Local Newspapers: Who Do You Trust?
The Star-Banner has the largest distribution of all newspapers in our area. However, it is not without competition. There are about eight different newspapers serving area residents.
At the suggestion of one of our bloggers, we would like you to share your comments about our local newspaper sources. Here is our question for April, similar to what we asked you about talk radio:
If you read local newspaper(s), which do you like, and more important, which do you trust to provide accurate and objective information?
The blog is attracting many viewers; we would like to have more comments. Please give us your point of view. Here is your chance to tell us what you love or hate about our local newspapers.
Let’s hear from you.
posted by Blog Master @ 12:33 AM
99 Comments:
Thanks to a course at CFCC, I'm getting very good with the computer. I cancelled my home delivered S-B and now go online to read it. The only other paper versions I get are the Wall Street Journal and Riverland News. The Riverland News is the best little community paper you could ask for. S-B on line you don't have to sort through all those pages of ads.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Removed duplicate comment.
I start my news day by connecting to www.sayfierereview.com.
The site gives you some good daily state political news and provides a link to most of the state’s big metro and daily newspapers. Click on News Links and then Florida Newspapers. You can access the Ocala, Gainesville and Leesburg papers, among many.
I can get through two cups of coffee before leaving the Sayfie Review site.
“Capitol Raider” is a brand new blog in Tallahassee with a little twist. The blog turns the tables on newspaper reporters. Reporters have had way too much fun, scurrying about digging up what ever tidbit of information they can claw out of someone and then spitting on it to transform it into dirt. Why should they get to have all the fun? Why doesn't someone make it their mission to dig up dirt on them? Surely they can't all be saints... I mean, they are journalists after all.
The Capitol Raider is a forum dedicated solely to airing the press's dirty laundry. Why not? They have no problem spreading rumors and conveniently "getting the facts confused" when it makes them look good and sells papers.
Maybe the Homeless Blog should also consider something like this locally. I could give you some real good material!
Visit Capitol Raider at:
www.capitolraider.blogspot.com
I heard the Star Banner’s circulation is down from what it used to be a few years ago and that many of the local weekly papers are actually up in circulation. Anyone know for sure?
The Banner has been playing hide & seek with the editorial page. I only read the state and local section and missed seeing it for several days. Today I discovered it by chance at the back of the business section. A friend told me some days it is in the first section of the paper. Where will it be tomorrow?
the ocala and dunnellon papers i know about. what are the others.
These are the area newspapers we know about:
Star Banner
Leader
Free Press
Reporter
Riverland News
Sumter County Times
Citrus Chronicle
Southwest Marion Citizen
Additionally, there are the Villages Magazine and the OTOW paper.
Let us know if we missed any.
P.S.: To any of you newspaper folks who may look in on the blog. Feel free to provide a “plug” for you paper on this thread. We will exempt that from our “no advertising” provision.
I like the new TV Week section of the Star Banner.
The local papers STINK! No real cutting edge journalism at all.Just surface oriented coverage.Papers in other parts of the country far surpass our local newpsapers in interesting thought provoking news coverage.
Wish you would tell us how you really feel!
I believe Banner circulation is up slightly, but if people read newspapers like they used to, the Banner would be about 100,000 today, not about 50,000 plus or minus depending on the season.
Banner does not put every day on line, just to make it hard on people who read on line.
I too like Sayfiereview, and I check Drudge when I can.
St. Pete Times is the best newspaper in Florida, and they are the only thing going to cover Tallahassee anymore.
As for Banner's editorial page, look in the index on page one -- it tells you every day.
Woodward and Bernstein ruined journalism. Kids come out of college with a J-degree thinking they can make their mark by bringing some politican down. My experience was that you just write what you can prove and everything will fall into place. The Banner has had some good people in the last ten years but they are all now off the street inside pushing pencils editing.
--pwf
Want to see a first class online news webplace? Try the St. Petersburg Times.
Copy and paste:
www.sptimes.com/home.shtml
The new publisher of the Star-Banner better bring a big broom and dustpan with him to do some spring cleaning. He has a lot of debri to remove, and will inherit quite a mess from the current “ostrich style” publisher. Screw up and move up!
Instead of writing a poking-fun article at our library on Sunday, I wish Bill Thompson would write about something more important. How about recognizing that Gov. Bush has proclaimed April 2006 as Library Appreciation Month in Florida?
