MARTA’s “Wasted Money” is Wasted Headline
Decatur Metro | September 13, 2010MARTA is a $6.4 billion infrastructure system.
So when I picked up my AJC out of the driveway this morning and read “MARTA audit shows wasted money”, I thought, oh damn, what have those crazy MARTA administrators done now.
Walking back up the driveway, I began to read: $55,000 in missing laptops! $79,000 in Georgia Cruise Card fines!
The rage was beginning to churn in my stomach, but I kept reading. I could feel the knock-out punch coming! Surely if your sub-head is “AJC investigation: Audit shows transit authority has trouble keeping tabs on its stuff”, you gotta be talking about more than $134,000. Right?
Wrong.
That was it. Those two items – which according to the article have been fodder for local news outlets of late (because what’s weirder than MARTA employees racking up highway fines?) – were the extent of the headlined “waste money”.
But thank goodness for random, uninformed opinions.
“It’s a little frustrating,” [a GSU MARTA rider] said, especially since her pass charge will go up in October.
“They need to do better,” echoed Ong Wang, an 18-year-old art student who takes MARTA every day from the North Springs station.
Yeah, do better! This is garbage! Oh man, pissy and better-than-everyone-else here I came!
Unfortunately, the rest of the article did nothing to peak my indignation. In fact, it included lots of quotes that just confused my ego-trip…
“This tells me the auditor is looking in the right place where the highest risks are and working with management to try to get improvement,” said Ruthe Holden, chairwoman of the American Public Transportation Association’s committee of audit professionals.
Heh? So you could have just have easily written an article saying that MARTA’s audits found that internal controls were actually quite good, aside from a few minor issues? Geez man. What a tease!
I’m not saying that these two cases of wasted money aren’t relevant in the proper context. But front page, giant, bold, generic “wasted money” headline? Come on.
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The article on Sunday wasn’t much better. For instance, they tried to show that MARTA execs were overpaid, but the comparisons were to Georgia state agencies, not other similar sized transit systems. The AJC has run out of things to do.
Heh? So you could have just have easily written an article saying that MARTA’s auditing process was actually quite good, aside from a few minor issues? Geez man. What a tease!
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You are confusing two different things: auditing and internal controls. An audit is designed in part to ferret out lapses in an entity’s internal controls. That’s what this audit did — it found some losses that seem entirely preventable by a better system of controls. In that case, the news story isn’t to praise the thoroughness of the audit, it’s the losses uncovered by the audit. Your logic here asks the AJC to bury the lede. Unless, of course, your position is that MARTA’s inexplicable loss of well over $100,000 isn’t newsworthy at all, which is, to be honest with you, pretty much what you wrote.
Ah, gotcha. My mistake regarding the sentence you quoted. I’ll edit it. Let me know if it’s still off.
My problem isn’t with the story itself, but with the headline and the fact that it was the lead story of the paper. Now maybe that’s the best story they had this morning, but the headline and postioning makes it sound like there were massive amounts of waste, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
You’ve admitted on occasion that waste is inevitable in large orgs like MARTA, so you tell me how newsworthy it is. Front page headline worthy?
Probably not front page worthy. But I don’t know what else they had to run. They have to put out a front page every day, and I’m sure they’ve run with even lesser stories than this one. I agree it is a small amount of money.
First, I totally agree with the “They have to put out a front page every day” Running my own relatively small website is hard enough, they’ve got to fill a whole paper. It’s pretty amazing if you think about it.
Second, I think there is kind of a big issue here and that is don’t these two issues, the laptops and the toll fines, mean that MARTA employees are flat out stealing stuff? Somebody is stealing stuff, and public employees need to be held to the same standard as anyone else. I know its just $55K which is nothing compared to the whole budget, but you cant just let people get away with taking laptops.
Is it known that the laptops were stolen by employees? My guess is that they are not accounted for, but not necessarily stolen. In large organizations, inventory records are often not updated when old equipment is replaced by newer equipment. My guess is that the $55,000 represents 20 outdated or broken laptops that were dumped without documentation in closets, dusty shelves, and odd corners somewhere.
I certainly understand that they need to put out a front page everyday, but I suspect that in this case the positioning influenced the headline. If this was on the front page of the Metro section, I assume that “MARTA audit finds laptops missing” would be a fine headline. But for the front page story? Heck no. Make it more general and POOF, it sounds worthy.
I’m a former copy editor for the AJC, who used to write those sensational headlines. You are absolutely right: the headline is a lot juicer than the story itself. That often happens with Monday newspapers. The best stuff was run in Sunday’s paper, and by Monday, editors are forced to sift through and publish a bunch of leftovers. On a newsier day this story probably wouldn’t even lead the Metro section, but when you don’t have anything better, you go with what you have.
