How not to win an award for your Metro Column

It's no big secret that ChronBlog is The only newspaper among the 10 largest publications to have never won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. They've been nominated, and probably should have won for their outstanding coverage of the Ike aftermath. Two sections of ChronBlog that have no chance of being nominated, much less winning, if they continue on in their current state are the local/Metro columns.

Remember the 18% concerned about the press being fair? It's possible that all of them are reading the column of Lisa Falkenberg. Now, granted, L'il Red's column is opinion, so it's not held to the same journalistic standards as is say, a Metro news story on City Hall. That being said even an opinion piece should really try harder than Falkenberg did in today's effort.

It's not the subject matter that's of concern, (Houston is a city of increasing diversity. This diversity is a strength.) nor did go out of her way to ridicule those who don't see things as she does. (A sad literary device that she resorts to all too often.) Nope, the shortcomings in this column stem from an unprofessional habit of hers to view some information uncritically.

The example: This following excerpt focusing on Garnet Coleman:

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, who grew up in Third Ward, said Houston today is what it's always been working toward.

“This is the utopia I've been looking for,” he said. “I was always taught Houston — it's not Dallas — it's an open city, as they say. And because it's an open city, if you work hard you can succeed.”

Sure, he said, some people see the demographic shift as threatening, like “their way of life is being stripped away” and they try even harder to draw the lines.

There's considerable evidence that Garnet Coleman is not someone to lecture others on the folly of having their life stripped away as the following excerpt from a Live Oaks Blog post authored by property rights activist Brian Phillips:

Coleman, who is described as having "partial control" of the special tax district for the area, used his political power to begin buying land in the Third Ward. He then attached deed restrictions to the property mandating that it be used solely for rental housing. The taxing district, which was formed for the specific purpose of encouraging development, is now being used to discourage development.

Lest you think this is nothing more than baseless accusations from an Ayn Rand disciple, Steve Inskeep of NPR penned this excerpt in his report on the Third Ward:

Coleman, the son of a Third Ward physician, is convinced that most of the residents of the new townhomes are likely to be affluent and white. And he was not ready for the poorer residents of this area, many of them renters, to be squeezed out.

"I'm an egalitarian like everybody else," Coleman said, "and talking about the racial aspect of this, or saying this is born of race, is not something I feel absolutely comfortable with."

Maybe he's not comfortable, but the question is on the table.

The Chron's Jr. columnist decided to leave it there, and run Coleman's veiled implications without question, and without challenge. Not only is that poor journalism, but it's a disservice to the City that she supposedly is serving (if, as do many, you view journalism as a vital public service.) A quality Metro columnist would at least pose the question, let readers decide for themselves. There's certainly nothing illegal about the actions of Rep. Coleman, and nothing that flies in the face of house ethics rules. Some might say that his influence over the demographics of an area he represents are unethical on a societal level, but that's for the voters in his district to decide.

They might decide he does a good enough job representing them to keep him in office, however, since ChronBlog has shown no interest in reporting this local story (getting scooped, again, by a national outlet on a local matter) the point is moot.
Further evidence that ChronBlog's so-called "watchdog" role is being sublet out to bloggers, non-profits and national news services.

Meanwhile the number of people who view the media as fair and accurate drops lower and lower.

Media Matters: 18% say press "fair"

According to this poll which also says that around 1 in 3 people consider the media to be accurate. This presents a rather big problem for a media industry thats shedding profits and employees at a record rate.

To get a picture of the problem from a local perspective I offer up two examples of shoddy, biased, reporting found in today's ChronBlog.

1. Today's Move It! Column by Carolyn Feibel. As first mentioned by Kevin Whited this type of "reporting" is commonplace in ChronBlog. Not only is the Citizen's Transportation Coalition constantly provided a platform for their views, but often those views are presented without challenge. Missing from the local transportation debate, in the media, are the voices of groups such as the Houston Property Rights Association or Paul Magaziner's Corridor's United. There are several groups out there who support the expansion of the Grand Parkway and oppose MetroRail. Some of them have valid reasons for doing so. Failure to present all sides of the debate is the great failure of ChronBlog, especially on transportation.

2. Serving up nutritional advice for Houston Schools by Jennifer Radcliffe on the Chron's "School Zone" blog. Granted, the standard for Blog reporting is a little bit more informal than the standard for a full-on newspaper report. There are some blogs, mostly independent, or Chron.commons reader blogs, in the Houston blogosphere with seemingly no standards for reporting truthfully, or correcting errors if printed. That being said the information in this blog totally excludes any dissenting voices in the issue of HISD nutrtition in favor of a relatively small group who's taken it on themselves to push for local, organic foods in schools, despite the fact that there's increasing evidence they are no more healthy than traditionally processed foods. What locally grown organics are, is more expensive. Yet, in the story, there's nothing mentioned that this might not be a universally accepted idea.

