Ok, the last 2 post of mine, and several conversations later I've come to some conclusions. Now I'm not going to take credit for these ideas being mine originally, but I will say that I'm going to try to in-brace the thought a bit more.
Back 2 1/2 - 3 years ago a newspaper editor named Greg Little attacked not the policies of, but the personality of one of our council members. In a single instant he made it okay for small town politics to go negative and for us to 'hate' our neighbors based on their politics and/or personalities. The worst part, and I'm just as guilty of this as the next guy, is that we've allowed that to happen! We have allowed the negativity to drive wedges between people to the point we don't want to even talk to some people.
We can't allow that to continue.
Just because we don't agree with someones personal life, or a decision they've made, doesn't make them evil. Nor does it mean that we can't work together for the betterment of our community.
Some of you would think that after my posting on ethics I think Bob Burchard is a two headed monster. I don't. I don't like the current tactics he's using in his attempts for mayor. I wish that all we heard from his campaign were what Bob was going to do for this community, and cut out the bashing of his opponent Bobby Logan.
But last weekend Bob and I worked together with the scouts and other organizations to help clean out the city cemetery. We can agree to disagree and still work together to make our town, that's right yours and my town of Gonzales, a better place for all who live here and visit here. For 3 hours we worked as a team. No punches were thrown. No snide comments were made. No x-ray visions hoping to blow the other one up with their superhero powers were being used. No, didn't happen that way. We came together, we saw a problem, we conquered it together.
Still don't like his political tactics, but love what's he's spearheading in the cemetery. No hatred.
There is not a councilman sitting that I haven't gotten onto about something over the last 2+ years. But that's not personal. It's not because I think they are the evil city monsters trying to rule the world. It's because I felt like in those instances they didn't think things through, they didn't look long term, or they weren't looking at the whole picture. But I get along with most everyone that sits on the council including Bobby Logan whom I've smacked hard over the last 2 years in this blog. Everyone of them INCLUDING the mayor has sit at my dinner table for some talk or another over the years.
Now I'm going to say that part of this demeanor is still perpetuated by our papers. Notice that's papers not paper. Headlines like Judgement Day and similar have to stop. Facebook comments about 'the other paper' have to stop. If you want to make a personal comment then make it under your name, but don't put it on the newpapers website or Facebook page for the public to see the dirty laundry! Leave them under your blog or own personal page and don't link them. Just worry about the news you're going to report next paper, and the real news in our community that our town needs and wants.
Our community has come a long ways over the last 2 years in healing a lot of wounds created after Mr. Little opened Pandora's box. But there is still some festering and ooze leaking out. It's time we finish the healing.
When there's something wrong let's address it. This blog will continue to do that too. It doesn't mean that we won't have issues with JB Wells, finances, or other things in our city, but they need to be about what's going to make our city better, not the personalities.
As one who has crossed that line more than once I'm going to apologize now, and I'm serious when I say I'm going to make every attempt to take the personalities out of this blog and keep it more narrowly approached on the issues.
It is NOT okay to hate your neighbor. I don't care what some editor might of told us 3 years ago.
Who's with me on this?
God Bless
Dennis
Showing posts with label Gonzales Inquirer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gonzales Inquirer. Show all posts
Friday, April 20, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Judgement Day
Ok, I'm not sure that Gonzales needs a tabloid for one of our newspapers. Recently the headlines read in the Gonzales Inquirer read in bold print "Judgement Day". This for an article that had misinformation and basically stated while there were deficiencies there were not going to be ANY sanctions or penalties being accessed. So this was so serious that it needed a National Inquirer style title of "Judgement Day"?
I have to tell you I was very disappointed in this headline, and a couple of others lately. I have never understood what the Inquirers personal vendetta against Mrs Kacir has been all about, but any time her name is in the paper there is a tabloid story that goes with it. This vendetta goes back over 2 years when she was running for Mayor and the Inquirer was covering up for those at the city. I really thought when the new regime came in that trash reporting like that would be a thing of the past.
It's a shame too because I thought with real articles like the city 'finding' $250,000 we were moving in the right direction. That covering the stock show, and doing several other things for the positive of the community were actually going to bring around the paper and start to re-legitimize their place in this community. They've even taken some interesting angles on some stories that I think have been thought provoking and actually good reporting.
So why would they want to throw in sensationalize, crap reporting that is more acting like 2 year olds than 100+ year old paper that has a long standing reputation in this community?
