11: Hello, Journal readers? (An unexpected post...)

EVENT

So I feel like I'm writing posts for three different groups of people at once, which may or may not be the case.

The short version: on Thursday I was contacted by Chad Swiatecki of the Flint Journal. He was writing a story on Flint-area bloggers covering the Detroit Tigers and wanted to interview me. I agreed, though I thought it was only fair to point out that while I'd grown up in Flint and Flushing, I hadn't lived in the area for any substantial amount of time since 2003, and that I'd only followed the Tigers closely for the last four years. On the other hand, everybody knows I'm obsessed with my hometown and perpetually live there in spirit. And I do think I deserve a good amount of credit for jumping on the Tigers bandwagon in '03.

There's another complicating factor, however, which we didn't talk about at all (and which didn't really have anything to do with his article)... I'm pretty sure that Chad found my blog in the first place through this post: 10: More momentum from Flint and the Journal. It's part of a series of political posts I've been writing in anticipation of the midterm elections, and dealt with what I see as the Journal's enticing and frustrating mix of unproductive shotcuts, trenchant observations, and communal integrity.

In the end, I'm not quite ready to eat crow over arguments I still stand behind. But there is no question to me that the tone of the post was more harsh than I had intended, and there's the additional embarassment of that post leading to my own promotion through the newspaper I was criticizing. Maybe this is common, but Blue Skies Falling has maybe ten or twelve regular readers, and I'm pretty inexperienced here.

So while I was going to wait awhile before following up on "More Momentum," I've decided to move on that now, so that if I do get some relevant hits, I won't seem ungracious and unaware. A bottom line is that, whatever I may say, I read the Journal online every day, and rely upon it to keep me informed about goings-on in Flint.

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Last week I made a case for my frustration with the Flint Journal.

I complained about its punning headlines. This might seem a trifle, but it suggests to me a lack of confidence in the news to carry itself. I complained about more mundane errors, which undermine the credibility and professionality of the outfit, and in particular, the sometime under-representation of local issues.

But I also described the Journal as an "anti-Pravda" and cited three "moments of brilliance," all from one day.

I don't know that "anti-Pravda" was the best expression of my thought, but whatever. It amounts to this: over the last thirty years the Journal has expanded gradually. This has corresponded to a declining urban population in Flint, and increases in the suburbs. The Greater Flint area, itself, has remained stable at just shy of 450,000 for going on thirty years. The upshot, directly or indirectly, is that the Journal has been put in the position of reckoning with the drastic social and economic straits of the City of Flint (the Journal building itself is in the shadow of Genesee county's tallest building, which is, incidentally, abandoned and literally crumbling onto the sidewalk). At the same time, suburban growth has maintained circulation and, I believe, given the Journal the resources to cautiously grow.

I don't have actual numbers, but I suspect that there are four aggressive players in the one square mile of Downtown Flint: the Flint Journal, the University of Michigan, Uptown Redevelopment, and the city itself. Whilh the second and fourth are foregone conclusions, and the third is only a going concern because of the extent of urban degredation, the Journal could not have expanded its activity without the using its resources very carefully. Last year, however, they built a new high-tech press building on First, next to their headquarters.

It is speculative for me to suggest that this has corresponded to building more intimate ties in both the city and suburbs, particularly among writers, reporters, and editorialists. At the same time, there is a nascient "school" at work here that seems, at least to me, to be tied to the way the paper has grown in the last few decades. The best staff editorials, as well as the columns of Andy Heller and Ricky Hampton balance the juggling act of providing a strident argument, wanting in neither rhetorical rhythm not flair. At the same time, they leave out what would be the final step for most writers: completing the argument... driving the point to the extent of allowing no alternatives.

I do not see this as an accident or liability, but as an exercise in conscious contradiction.

While we are meant to ultimately buy into these arguments, to the hilt, there is a recognition that there are alternate approaches, and that a considerate reader will not neglect these. It is the Journal's obligation, then, to make us aware of alternatives that we will presumably reject through our own thoughtful consideration. That is, it is an approach that respects the intelligence and discretion of each reader.

There are other benefits to this approach. By rendering bias of argument transparent, Journal is able to take an editorial stand on more issues than if it was married to a strictly objective perspective. Which is not to say that the Journal passes off on the requirement to report "objectively," but rather there is no interest or periodical with a stringently and genuinely "objective" perspective. It is better for bias to be openly aired and acknowledged.

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Maybe I should just close here by saying that my journalistic education is nil, but that I read a lot of newspapers, and I think that qualifies me to make a few general observations.

I think that the Flint Journal is a resource of great potential and that, if the Uncommon Sense (representing a smaller press and a more improvisational and intuitive strategy) continues to grow, together they will be more than their sum. That is, I think that in terms of news and reportage, Flint could build a reputation that far exceeds its size and economic status.

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One last word... if the Flint Journal citation of Blue Skies Falling leads a couple Flint-folk to my humble blog, I hope you will stick around for awhile. I try to post on Michigan politics frquently, but most of my readers are from elsewhere, and conversation on these points is generally sparing.

They end up being therapy. Just for me. And taking up space. But I'd like for them to be more.

I'm interested to see if and where this whole thing goes...

END OF POST.