Peoria Journal Star judged to be lousy at covering elections

Congratulations to the staff of the Peoria Journal Star. They were finally able to muster the time and massive editorial resources needed to post, on their Website, an article with results of the 10th Circuit judicial races.

This article was posted slightly less than 24 hours after C.J. Summers had the results up on his citizen journalism site.

My two cents: It's 2010. The Internet exists. It has for decades now. Newspapers cannot, CANNOT hold the news until the next day because the bosses would rather spend the cash on their bonuses rather than hiring enough reporters to do the job. When you cut staffing to less than the bare minimum needed to put out the daily newspaper, you certainly do not have enough to do an adequate job covering an election.

State races? I did not even bother with any mainstream media site (or any television or radio station) to get my news about state races. I went to The Capitol Fax Blog, which had THE most up-to-date-results, not to mention absolutely spot-on analysis. Now that Jonathan Ahl has left Peoria, I cannot think of any single local mainstream reporter who could have done half as well analyzing local races as Rich Miller.

Crossposted to Peoria Pundit.

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Transparency (and maybe some blogging) needed on the 3rd Appellate Court

The Journal Star's award-winning editorial page opines that it is concerned at how long it took for the public to learn Illinois' 3rd District Appellate Court ordered school shooter Dione Alexander freed.

But cases like Alexander's, or the one concerning former Peoria attorney Robert Becker, whose conviction on a charge of sexually assaulting a child was just thrown out for a second time by the same court, merit immediate release and scrutiny. Folks ought to be able to find out in short order who's receiving a get-out-of-jail-early card and who gets another shot in court - sometimes it's a public safety issue - even if those rulings don't set legal precedents. Unfortunately, unless a judge or a lawyer involved speaks up, that's a hit-or-miss proposition.

Sure, a reporter, blogger or curious citizen could call the court every day for months and ask whether a ruling had come down, but that's just not practical. Unlike the state Supreme Court, which puts out a list of its expected rulings and posts them online in a commendably prompt way, appellate courts don't offer advance notice.

First, I agree with the editorial and kudos for pointing this out. But I find the comment about bloggers and curious citizens calling the court on a daily basis to be illuminating.

Isn't that something beat reporters used to do? Back when a "beat reporter" was someone devoted to one beat, and wasn't whatever warm body was available when there was a story that HAD to be covered.

But yeah, it would surprise me if someone "curious citizen" decided to pick up the slack and started pestering the clerks at the appellate court.

So, I'd like to see more transparency out of the court. But this is Illinois, so that is NOT going to happen. Publishers aren't going to deploy the personnel, so it's gonna have to be citizen journalists to the rescue

Cross posted to Peoria Pundit

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Wanted: Cat bloggers

No, no, no. Not this kind of cat blogging.

I'm talking about Caterpillar. Considering how Peoria is a hotbed of blogging, I'm surprised there aren't one or two or seven people out there blogging away about the inside workings of this Fortune 500 company that, from what I see, likes to push its corporate weight around.

Of course, any insiders who want to blog what goes on the shop floor or behind closed doors at Caterpillar World Headquarters would have to be anonymous. And I would be happy to help, perhaps with a group blog focusing on Big Yellow.

Just send me a message, and we can arrange for Cat-blogging on the Blog Peoria Network.

Crossposted to Peoria Pundit

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Illinois Issues Blog is now accepting comments

Go ahead. Throw in your two cents.

Illinois Issues magazine, with the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Springfield, now accepts comments on the Illinois Issues Blog.

Our Statehouse bureau has blogged since spring 2006. After two years, we’re still learning and experimenting with ways the blog can augment Illinois Issues magazine and the Web site — http://illinoisissues.uis.edu.

But we realize that what sets the blog apart is its ability to allow author and reader to interact in real time.

In the book, blog! how the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture, journalists David Kline and Dan Burstein say the intrinsic value of blogs overshadows the overabundance of trivial subjects:

“But within all the noise, among the billions of words and pixels of new content being generated every day, lies a very important and steadily rising voice: the ordinary citizen, on a national and global basis, re-engaging in the lost art of the public conversation.”

Readers can respond to stories, correct mistakes and — most important — add to discussions.

Of course, we observe the right to decline comments that use profanity, that attack readers or writers or that otherwise constitute unsolicited and commercial “spam.”

We encourage thoughtful comments as part of our mission to engage readers in dialogue and enhance the quality of public discourse.

Go ahead. Comment. We’re eager to hear from you.

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