Is the AJC Making a Move to the Right or a Move to the Local?
Decatur Metro | April 20, 2009Former Creative Loafing editor – and current blogger – Ken Edelstein is quoted in this morning’s NY Times, in a piece about the future voice of the AJC’s editoral staff. Ken reacts to Cynthia Tucker’s move to DC…
“It’s definitely a move to the right, and it’s a real change for a paper that was the most important progressive voice in the South for a long time.”
In same same article, the AJC editor Julia Wallace says this…
“We have moved to a different kind of editorial that’s much more about community issues and less about, ‘let me opine on national issues,’ ” she said.
Elsewhere on the interweb, GriftDrift is still struggling with another recent quote by Wallace and has submitted this question to the AJC…
Given the reaction of the online community as well as the rise of such local websites as inDecatur and DecaturMetro while the AJC continued to close local bureaus, do you regret stating the following in 2007?
“Online, we will show that we know Atlanta best, providing superlative news and information and becoming the preferred medium for connecting local communities”
A couple quick thoughts:
1. Communities might be willing to settle on having large, all-knowing (better-than-you) corporations become their “preferred” connection to their neighbors IF there’s no other option. But guess what? Its always going to be better when communities do it themselves.
2. I don’t read much editorial in the AJC these days – can’t say I ever did – so I can’t judge any nefarious move to the right. But I do know the paper has a long way to go if they want to be a “community” paper/site. They gotta go well beyond the well-researched article.
As a case in point: the comments section. I’m sorry but nothing says “community” less than a bunch of semi-racist, off-topic snipes attached to each article. Community online is built through respectful discussion. But BREAKING NEWS, it works the other way too. Real world communities can be destroyed by disrespectful online discussion. So step one: stop treating your comments as a throw away and take responsibility for your site.
Latest from Decaturish
re: “a Move to the Right or a Move to the Local?”
The obvious jokey response is “a move to the irrelevant.” But that would imply it was coming from somewhere other than irrelevance, so the joke doesn’t quite work.
In all seriousness, there are/were so many talented writers there who have been betrayed by a toxic cocktail of awful management and unfavorable market conditions.
I don’t think Julia Wallace’s new “offend no one, and throw a bone to the wingnuts occasionally” editorial page has the slightest hope of reversing that trend.
Two big Amens to the two comments above. Why would anyone care to dive into the wacky wingnut world of the AJC blogs? When you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and pig enjoys it. The AJC needs to take control of its online discussion and set some reasonable standards of conduct. The 3rd grade online comments reflect the school yard immaturity of the site. I pity the poor columnists: they’re supposed to engage those bloggers?
It seems obvious that the lack of any blog comment standards for AJC articles creates a worthless, mean-spirited forum that is dominated by loud-mouthed bloviators.
The audience generated comments definitely degrade many thoughtful articles and journalists. But, for the most part, a “move to the right” in Atlanta and Georgia moves the area from its existing place on the right to the neofascist fringe.
Isn’ there an old cliche: “Never ascribe to malice what can more easily be explained by stupidity”?
The AJC continues to reduce their delivery options to rural areas, Atlanta is still a very Democratic city, and the state itself almost sent Jim Martin to the Senate. How does a swing to the right help them sell papers in that climate? Alienating their base to go after the diminishing returns of Cobb County seems like one of the dumbest business moves available. And to convince the right wing that the AJC was suddenly sympathetic would be a nearly insurmountable sales job.
Nope, they’re just flailing around with no editorial vision.
Cynthia Tucker is going to Washington because the AJC can’t afford to keep her, and they can’t afford to let her go. Tucker has a Pulitzer in her pocket, and can do better than to sit and watch the sun go down over Marietta Street while her pay gets cut, or she’s forced out because they can’t pay her what would be reasonable for her resume.
They are a mess down there.
Was at a party over the weekend and the sad state of the AJC came up. An AJC staffer in attendance confirmed that ownership (not Julia Wallace, who is reacting more than initiating these days) is pushing very hard to (over)correct for a perceived left bias. Cynthia Tucker getting shipped off to D.C. is part of that.