This month, libraries have many events to celebrate. National Library Week began April, 2, and National Library Workers Day is April 4. These celebrations honor the contributions of all library workers, including librarians, support staff, volunteers and others who make library services possible.
I would rather read about the good in our library system not the continuing drivel about the book jail. Wonder why people question whether the Star Banner is really in touch or just looking for controversy. Thompson’s article is a good indicator.
^^^AGREE^^^
Star-Banner needs a new name. How about Ad-Banner?
Remove all the ads and you’re left with about 5-6 pages of news.
Best value for the money (35 cents) is the St. Petersburg Times. You have to balance some of their stories by going to the online news on the Fox News website. I take the Star Banner only on Sunday’s so my wife can get all those bargain coupons. That’s it for my newspapers.
You are buying at the wrong place.
Real Penny pinching Conservatives like me only pay 25 cents daily and 50 cents on Sunday.
I really like the Banner’s new TV Week section and now they are changing it again. Go figure.
My Doctor has prescribed me to read the Ocala Banner before each of my therapy sessions on M-W-F. Doctor sez reading the Banner will help me better understand my bipolar condition. It is helping. Now I must go and watch tapes of old American Bandstand shows.
Don’t pick on Bill Thompson. He is one of the best people at the S-B. Don’t know why he stays there. Coverage of county government news has gone to hell in a hand basket since he moved off that beat.
Don
(OTOW)
YES!
I agree, the Riverland News is a really good community newspaper. Michel Northsea is a super journalist and editor.
Unbelievable, the paper can’t even change the TV section without screwing it up!
Now, now. Don’t be too critical about the TV section foul up. I did notice the Banner’s Executive Director stepped right up and apologized for the problem. Something the paper has been doing quite a bit lately. Confession is good for the soul.
there is mention of reporters trying to bring down politicians. i have watched for 12 years as the star banner attempts to bring down randy harris. they just don’t have the public confidence to do so. if i were the honchos at the paper, i would be asking myself the question: how can people trust randy harris over the words in articles written by us. frankly, there are many people like me who don’t trust harris or the star banner. a sorry state of affairs for local politics and our news coverage.
Your comment about Harris and the Star Banner is right on. It is not a good situation.
If Bill Thompson is one of the best journalists at the S-B, who is the worst?
I use to have ben a poofereeder at the Stur Bunner. I tink some of yu are bein to criticle of my fermer emplooyr. Callin thum the Stur Blunnder is unfaire.
Jim says if Bill Thompson is the best (and I agree), who is the worst reporter at the Banner.
From my observations, it would likely be Sue Carr, who has long had a serious problem getting her facts straight.
Item: Her stories about Grace School and traffic patterns on East Broadway a few months back where she printed false "facts" when it would have been easier to talk to the people involved and check their stories to find the truth. She eventually had to write a correction.
Item: Mayor E.L. Foster simply refused to talk to her. He would not even recognize she was a reporter. Now when the Mayor tells the publisher he won’t talk to his reporter, assigned to cover the City Hall and the Mayor, you got to admit there is a problem.
Item: her current efforts in the controversy she started with Munroe Regional Medical Center. She can't even copy the law correctly from the law books, as evidenced Thursday morning.
Everyone makes a mistake occasionally, but in my days as a newspaper editor, I couldn't have kept someone so frequently wrong.
--pwf
She’s a farm club player and will never make it out of the farm system.
super idea about turning the tables on the reporters. there are some local ones who will become a bit skittish if the tables are turned on them. if politico is who i think he is, he could for sure provide some great material.
I always thought she had some pictures of Gaultney. Also heard that comment from other staff.
Don’t get too wrapped up in Thompson. He ain’t to be trusted.
Let me give you, from experience, the lowdown on probably the worst reporter at the Banner.
Susan Carr would get my vote and that of several others at the paper who know her. She has a reputation of deciding on the conclusion she wants to reach and then goes out and does research and obtains interview comments to support it. Printing her story even if she does not have complete and accurate facts to support her predetermined conclusions. Not interested in reporting the news but dedicated to trying to create the news. She would be far better suited to working for a scandal Tabloid than to a news oriented paper. Just look at her articles and talk with people she has worked with over the years and you will see why she is a great candidate for the worst.
