Jim O'Bryan wrote:Bill
Of course one bad article can undo a ton of good work and positive movement. Look at the
Flats, which of course failed due to bar management, but one, maybe two bad things out
and it became a ghost town overnight, that has never been restarted.
This is why I get so upset at times with City Hall, they will be riding a wave of positive
press, and then they shot themselves in the foot.
I would love to give Eric Sandy the benefit of the doubt. Working at the Sun and PD is hell
right now as they look at how to cut and who not to cut, and so I am sure they are
counting hits, and views, and comments. However much to Eric's credit, he lives here
and he was the only other news source not to run with "Dog Mauling Ends Spooky Pooch
Parade" which was not only an outright lie, it was a headline designed to do damage to
not just the parade but the city. An outright attack for views and more hits for $$$ and ego.
While the city is looking for marketing a a price of $10,000.00 which means, a friend will
consult as that would not even buy time at the big table in most marketing agencies. They
should learn that it is their good deeds that can market the town. They would get more
positive press giving the LOBC the $10,000 for another basketball court then they will
ever get from an ad agency, or those hideous ADVERTORIALS they run in the PD.
Bill we both know the PD and media has had a war with Lakewood for sometime, one of
the reasons the Observer project was born. Between the unwarranted hard knocks, and
the servile attitude of some of the reporters, like local bloggers now with city hall, it
became a huge problem for the city's residents.
.
I would not only give Eric Sandy the benefit of the doubt, I would say he is doing his job. There was a murder in Lakewood at the beginning of the year. You can scream it or you can underplay it. The Lakewood Observer's headline was something like "Violence Disrupts Quiet Neighborhood." It was covered. Murder is still a top story. People should know if a murder occurs in their town.
As for the "Fireworks fiasco," it was funny. Human interest-wise, it's something people would read. If you read Eric Sandy's coverage, you will see that number one, the first article says a top story in Lakewood was the response to Hurricane Sandy. You have to go to page two to even see the headline, "Murder, fizzled fireworks top headlines in Lakewood."
Number two, it's a well-written article and Eric Sandy uses it to show the progress Lakewood made, information-wise, between the lack of communication regarding the fireworks, and the stellar communication that was in place by the time Hurricane Sandy hit town. This is from his article:
"But the fireworks did not come.
And no one knew why."
He ends the story, which began with the murder on Waterbury, with Superstorm Sandy:
"The Lakewood community responded with open arms, emulating the neighborliness that city leaders tout so often.
An emergency shelter was opened at Garfield Middle School, providing warmth and electricity for residents across the city.
The storm became the main topic for conversation for weeks as residents shared their experiences and vented about the frustrations of a week without electricity.
For the city’s part, Summers and his administration showed how far they had come in terms of using the city’s website and social media outlets to share news about the storm recovery efforts.
Updates came frequently and residents broadcast their own news from the perches of Facebook and Twitter.
Going forward, the repair work and reimbursement process will play out for a while.
But city leaders have attested that the same goodwill that was so evident following the storm will surely carry the city into 2013 and beyond."
http://www.cleveland.com/lakewood/index ... toppe.htmlHardly "if it bleeds it leads" reporting. It is no "Jihad" against Lakewood.
Eric Sandy is a good journalist, and he reported on his hometown responsibly.
When you compare this to:
"Police search for missing 8-year-old child"
which was reported AFTER the child was found, and the child was missing for less than an hour-- or --
"Get ready for Halloween! Look up the sexual predators on your street!" (Maybe I added the exclamation points, I really don't want to search for the story. But it may have been taken down by now. This site likes to delete and change its stories without alerting readers.)
Along with the dog-mauling titles, you see the difference between actual responsible journalism and what would one call it? Reporting police blotter stories as lead stories is also irresponsible. Top story in Lakewood? "Man found drunk in car in parking lot on Madison." Really, that's the top story? Yeah, maybe Lakewood doesn't have "new news" every single day but that doesn't mean the police blotter stuff is news, and its certainly not our "Top story."
This is not to say that this is all that this site does, but every time it does something like this, its credibility goes through the floor, making it less likely that any actual true reporting will be taken seriously.
The Eric Sandy title is accurate. Those were two top stories in the last year, they were. And if you read the article, it is responsible and fair.
As for "journalism"--- there has been great writing by residents in the Lakewood Observer this year. While the definition of "journalism" is much debated in the 21st century, we can simply look at something deeper, the responsibility taken by the speaker, the writer, the voice, the reporter, the observer, for his or her own words and an understanding that it matters.
Betsy Voinovich