Thanks for the inside scoop Ex!
I guess one of the downsides to a more thorough editorial process (and a physical paper) is that you only have a certain number of options available to put on that front page at any given time.
While I certainly don’t pretend to have the checks and balances of an AJC, I’m never in a position of having only a finite number of options when it comes to choosing stories on a given day. The world is my oyster. I also don’t have a physical paper which demands a top story. I’m sure I’m as good as anyone at exaggerating at times, but I’m glad not to have this particular issue pulling at me on a daily basis.
Yeah, online you don’t have to fret as much about what gets “front page”- type play. I work at CNN.com now, and they don’t worry about it too much, since the home page gets changed constantly everyday.
I had the same reaction when I read this article online. The headline doesn’t jibe with the article content. It seems like someone in an editorial position came up with this incongruously sensational headline just to provoke a response from the AJC’s largely conservative (yes, I’m going out on a limb and calling north GA largely conservative) readership .
This is a group of readers that has proven itself to be hungry for anti-MARTA stories so they can have their pre-conceived notions about mass transit proven.
It is obvious to me the AJC is appealing to their MARTA (read low income, minority race) hating suburbanite readers.
And here we have more evidence that the tolerance and respect preached by many Decaturities has little to do with reality. This AJC story isn’t just a lapse in editorial judgment, or a headline with which one can disagree. No, it is something far more insidious. To Darin, it is an effort — dare I say conspiracy? — to feed the “pre-conceived notions” of the OTP dimwits. Another Rick does Darin one better. They’re not just dimwits out there, they’re racists. If only they were enlightened enough to move all of 3 miles inside the eastern perimiter, then they’d have all the correct opinions.
True, I deserve a wrist slap. It was wrong of me to bring politics into it — I shouldn’t have picked on conservatives in my comment. I’m probably too sensitive about MARTA issues and need to learn to count to ’10’ before I comment.
I certainly don’t consider OTPers to be dimwits. All my family is in the OTP ‘burbs and so was I for my first 25 years. I do, nonetheless, sense a widespread dislike for MARTA and the very existence of public-funded transit among many in metro Atlanta — moreso here, it seems to me, than in other large cities with transit systems. And I think it’s logical to assume the AJC might want to play to their audience by sensationalizing and anti-MARTA story.
That said, I don’t mean to belittle anyone who either lives OTP or has legitimate concerns (and I understand the validity of many) about public-funded transit.
When most anti MARTA comments that I have heard and read for the past 30 years mention dirt and fear of crime, yes I think they are based on racism.
Racism, Racism, Racism……blah blah blah….
What horsesh-t. Its not racism. And it never has been. If you are a clean person, and you don’t like filth and trash, and you vent about it, its a personal CHOICE.
And when you get down to brass tacks, MOST people in this country, and I mean MOST, could give a sh-t what color you are.
What most people have a problem with is the CULTURE of many groups.
People like “Another Rick” are the main reason why “racism” will never end.
IDENTITY POLITICS FOR ALL!!!!!
The difference between WMATA and MARTA comes down to one thing, the W. Theres no way that the Washington train system wouldnt get funded. Im in total agreement with the MARTA folks on this one.
Other states with large rail systems bases of political power are in those cities, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, New York. Georgia’s political power does not really reside in Atlanta so our urban vs suburban/ rural problems get exaggerated. Particularly as it goes with MARTA funding. Not to mention that metro Atlanta is not so on board because they dont see the benefit of funding MARTA. Those other rail lines run all over the place so its easy for metro-Chicagoites etc to see the benefit.
What most people have a problem with is the CULTURE of many groups.
And how is this not racism in and of itself? So, for example, you don’t care technically about the color of a black person’s skin, but since you don’t like black culture, that’s OK?
That is really funny stuff.
I had a person on the phone today tell me that they really enjoy being in Alpharetta because it is a real “safe” area (unlike ITP I suppose). What else does he mean other than he doesn’t want to be around black people, whether it be beause of their skin culture or because of their “culture?” Who cares – racism is racism.
I don’t necessarily think “safe” is a code word of racism. I don’t think it’s breaking news that OTP is less prone to break-ins, muggings, etc. than ITP. I think that’s called city-life where everyone is on top of each other.
Is OTP really safer than ITP? I think it depends on where OTP and where ITP you choose to compare. I feel incredibly safe inside the limits of the City of Decatur and not at all safe in the parts of Norcross, Lilburn, and Lawrenceville areas that I’ve been in. Parts of Alpharetta are beautiful horse farms and rollling farmland and parts are low rent strip malls.