“Been There”, are you an unhappy employee of the S-B?
Been there done that is right on! Carr's approach is exactly like the tabloids ask anyone she's interviewed. She badgers and to a point harasses, asks the same dumb questions over and over and over and over and still reports it wrong. They only use her to fill in for someone who has had enough of the news control freaks and has quit.
The Star-Banner runs The Leader, the Free Press, the Ocala Star and the Reporter in the Villages along with Life inthe Heart of Florida magazine and ocala.com
i like the editor of the Star Banner. she goes to my church. She's really smart and down to earth. i think she's doing a good job. the paper is better than it used to be. it's much easier to read.
i know that Carr lady, too. she's a bit sharp, but she's always seemed fair. i don't know, though.
Entrapment Journalism?
NBC's "Dateline" is defending its reporting methods after being accused of recruiting Muslim men to entrap NASCAR fans into harassing them on tape. NASCAR called the move to fit some Muslims attending a race with hidden cameras, "outrageous," and blasted NBC for "going out to create news instead of reporting news." But NBC says its reporting is fair, calling its techniques "nothing new."
A NASCAR spokesman says NBC's Muslim recruits showed up at a race in Virginia last weekend, but in spite of their efforts, he says, there were no instances of discrimination.
Creating news? Hummmmm
Someone asked if I’m an unhappy Star-Banner employee? The answer is NO. I was a “happy” employee there, resigned and I’m now a “very happy” employee doing something entirely different.
Do you think the Star Banner would do anything like NBC?
Naw!!!
Someone said they liked the new editor of the Banner. In a recent communication with me, she exhibited interest in what a critic (me) had to say, and offered her own intelligent comments on the criticism. She did not fully agree, but I suspect corrective steps will be taken quietly without fanfare. She has done what others before her did not do and that is communicate with critics of the paper. She will likely go far in the NYT organization.
--pwf
WOULD THE STAR BANNER DO SOMETHING LIKE NBC?---YOU CAN BET YOUR BIPPY THEY WOULD AND LIKELY HAVE!
“A Reporter Becomes Republican and Gets Canned”
Broward county’s Sun Sentinel fired long-time political columnist Buddy Nevins for switching to the Republican Party.
He was OK when he was a Democrat. Hypocrital? You bet!
The Banner would never fire a reporter switching from Democrat to Republican. They would offer the reporter psychiatric counseling!
I have enjoyed the Star Banner for many years. My 3 parakeets also find it very useful.
THE NEW EDITOR SEEMS LIKE SHE MAY PUT SOME BRAINS INTO THE BRAINLESS TRUST RUNNING THE PAPER.
A gentleman wrote a letter to the editor in today’s S-B (Moral High Ground) that makes two good points that really apply to the S-B:
“……the media only guesses at what is on the minds of the American people. In speculating, the media are prone to making gross mistakes of judgment.”
“So, the media throws a lot of trash on the wall hoping that something will stick. In the Star-Banner’s case, you hoped the Lafave story would sell newspapers.”
Yes sir, two comments that tell it all about the S-B!
Bird Lady, I love you!!!
my favorite is the citizen.
Went to a commissioner workshop this week. Commissioner Harris continues to be a master at playing the Star banner like a puppet. Before I read the article about some discussion at the workshop I knew exactly what they would write about—and they did. I’m told Harris frequently sets up the Banner and then laughs at them afterward. I can believe it.
as i have said before, been watching harris and the banner for 12 years. he has it over the banner and does play with them.
Harris doesn’t have to worry about the Star Banner. 60-70% of people don’t even read it and probably 90% of his supporters don’t either. Politicians don’t need to be as concerned about the paper as they used to.
This is a paragraph from a book, “Pioneer Women”, about newspapers in Kansas, circa 1850-1890:
“Usually the editors were highly opinionated and partisan and used their papers as pulpits to espouse their own views and interests. Flamboyant in style, their writing was often vituperative and their objectivity questionable.”
At the S-B you can substitute “reporter” for editor and it tells the tale of today’s reporting of the news. Not sure the word “flamboyant” has application to anyone’s writing style at the S-B.
Not much has changed in 150 years!
