Comments on: Change is Coming

By: Gene Gadera

Gene Gadera — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:32:22 +0000

Ok Independent, this was posted on 11/27 and unless you're going to leave poor Arthur's corpse on permanent display it's time to dump it into a hole and shovel some dirt on it.

By: Gene Gadera

Gene Gadera — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:32:22 +0000

Ok Independent, this was posted on 11/27 and unless you're going to leave poor Arthur's corpse on permanent display it's time to dump it into a hole and shovel some dirt on it.

By: Gene Gadera

Gene Gadera — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:32:22 +0000

Ok Independent, this was posted on 11/27 and unless you're going to leave poor Arthur's corpse on permanent display it's time to dump it into a hole and shovel some dirt on it.

By: Fred D

Fred D — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:18:21 +0000

Re: your having been a “radio journalist”, does that mean you read the copy you were handed on the air or did you write it – and if so did you do anything more then just rework and simplify local newspaper and/or wire service stories? I'm assuming that if you did more then this you must be a living fossil, perhaps from the time of Edward R. Murrow, since there hasn't been much of anything resembling actual journalism on the airwaves for eons.

By: Harold Hill

Harold Hill — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:56:10 +0000

…so it would seem in the absence of anything to the contrary – same as it ever was.

By: Aliandra

Aliandra — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:24:19 +0000

With this melancholy farewell sitting on the front of the site for nearly a month now, I think I finally get it. The new format is to mix opinion into every news article.

By: tomas1999

tomas1999 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:15:12 +0000

Artie--
Your opium--rather, "opinion" has been atop the Independent's website for way too long.
Despite that, you're correct about the state of print journalism.
As a former radio journalist, I merely say that it's about time!
Radio news was annihiliated by Ronnie Reagan in the early '80s, thanks to his policy of deregulation of the FCC. Prior to his regime, the FCC required radio stations to carry local news and public affairs programming.
But in 2009, who does radio news?
KKK-OB and their right wing slant and KUNM and its left-wing approach.
Where's the balance?
It vanished thanks to the morons in the GOP-USA.

Life goes on, and I have a new career, but I certainly enjoyed my radio reporter days, despite the financial realities that caused me to flee the business.

By: Harold Hill

Harold Hill — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:45:48 +0000

I don't know if you're still keeping tabs on these comments Albert but some other changes have been taking place with The Independent, which seem to reflect a reflexive tightening of the sphincter in response to being challenged by some elements in the readership rather then a move from opinion towards 'reporting' in the site's content. All the more reason for you and those of us who used to enjoy the Independent to move on it seems.

By: Aliandra

Aliandra — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:56:57 +0000

I can say this -- NMI steps back and adjusts its stance when hit with a body blow. The removal of commentary from RSS feeds and from the front page format is a step in the right direction. What we as readers don't know is whether the cutback is in response to short funding, or in response to reader comments, or perhaps (not likely) the brainchild of NMI managers dreaming up better ways to do the job.

The NMI continues to have on staff professional advocates (Childress==SWOP), and to allow its apparent staff (Hausman) to report from a political perspective (a 1,000 word tome in defense of the Lt. Gov's use of public resources for political purposes) and to dedicate its resources to redundant coverage of national politics (Reichbach) in lieu of providing genuine regional news coverage.

Did NMI's move away from overt commingling of opinion and news have anything to do with reader pressure? Perhaps a wild-cat initiative to lobby funders against continued support for political activism styled as genuine journalism? If so, management continues to sandbag in its offices, responding to direct assaults launched from the comment section on the source and uses of funds for NMI by adjusting it's stance in the direction qualified readers demand, yet refusing to acknowledge the merit of commentary by qualified albeit marginally anonymous readers.

Management, which claims to be a champion of citizen journalism, refuses to show its face when it is marked by bruising commentary by real, long-term citizen journalists about the way NMI does or does not do the job of citizen journalism.

Why has NMI failed to recruit broadbased local support? Where is the donate button? Where is the "recommend coverage" or "news tips" button?

The best management can do when presented with detailed data about the regional economy is to ply the offerer for potential political motives, then not finding a proper alliance, to say "thanks, we'll look into it." Not. The management basically turned down a free offering of graphs based on verifiable public information showing tax revenue and spending sources from around the state. Not a whisper of "oh, how can we get this up-to-date economic data to our readers." Not the slightest shimmer of a glint in their eye of "oh, you'll give us this for FREE?"

NMI's approach to citizen journalism is to vet citizens as proper political loyalists and to exclude all other voices. This will not long stand.

By: arthuralpert

arthuralpert — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:49:29 +0000

Thanks for your kind comments.
Arthur Alpert