They acted the same way when they lost the bid at the city. I'll be honest, the council didn't select the Inquirer exactly BECAUSE of this kind of reporting. Okay, you might not get someone to fess up to that, but trust me that's the bottom line. Remember most of the council members that voted that night were directly affected by the Inquirers tabloid reporting 2 years ago. Things like that are not going to be forgiven or forgotten over night, and continuing to report articles like "Judgement Day" will keep those memories fresh in their mind for that much longer. But keep reporting real investigative reporting and life in Gonzales and those memories start to fade.
And for the record, I've seen Mrs Kacirs emails attempting to reply too, and give answers to the Gonzales Inquirer. The Inquirer responded that the word count was to long for their policies, but they didn't report that, and THAT is misinformation when you say that attempts to contact Mrs Kacir went unanswered. So what the Inquirer posted is a lie!
I don't care if it's the Gonzales Cannon or the Gonzales Inquirer if it's not in the Op-Ed page, then it should be facts, and non-opinionated. It should not be sensationalized. If they want to write an opinion article on the facts after writing a story then that's their right! But let's label it correctly.
And that is just MY opinion on the situation.
God Bless,
Dennis
I have to tell you I was very disappointed in this headline, and a couple of others lately. I have never understood what the Inquirers personal vendetta against Mrs Kacir has been all about, but any time her name is in the paper there is a tabloid story that goes with it. This vendetta goes back over 2 years when she was running for Mayor and the Inquirer was covering up for those at the city. I really thought when the new regime came in that trash reporting like that would be a thing of the past.
It's a shame too because I thought with real articles like the city 'finding' $250,000 we were moving in the right direction. That covering the stock show, and doing several other things for the positive of the community were actually going to bring around the paper and start to re-legitimize their place in this community. They've even taken some interesting angles on some stories that I think have been thought provoking and actually good reporting.
So why would they want to throw in sensationalize, crap reporting that is more acting like 2 year olds than 100+ year old paper that has a long standing reputation in this community?
They acted the same way when they lost the bid at the city. I'll be honest, the council didn't select the Inquirer exactly BECAUSE of this kind of reporting. Okay, you might not get someone to fess up to that, but trust me that's the bottom line. Remember most of the council members that voted that night were directly affected by the Inquirers tabloid reporting 2 years ago. Things like that are not going to be forgiven or forgotten over night, and continuing to report articles like "Judgement Day" will keep those memories fresh in their mind for that much longer. But keep reporting real investigative reporting and life in Gonzales and those memories start to fade.
And for the record, I've seen Mrs Kacirs emails attempting to reply too, and give answers to the Gonzales Inquirer. The Inquirer responded that the word count was to long for their policies, but they didn't report that, and THAT is misinformation when you say that attempts to contact Mrs Kacir went unanswered. So what the Inquirer posted is a lie!
I don't care if it's the Gonzales Cannon or the Gonzales Inquirer if it's not in the Op-Ed page, then it should be facts, and non-opinionated. It should not be sensationalized. If they want to write an opinion article on the facts after writing a story then that's their right! But let's label it correctly.
And that is just MY opinion on the situation.
God Bless,
Dennis
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Truth, Justice and the American Way
It's been said that truth will ultimately prevail. For the last 4 months I've pounded on the Gonzales Inquirer for their lack of reporting of news, their misleading articles, and their half truths. I've complained that they are making more news than they are reporting on by doing such a thing. I've argued that their childish antics on Facebook and in the paper are incredibly unprofessional as a mainstream paper in our community.
It got so bad I wrote the President and Chairman of Granite Publications and told them I was reporting more news than the Inquirer. I pointed them to specific articles that were absent in the Inquirer. I pointed them to specific bias columns (not editorials) that showed that they had become nothing short of henchmen for the mayor and city manager.
Look, I believe that every paper has a right to an editorial. I appreciate it even more when they are willing (or better yet, their staff) post 2 opposing views. It's keeps us sharp in our thinking if we have to support what we are saying. Doesn't mean we have to agree, just appreciate that there is another side to the story. The Inquirer had, over the last 12 -18 months drifted so far down the party line they couldn't see what was happening right in front of their shop. They only wanted to hear one side to every story, and that was the city managers side. No one else had the truth in their books.
Well today it's being reported that Greg and Nichole Little were met by Mr. Chionsini, Chairman for Granite Publications, and were told to leave. These 2 are directly responsible for the direction that the paper has taken since Mr. Cunningham left the paper.
I personally think it's a good day for Gonzales. I am praying that Mr. Chionsini and his staff have replace the Littles with someone who will bring the Inquirer back to it's standard of reporting that this town deserves and expects from a 100 year old paper. I hope the editorial page will once again be a place for discussion of our issues that we need to be discussing in our town, but that opinions stay in the editorials and not the news sections.
Good Luck Gonzales Inquirer, and Gonzales, it's a great day for Truth, Justice and the American Way!