As one of those old editors, I can tell you editors compete in the free market place. If you don't like their writing style, quit taking the paper. If enough people quit subscribing and reading the Banner, the bean counters would respond and install someone to create enough controversy to make you want to come back and hate them even more.
John Lund and Chuck Pardee have been boycotting the Banner for about ten years -- but they buy it daily to find out who to hate that day. They have about 990 of those original 1000 bumber strips that say "Boycott The Star Banner". I once read five newspapers daily, now I check them out on-line and take the Banner on Saturday and Sunday. The Internet is a major part of newspapers business plan today, and it will grow more important as time goes on.
--pwf
I'm an online reader of the Banner and Riverland News.
I really like U S A Today.
"Local Newspapers: Who Do I Trust?"
Not the Star Banner.
Anyone notice that the Marion Pulse queston of the day in the Star Blunder was screwed up today?
Newspapers are in trouble because of bad reporting. Many reporters, including quite a few at the Star Banner, suffer from a rapidly spreading journalist’s disease:
“ACUTE RECTAL-CRANIAL INVERSION”
New Publisher, take notice!
Amen, politico.
I just re-read a story from earlier this month, and I was amazed. Never in my career did I ever write a front page piece with more personal opinion unless it was labeled commentary, or unless it was under my personal column mast head. My editors would never have tolerated it. If tyhis is what is being taught in j-schools, we are in serious trouble. This one shocked even me!
--pwf
Bill O’Reilly is not one of my favorites, but he does have a good idea.
He was recently smeared by the Syracuse Post-Standard. The “smear reporters” at that paper were publisher Stephen Rogers and editorial writer Mark Libbon. Over the past few years, The Post-Standard's circulation has declined nearly 30 percent. The paper is nicknamed "Sub-Standard" by readers in upstate New York. Syracuse’s version of Ocala’s “Star Blunder”?
Any media person who uses smear tactics in any way — not just on O’Reilly, but any way — will be featured on O’Reilly’s show “The Factor” and inducted into the billoreilly.com "Hall of Shame."
O’Reilly will keep a running list of media smear merchants on the Web site, in addition to a "Don't Buy, Don't Advertise" list.
POLITICO, YOU HAVE A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR. HUMOROUS AND SO CORRECT.
O'Reilly is an idiot. Agree, as are several Star Banner reporters and editors. O'Reilly and reporters all make their living throwing dirt on people and looking for that "big story".
O'Reilly got caught in his own embarrassing (dirty) situation several months ago and in time so will some of the Banner and other local media jerks. Payback is hell!!
Jim, don’t be so tuff on the Star Banner reporters. Most of them are probably OK people. There are the few who give the reporter job a bad name. I know there are even a few O’Reilly like personalities there. Several have been looking for the big story for years and have never found it and won't. That’s why they stay with the Star Banner. The “really good” reporters move on to better newspapers.
"dj", your moderation is not warranted.
It very well may be that the good ones get away. I met a young Star-Banner reporter a few months ago. I thought she had great potential, excellent technical understanding of her specialty area, and seemed to have good writing skills. However, in just a few months, away she went. I understand she didn’t like the micromanaging of her articles by the Banner. Probably because she attempted to write the facts and not manufacture news.
O'Reilly has proved how stupid he is. A Syracuse reporter, Stephen Rogers, he accused of recently smearing him has been dead since 2002!
The newspaper industry is not dying, it’s in a “cyclical downturn”. That’s if you believe an article in today’s paper. Copy and paste to read the article:
http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060430/BUSINESS/204300331/1009/NEWS
Time will tell. In the meantime, could it be that some newspapers are “deeper” in the cyclical downturn than others….Star-Banner (for instance)?
Interesting article. Newspaper industry sounds like the condition of my old company IBM many years ago. As they used to say at IBM, “we are in a temporary downturn”. Took some major/painful changes to get out of the temporary situation. Doubt the newspapers will change the way they need to. They are 10 years behind everyone else who has already gone through their “cyclical downturns”. Too much arrogance and we know best at the newspapers—shades of IBM.
If you look at the Star-Banner's circulation audit numbers, their circulation is actually growing a lot unlike most other papers in the country. Of course, the population is growing, too.
Is it growing as fast as the population?
So does anyone know the answer to Dave's question?