Here at Harris County Almanac we are always opinionated, but make every effort to be fair to those opinions with wich we disagree, providing them with a full airing. While the Lose an Eye era of my personal blogging career is over, you can expect to still find media watchdogging here, on Harris County Almanac, in the form of occasional op-ed pieces. My goal is not to take a political side, but to hopefully expand the debate.

It is important to note that not all posts on the Almanac are going to povide an open forum for debate. My goal with this project is not to engage the reader (as it was with LaE) but to expound further on issues that interest me such as media fairness, accruacy, etc. Because of this comments will be moderated, and anonymous comments will not be allowed. If you want your post to stand, put your name on it. Even if you were deleted at LaE the odds are, if you're topical, your comment will make it through the moderation process. One thing I'm not going to do here is get into an online pissing match. This is not about "media bias" it's about media fairness and accuracy, areas that I feel are truly what is leading to the declines in readership, and what people really are pointing to when they bring up bias. I can provide you with a Million anecdotal pieces of evidence why the media is/is not biased. I have no desire to broach that subject here.

Because the media is expanding I will also include blogs, and independent, online-based media sources in our conversation as well, with the notable exception of partisan blogs, which I feel are more house organs than legitimate sources of information.

Expect posts here to occur sporadically, because they'll show up whenever I find an article that suits me, or when I find examples of stories written with fairness towards all sides.

We're often told that without an independent media we cannot have a thriving democracy. This mantra has been forced down our throats by, well, the media, for many years now. The problem, in my mind, is that we're already in a place where there's no quality independent journalism taking place within the confines of the MSM, leading us to a place where our Democracy is threatened because information is travelling primarily through the hands of amateurs and partisans for whom skepticism is a one way street.

It's the mission of Harris County Almanac to work against that.

For your viewing pleasure

106.9 The Point should be contractually required to play this sone once a day until we start paying attention to the true cost of the snake oil our elected officials, community leaders and media (both MSM and alternative) are peddling.

The Truth Will Out.

At first I thought this video was a parody, some kind of political joke of the type you see poli-bloggers cribbing together in some weak-assed attempt at humor. (Or something the Harris County Republican Party might throw in You Tube in hopes of riling up the base.)

Imagine my surprise when I found out it was true. Even worse, there are people out there defending this behavior. Honestly defending it.

And now, there's word that ACORN is going to sue. Despite the fact that they've admitted to firing the employees in the video? On what grounds?

Libel? Not likely. It's not libel if what's being said actually happened, and from all accounts ACORN employees bent over backwards, to the point of advising for breaking the law, to try and get this couple into a home so they could export minors in from Ecuador and turn them into prostitutes.

Was it partisan advocacy journalism? You bet.
Was it criminal? Hardly. Except on the part of ACORN it seems.

It takes a special kind of stupid to fall for this ruse. Stupid that's a little less isolated at ACORN than they'd like to admit. Not pervasive perhaps, but not a one-off either. (Four locations, four similar results, and not one person even questioned what was going on)

That's not libel, them's the facts.

It's so bad that the Senate has stopped their funding and Democrats are shedding ties to the organization like a baby-seal coat at a PeTA rally in the Mojave Desert.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the truth will out. After all, the attack's against Tom Delay and Abramoff were initially characterized as a "left-wing smear campaign" as well. If you have no defense you attack your accusers. It doesn't hurt to have a partisan-blind group of followers who are willing to go to bat for you as well. Always a nice touch.


DEVELOPING: More on the guy who made the videos.

BMW Vision

It will never hit the market in its current form, hopefully the diesel engine and electric technology gets incorporated into something that uses many of the design cues however.

It's 'bite the back of your hand' beautiful however.

Yet another reason why predictions of the automobile's death are premature. Car companies are going to work to ensure that their product is viable in whatever economic environment emerges from this current re-shuffling.

Here in Harris County our transportation movers and shakers don't seem to have a clear grasp of this, and they're moving ahead with transportation designs reflecting decades past.

Also: Tim Spell of ChronBlog provides a glimpse into Audi's future

A change in structure

In case you haven't noticed the "local news" section is now gone from Harris County Almanac. Many more changes to come.