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
It got so bad I wrote the President and Chairman of Granite Publications and told them I was reporting more news than the Inquirer. I pointed them to specific articles that were absent in the Inquirer. I pointed them to specific bias columns (not editorials) that showed that they had become nothing short of henchmen for the mayor and city manager.
Look, I believe that every paper has a right to an editorial. I appreciate it even more when they are willing (or better yet, their staff) post 2 opposing views. It's keeps us sharp in our thinking if we have to support what we are saying. Doesn't mean we have to agree, just appreciate that there is another side to the story. The Inquirer had, over the last 12 -18 months drifted so far down the party line they couldn't see what was happening right in front of their shop. They only wanted to hear one side to every story, and that was the city managers side. No one else had the truth in their books.
Well today it's being reported that Greg and Nichole Little were met by Mr. Chionsini, Chairman for Granite Publications, and were told to leave. These 2 are directly responsible for the direction that the paper has taken since Mr. Cunningham left the paper.
I personally think it's a good day for Gonzales. I am praying that Mr. Chionsini and his staff have replace the Littles with someone who will bring the Inquirer back to it's standard of reporting that this town deserves and expects from a 100 year old paper. I hope the editorial page will once again be a place for discussion of our issues that we need to be discussing in our town, but that opinions stay in the editorials and not the news sections.
Good Luck Gonzales Inquirer, and Gonzales, it's a great day for Truth, Justice and the American Way!
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Gonzales Inquirer Acting Like Children
Ok folks, I didn't go looking for this fight, but If you put a target that big on your chest you best be ready for someone to try to hit you, and since when have I ever been bashful of picking up that stone?
So I commented on their wall that something to the effect of "How about the $2,300,000 that Greg Little is trying to say was spent on fire trucks and turbines. These items were budgeted items, hence not emergency fund items, let's start with correcting that bit of disinformation!"
There were several other comments noting the unprofessionalism of a newpaper to put such a post on facebook.
A couple of hours later they removed the entire posting from their facebook wall, so I posted the following, "Wow, you can't even back up what you start? You wanted to see someone step up and tell the world how you are spreading disinformation. When we do you just delete the post? Either man up and admit you're lying to the public or shut the doors".
I took the above screenshot knowing that they would delete the post, but wanted proof that the Gonzales Inquirer is running scared. They know they are in the wrong, they just won't admit it. So they did delete the post (go see if their wall looks like my picture, it doesn't because of all the deletions), and they un-friended me. I'm going to take that as a badge of honor!
Look here's my beef with the Inquirer -
1) They have gotten so bias that it's sickening. They might as well call it the Mary Ann MacLean news paper because that's all they are printing. Did you know that they did NOT print Steve Hendershots paid article that was delivered in a timely manner. Seems to me they have an obligation to print equal space if the opponents want it (remember it's a paid ad).
2) They have gotten to where they are printing 1/2 truths. Yes, we purchased a fire truck. Yes we purchased some work on the dam turbines, but those were ALL budgeted items for the city, not emergency fund items. So somewhere we have combined 2 stories that look like one to cover up the guilty.
3) Where was their reporting on the fraud cases? These guys are suppose to be bringing us the news, not making it! When was the last real 'scoop' they had? Come on, with the information I get daily their paper should be full of 'interesting facts' that you need to be aware of.
4) They have just gotten childish. I would NEVER have posted my comment just willy nilly on their facebook wall, but THEY ASKED FOR COMMENTS!!! If you are going to do such a thing you best be willing to back it up! A professional would of never done that, but if they did they would of responded to the comments placed up there! Comment on the disinformation on the Normas House. Comment on the disinformation on the fraud cases. Comment on the disinformation on the GEDC board. Comment on the disinformation on the budget. Let's just start there! Back up your facts, the budget is there under the Freedom of Information Act to back you up, but we all know I'm right here.
I have read the Gonzales Inquirer for about 14 of the 15 years I've been here. But I dropped my subscription. We've quite advertising in their paper (admittedly it wasn't a lot, but a hundred or so a year). And honestly except when someone brings a copy over to roll their eyes with me I never even touch it, why bother I like to get my local fiction from guys like Tim Quinton and his Sea Huntress series, not from my newspaper.
It's sad, because the Gonzales Inquirer has a great tradition in our community. Unfortunately the current staff has brought it down to a couple of children wanting to take their balls home because they didn't get their way.
God Bless,
Dennis Nesser
PS, Hey Greg, I know someone at the paper is reading my blog, I see the cookies, I want you to know I won't delete your comments. Here's your opportunity to get it right. Even if I disagree with them I will either rebut them or let the world decide the truth, but I won't delete them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)