I don’t know any figures for the Star Banner. However, the Banner’s parent, The New York Times, is one of a few daily newspapers with a circulation increase over the past six months. It is up 0.5%. Most of the newspapers are down on average about 2.5% for the past six months. The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, is down 15.6% (the largest decrease among the top 25 papers).
Maybe people are getting tired of liberal news reporting!
It's really more about the internet. Why pay for something you can get for free.
I read somewhere that if Star Banner distribution kept up with county population growth then current distribution should be at 100,000.
Believe that is true. Must be, there has been no counter to it.
I think the 100,000 figure to keep up with population growth is not correct. I bet it is closer to 60,000. So the Star-Banner is not too far off.
only about 20 percent off
20% off in which direction?
It certainly wouldn't be the Star Blunder! Their bias is so transparent and evil, in my opinion. Of course we all realize they are connected to the NY trash print media!
I would suggest you tune into The Savage Nation radio talk show with Michael Savage in the chair, what a coragious man he is and he tells it like it really is without having to pander to any political party or their so-called leadership! Great for the soul and good for all true American
Patriotic citizens who really care about the future of our great country.
Patty
Patty, you can go back into your cave again. As for Savage, he is a brillant person with no common sense -- like someone in Idaho.
Hope to hear from you -- no sooner than next year.
Looks like we need another strait line to the pharmacy to get "Patty" some more medicine. She is obviously off her meds again. Better hurry or that old guy will send her back south. Brand and Bill might have to write another editorial about her. Wonder if she has room for Lund up there with the rest of the kooks.
Come on, you guys, she might slap your face. Ever notice how much smoother county commission meetings are now that she found a man in Idaho and and lund doesn't show up?
Wonder what started the “Patty” discussion? Well some of our eagle-eyed bloggers discovered a recent (today) post by “Patty” buried in an archived thread (August 2005) and the word has spread. Below is what blogger “Patty”, who seems to have at one time lived in our community, had to say in her post:
-----------------------------------
Hi folks, I have just been given this web and whilst I am no longer in the cesspool of the corrupt goings on in Marion County I must say I find it interesting that it's business as usual, (dirty Business) Vicious mean spirited cowards who hide behind their lies and innuendos in an attempt to undermine those doing a good job for 'we the people'
God is good and he always takes
care of his own and no one can take that away from any of us.
Footnote: I left Florida for a better and kinder place and I thank God for giving me that vision! Political mouthpiece and proud of it if that's what it took to get your attention and it obviously worked, right?
BTW, the evening (Commission) meetings were tried some time ago and the attendance was just as bad!!!
Patty
Uh Oh All You RINOs!
Patty (AKA Pat?),
How about chiming in on the School Board elections in that section of the Blog? What is happening with all of our so called Republicans, Board members and candidates? We need you back here to get them in line!
Seriously, I would like to hear from her.
Move to Idaha then.
No one here who suffered through her railings wants to ever hear from her.
Hi Patty,
I couldn’t agree with you more about the cesspool of Marion County politics. It has been this way ever since the republicans took control and is getting worse. We now have a chance to start cleaning up the cesspool---starting with Randy Harris, the biggest political contributor to cesspool politics in the county!
Glad you are enjoying Idaho. Sounds like your kind of place.
So do you really think there are any Marion County Democrats who can do any better than the Republicans? I haven’t seen anyone yet...all B-team players.
The best description of the local Democrats is one I saw describing their fellow Democrats in Alachua County:
"They place the well being of trees above the people themselves."
No comments here in awhile, so I'll comment. Couldn’t help but notice that no Star-Banner folks received any notable awards at the annual meeting of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. Does that tell us something about the quality of reporting at our local paper? I think it does.
A friend of mine told me it would be great to see the Banner or its reporters recognized for winning some of the following awards:
- Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting of national significance.
- Taylor Family Award for fairness in newspapers.
- Seldon Ring Award for investigative reporting.
She said if they win any of these, you can feel more confident about the quality of the paper. Anyone know if these are good awards?
Never heard of these awards, but they could exist.
Ad in today's star banner from the star banner brags they had a 3% increase in circulation and web site interest, highest of 50,000 and up papers. That is good, and I applaud them. Many papers, including the new york times which owns this money machine in ocala, have been losing circulation.
Understand morale is now moving in an opposite direction to circulation. A shame it's going that way.
Heard the same thing.
Post a Comment
<< Home