There was some interesting commentary on the Kessler situation as well, but I’ve already said too much…
I don’t see the AJC as having an obvious liberal political bias, but I do believe their coverage of entertainment, particularly hip-hop, alienates many readers looking for relevant local news. Yes, I know ATL is a hip-hop hotbed, but I’m not convinced that many AJC readers care about T.I’s legal saga.
Regardless of cultural emphasis, there seems to have been a chase for the elusive 18-34 demographic that advertisers seem to think are the most likely to buy crap they don’t need. Something tells me that strategy hasn’t worked. But over correcting to appeal to the oldsters who watch Fox news isn’t going to work either, and I would hate to see the AJC start aiming for that audience’s idea of “balanced reporting,” i.e only the news that proves liberals are wrong.
Oh come on, Lump, don’t tease us.
the one problem with moderating comments is a part legal, part manpower one: any kind of manual monitoring or removal of comments can open the paper up for liability if someone says something libelous and it’s not removed. but manual moderating requires manpower that the web staff may not have available (actually, they may. they just need to get better about streamlining work flow).
Really, what’s the point of an online discussion if everyone has
to play nice and agree. Are we really setting up community
forums for folks who all want to say the same things in the nicest
ways possible. If that’s the case, what’s the point? I already
know how I feel. I don’t need an echo chamber to feel
connected to any community.
Its a waste of time looking at AJC comments. All it is is a bunch of frustrated little people at constant war with each other. (wide scale war is a projection of all the little wars happening in those people’s minds) I didn’t realize thier was so much prevalent neurosis out there until I was looking at those comments. In many other parts of the country the discourse seems to be a bit more civil. Also, notice what the top read stories are on the AJC website and compare that to the top read stories on seattletimes.com or boston.com or nyt.com. Pretty frightening what seems to draw peoples attention in the Atlanta metro area.
Most e-mailed on Boston.com as of 3 minutes ago (I did not see a separate ranking of most read):
1. Snowbirds flock to bargains
2. Man tries to rob dry cleaners with sword
3. Study bolsters charred-meat link to pancreatic cancer
4. Earth Day 2009
5. Sources: Craigslist suspect kept victims’ underwear as mementos
6. Picture dim as liquidator gets Filene’s Basement
7. Dog-friendly Element, Mitsubishis at Sam’s Club, Japan’s old car incentives
AJC’s list of “most popular” as of the same time:
1. Reports: Freddie Mac official found dead
2. Cobb EMC offices, homes of 2 board members searched
3. Grady consultant makes $1,600 a day
4. Former NFL star ‘Refrigerator’ Perry hospitalized in S.C.
5. Mountain home to be raffled off for $50
Seattle Times’ most read:
1. Bellevue mom, son attacked by Craigslist “seller”
2. Boat ‘missing’ in the San Juans found this morning: Those onboard didn’t know they were missing
3. Nicole Brodeur | 1,400 apply: “I was the lucky one”
Jerry Brewer | Seahawks need immediate starter with No. 4 pick
4. Most of former UW football coaches have landed jobs
5. Body found in Bellevue business park
6. Police investigating death of Freddie Mac official
7. Prosecutors say teen pirate was brazen ringleader
8. Jarrod Washburn fights cramp, leads Mariners to 4-2 victory
9. Cat fatally shot in Seattle’s Wedgwood area; another is stabbed in South Seattle
10. Obama open to Hill probe of harsh interrogations
Is it your position that this in some way proves that discourse is more civil in Boston or Seattle?
Ha! I totally forgot about robbing that dry-cleaners with a sword!
But seriously Rick, there seems to be a bit of ATL discrimination embedded in your comments lately. What gives?
Sorry. Don’t wanna get anyone in trouble with ultimately irrelevant scuttlebutt. Let’s just all be thankful things turned out as they did.
There’s a difference between civil discourse and someone performing the online equivalent of spitting in your face. The AJC comments are a textbook example of how NOT to do the Internet.
So its impossible to disagree civilly?
Not to sound like a kiss ass, but I think the comments here are proof that it’s perfectly possible.
Lump, I think this is where I…
A: Start swearing at you
B: Threaten you with moderation for “personally attacking” yourself.
Ha! But seriously, thanks.