be weighing in, would that get someone else to pull the VC weight – whatever that is. I even posted about money he’s received from Crandon Canyon mining figure and Pepper Pike resident, Robert Murray.
I knew.

The News-Herald reporter could know too, and should know far more than me.

The other thing is, when the Plain Dealer is getting down on an experimental project because it pays the authors a pittance but stillgets all hot and bothered because a sitting congressman complains and so the paper worries about the perception of it possibly being considered to hold the views its authors espouse?

Well – to hold the view that a journalist should check the House committee website to double-check the Vice Chair assignment, when every journalist reporting on the Ohio statehouse should know that Mandel is not stateside, does not seem very radical or burdensome, to me.

But then, I’m just hyper. Local that is.

PS. Keith, this is for you, since we are having a friendly nudge-nudge on this:

[State Rep. Matt] Dolan will play a major role as the House Finance Committee chairman, now designated to be House speaker next year in the GOP-majority chamber.
“My bet is there will be both an open market and competition that begins at a down price,” Dolan said. “It has to be essential that there is not a spike in utility costs to drive the owner of a business out of business, and to make consumers work even harder to pay their bill. The most crucial thing to do this year and next is to have a long-term containment of costs. We have to make sure lights don’t become a disproportionate share of the homeowner’s budget.”

Keith – I sure hope he reads and follows the energy bill more than he did that one about wine. :)

PPS. I tried to leave a comment on the News-Herald website before writing this post but every time I tried to type in the “flashing numbers,” the system wouldn’t accept them – told me I’d failed.  How miserable is that to have a system tell you that you’ve failed when you’re putting in the right thing.  Argh.  So I did email the News-Herald newsroom and hopefully they will make the correction.  And if they don’t…?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:07 am November 4th, 2007 in Government, Media, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse, Utilities 

Comments

3 Responses to “Surprise! Traditional media makes factual error that could lead to perception of bias”

  1. 1 Keith on November 4th, 2007 11:39 am

    If they don’t, well, don’t be surprised. I mean with what they pay reporters nowadays you really expect them to check their sources of information? Jeez, back when I worked at the N-H in the 1980s that would have been expected but it ain’t the paper I worked on. Sadly, it seems it ain’t the craft I worked for anymore either.

    As for Dolan, well, for some people it can be said: they lead charmed lives. (where’s that baseball, I think its around here somewhere :) )

    Its nice to know that he’s looking out for my little businesses’ light bill. We’ll see.

    But I know you take your right to order wine over the Internet very seriously so at some point I might write him a letter asking him how revisiting that bill is going? That and an apology for hitting him with the baseball in 1976. You know, those brave men suffered that long winter at Valley Forge for the right to order wine from whomever we want. I know this is no small matter and I for one will not rest until this wrong has been righted.

    (Ok even I’m giggling here – oh, you should have been out at Notre Dame in Chardon last night to hear the speech from Simpsons producer Michael Reiss and the shots he took at Pepper Pike “who named that place? someone got it from his little baby: pa pa pa papa pike?” And the one episode that got beat in the ratings by CSI Pepper Pike. The victim died of boredom. Oh, he had us rolling).

    By the way, I don’t want to ruin your mood this morning but you should read Diadiun’s column in today’s PD:

    http://www.cleveland.com/readers/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/119416912484390.xml&coll=2

    I don’t usually get this nasty in my blog but I couldn’t let it slide:

    http://badamerican.wordpress.com/2007/11/04/diadiun-shills-what-did-you-expect/

    I hope you’ll forgive my anger in this case.

  2. 2 the war i want on November 6th, 2007 4:09 pm

    I work for a small newspaper in Columbiana County. I make the same amount of money as a Wal-Mart employee does (probably less). Our newsroom is three people (and this is a daily). We don’t have a copy editor because there is no budget for it. We don’t have photogs because there is no budget for it. I wish i could say small town papers are hyper local, but in reality, they are hyper-stretched.

    The way you attack small town journalists is a bit unfair, i think. While there are plenty of bad reporters out there who don’t really give a shit (and who can blame them if they work for a paper like i work for), the fault often lies in the situation itself. The workload is often staggering, mostly busy work (they want you to cover a different boe or village council meeting every day, never letting you dig into anything real or important). State house coverage at smaller local papers, even of local reps, is relatively non-existent unless they send a press release, and this is because there simply isn’t enough time in a day to get the job done. It’s not like these papers offer overtime. There is little pay for reporters and little oversight from management. Papers have shaved newsrooms down to nothing. And this has nothing to do with the journalists themselves. Poor journalism is usually the result of poor management at the top. Most reporters (or at least speaking for myself) would love the chance to dig into something big and get all the facts right and do in depth stories. But not for free.

    Mistakes get made sometimes. The info the reporter had in the above story was probably just outdated. I doubt there was any malice behind it. To point it out as an example of why “traditional journalists” are worse than bloggers is a cheap shot at best, dishonest at worst. Take it for what it is — an unintentional error.

    And i enjoy your blog, btw. So this isn’t an attack on bloggers. I get most of the news i personally enjoy from blogs.

  3. 3 Jill Miller Zimon on November 6th, 2007 4:22 pm

    The war I want: thanks for taking the time to read and leave a comment. I won’t argue with your take on my take – primarily because it’s coming from your experience so I trust you to know what that is! :)

    My point wasn’t so much that people don’t make mistakes but that with this particular state rep, a lot of mistakes about him crop up that pump him up – and, as a resident in his district, as well as someone who has spent time talking with him personally and still not agreeing with many of his positions (I did not vote for him), it is very aggravating to me.

    There is plenty about Mandel that is impressive. But the papers do things like talk about him being deployed to Iraq – he volunteered. Papers around the country talk about the bill he pushed to force Ohio’s pensions to divest as though it is still alive but it was tabled in exchange for voluntary agreements procured against his preference. Likewise, – this error – showing him to be in a position of power when in fact he hasn’t been in the state – let alone the statehouse – for at least three months. His not being here, his going back to the military, has been very public knowledge. And given the importance of the energy bill and the ease with which anyone could check…

    Okay – that’s all I’m saying. I am okay with you thinking I’m going overboard in not being human about the mistake. That’s fair of you.

    But…I still think they could have checked. :)

    Again – thanks for reading and good luck covering the elections. Sounds to me like your paper might benefit from unpaid bloggers, no? (seriously, I mean that)

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