Ok, I know I’m showing incredible provincialness here but I really think that Decatur is one of the safest areas ITP, safer even than wealthy areas with private neighborhood police patrols like Druid Hills and Buckhead. That’s because City of Decatur has that small town, nosy neighbor, “it takes a village” feel to it. If I walk downtown, someone will say to me the next day–“Hey I saw you walking downtown yesterday with someone. Was that your husband?” Or kids I’ve known since kindergarten will see me in the grocery store and ask how come they saw my child on Bus 60-whatever instead of Bus 60-something else. My favorite story (is it apocryphal?) is the story of the high school students who were robbed at gunpoint near the downtown MARTA station but recognized and reported their assailants to the police who then arrested them, because they all went to middle school together.
karass- Yep. Old small town, nosy neighbor, “it takes a village, ” “two” Decaturs – that’s us!
( I think you’re looking for anecdote. Good story! I’d never heard it. )
I disagree. It is people walking that help make an area safe. I liked for a while in the Ponce-Highlands area. And most of my relatives live far outside 285. I did walk the streets in my old neighborhood at all times of the day, never a victim of crime. One of my relatives in Lilburn suffered a home invasion, and another was mugged in her empty subdivision street. What does that tell you about the relative safety of crime inside and outside the perimeter?
Another Rick- Wouldn’t it be great if walkable neighborhoods could eliminate crime? Why, we’d have a healthy & wonderful world! Unfortunately not everyone in the Ponce-Highlands area has had your same experience. It wasn’t all that long ago that it & the nearby areas were in the news constantly for attacks & home invasions & burgleries. More eyes on an area help, but crime happens everywhere.
There is certainly crime everywhere. Unfortunately, the two times my car has been broken into were 1) in Ponce-Highlands area, and 2) near the Fox Theatre. I walked in on a guy breaking into my neighbors apt in Ponce-Highlands (it was a white guy thank you). My view may be skewed, luckily, the FBI tracks this stuff. For some reason, they dont like percentages or rates but check out this page http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_08_ga.html
Every city in Georgia is listed with the number and type of crimes broken down.
BTW, I say all this only to try to flesh out the facts. Personally, crime or no crime, city living is fantastic and I wouldn’t trade it just so (theoretically) my car never gets broken into.
When most anti MARTA comments that I have heard and read for the past 30 years mention dirt and fear of crime, yes I think they are based on racism.
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Well this “anti MARTA” article had nothing to do with dirt, crime, or subirban opposition to MARTA. So what was your point again?
So my point, as I stated, is that AJC is appealing to their MARTA (read low income, minority race) hating suburbanite readers; at least their headline is making that appeal. I guess they hope to gain some subscriptions.
The headlines for both articles overplayed the problems.
A couple of weeks ago they put their “Truth Meter” up against a claim that Marta is the only major transit system without state assistane. Somehow they decided this was “barely true”. See below for their hair splitting reasoning. I would use the same evidence and say it was mostly true. The AJC for some reason wants to grind its ax on MARTA. The last two articles follow in the trend.
“But the data didn’t back up MARTA’s claim. Instead, the federal data it sent show that MARTA is a very large agency that receives no operating funds from the state. That, however, is not the same thing as being the only major transit system that receives no dedicated state funding, as Tyler said.
We did our own check, which revealed one transit system larger than MARTA that does not receive state-dedicated operating or capital funds: the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The WMATA operates trains and buses in the Washington, D.C., area and is the fourth-largest transit system in the country. It is nearly three times the size of MARTA by unlinked passenger trips. Federal data, an agency spokesman and a scholar with the Brookings Institution who has studied the Washington system confirm it does not receive state-dedicated operating funds or capital funds.
Still, the WMATA receives far more state funding than MARTA does. According to 2008 data, 18 percent of its operating funds came from Maryland and Virginia, or more than $250 million.
MARTA received no state funding for operations that year, federal data show.
Harris argues that MARTA’s situation is unique. When the WMATA asks for state money, it receives hundreds of millions of dollars. MARTA doesn’t get anything close to this type of funding from Georgia, Harris said.
“Whether we ask or not, we don’t get anything akin to what WMATA is getting,” Harris said.
That may be correct, but that’s not what Tyler said. His op-ed argued that MARTA is the only major transit agency in the country that receives no “significant, dedicated” funding from the state. Not that it’s barely getting anything from the state or that state funding makes up only a tiny percentage of its budget.
We rule Tyler’s statement Barely True.
http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2010/aug/10/michael-tyler/marta-chairman-said-system-receives-no-significant/
Who funds the “Truth Meter” in the AJC? Its strange how this meter doesn’t really care to expose the really big Georgia government liars.
Sounds like we need a truth meter for truth meters. Even a basic concept like “truth” is not straight forward–there’s a strict constructionist approach that would look at the letter of the quote vs a contextual approach that would look at the intent too.