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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Cutbacks up, morale down at Peoria Journal Star

Ugh. Morale is down, really down, at the Peoria Journal Star. And it's all tied to the loss of newsroom jobs.



Jerry Klein is out at the Peoria Journal Star. Klein retired several years ago, but the respected columnist and arts writer continued to write a column for Sunday paper (although frequency had dropped recently). He was told today that this column was being dropped. How much money GateHouse is saving by dropping a less-than-weekly column, I don’t know.

Also, Don Baker — former teacher who wrote sports on a part-time basic for decades — was let go as well. As my source says: “Baker covered almost everything kind of sport, an uncomplaining and competent guy in an industry run by weak whiners.”

Another source sells me today what I am hearing from almost everyone still working there: Morale is low because of the staff reductions, but a core of reporters continue to plug away out of a commitment to their profession.

GateHouse Media decided to not replace two reporters who have left: Erinn Deshinsky (night cops) and Frank Radosevich II (East Peoria and medical beat). This source used the phrase “downright depressing and scary.” Everyone is certain there are more reductions on the way. Right now, some beats are being handed out to full-timers who already have their own beats to cover, or they are going to interns.

Also — special sections like the Family and KJS pages — are being reduced or eliminated, my source says.

The newsroom is protected by a union contract, so if there are involuntary layoffs, senior staffers won’t be affected. But how many more reductions in staff can the PJS endure before it becomes impossible to perform acts of journalism at an even adequate level? When staffing is so low it’s a struggle to fill the newshole with any kind of copy whatsoever, how can readers expect reporters to be real watchdogs and make that extra phone call or two?

I am told a visitor to the newsroom would be greeted by a vista of empty desks. It’s a depressing scene.

Crossposted to Peoria Pundit, part of the Blog Peoria Project.

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Hear the news? Illinois has a wonderfully honest state government

It must have been more than a decade ago. I was watching the "Tonight Show," and Johnny Carson's guest was a nice old lady whose hobby was to collect hardened bird droppings and polish them into jewelry. The finished products did, I must admit, look pretty in a sort of cheap trinket sort of way. But I thought to myself at the time: 'It doesn't matter how hard she polishes this stuff, it's still bird sh*t.'

In today's Journal Star, reporter Karen McDonald turns in this less-than-stellar article about a survey that gave Illinois high marks for campaign finance disclosure and other laws that supposedly keep the public informed about their candidates.

A survey that evaluates campaign disclosure laws, electronic filing programs, public access to campaign finance information and Web site usability ranked Illinois among the top 10 states in the nation in disclosure with an overall score of "B." Thirty-six states earned passing grades for disclosure programs (the state of Washington ranked first), while 14 failed.

"People are either proud - as Illinois should be - in most categories,or say 'we need to do better.' It gives everybody a benchmark and lets them know how they compare to other states," said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, which collaborated on the project with the California Voter Foundation and UCLA School of Law.

McDonald might not have been given much time to report and write this article. If so forgive me, but topic screams out for additional reporting. There are too many questions left unanswered.

Right off the bat, I've gotta know if this survey even bothered to address the issue of whether or not existence of campaign disclosure laws, electronic filing programs and the available of information on the Web has has done any good at all.

Illinois gets a high "B" in the survey, but I don't think anyone who lives and pays attention would give this state a passing grade for honest and open government. We have a ton of laws on the books here, but we somehow keep electing politicians who use the public dime to enrich themselves, their pals, their campaign contributors and their relatives. Our previous governor is headed to the federal pen for doing exactly that, and our current governor is under investigation as well.

The trouble with Illinois is not that we don't know how corrupt our government is. We know. These sorts of laws let us now exactly who puts money into our politicians hands. The problem is that We. Do. Not. Care. All we want to know is "Where's mine?" All we care about is whether the politicians are going to continue the gravy train and keep sending pork to our communities, keep those tax breaks for our businesses, keep sending "free money" to local governments, keep hiking pensions for teachers (at least in Chicago) and police and firefighters, and on and on.

Even when we complain about the leadership of the state House and Senate, we keep re-electing the state senators and representatives who put those leaders in place, because we know that's how it's done in Illinois if you want the gravy train to stop in your community.

So spare me the praise from out-of-state brainiacs who think our laws are wonderful examples of good government. Our actions demonstrate otherwise.

Feh.

Crossposted to Peoria Pundit

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Being up-front with readers ‘no long applicable’ at the Journal Star

From today's Journal Star:

A statement released Tuesday by the Dahlquist* family did not run in full in Wednesday editions. Sports Editor Bill Liesse felt it appropriate it run now. We have deleted a third paragraph regarding Danny's wake and funeral that is no longer applicable.

Well, thank you PJS from saving readers from having to read a whole paragraph that's no longer applicable. I'm sure readers will appreciate you for not wasting a whole 30 seconds of their day. But for those of us who are curious, what WAS that paragraph? Thanks to blogger Peoria Illinoisan, we can read it:

“Based on the intrusive behavior we have experienced the past two days, we will be very disappointed to see television cameras and reporters at the visitation and funeral for our son, Danny.”

Of course, the Journal Star sent reporters to attend both services (here) and had photographers outside both (here and here), making sure the grieving faces of friends and family members are recorded for posterity.

This is probably going to mark me as a heretic at the Church of the Public's Holy Right to Know, but I've never really agreed there's a need for the media to attend these things. The news media's job, in my humble opinion, is to increase the public's knowledge and understanding of the world so that they can better function in and promote a free society. I'm not sure how looking at photos of people's faces as they are crying over their dead relatives makes America a better place.

Someone is sure to say that media coverage is these events is a way for all Peorians to cope with the grief over this tragedy. I'm thinking that gawking isn't about helping people grieve. All the people who do need to grieve are already there.

The sad truth is that the media often hides behind claims of the public's right to know when all the media is doing is satisfying consumers urge for voyeurism.

These were services for one young man. The family's request for privacy should have been honored. Just because it was possible for reporters to attend and physical possible for photographers to stand across the street and snap pictures, that doesn't mean it SHOULD have happened.

But people can respectfully disagree on this issue. So let's put aside the issue of the morality and ethics of photographing a funeral against the family's wishes. There also the issue of the Journal Star's deliberate decision to keep its readers from knowing that they've been doing this against the stated wishes of the family. How ironic that the public's right to know doesn't include facts that make the PJS look bad. It's somewhat short of a lie, but not by much.

It would have been one thing to not report on the family's statement. It's quite another to report on it, but leave out that stuff that makes your news organization look bad.

Twenty years ago, they would have gotten away with it, because the good-old-boy media industry frowns on one news organization criticizing another. Sure, it might have ended up in some media review that the public never reads. But this is the age of the Internet. There's no way that bloggers weren't going to catch this and report on it. Did the journalistic brain trust at 1 News Plaza really think for one moment that bloggers wouldn't find out and call them on this?

The Peoria Journal Star: Unethical AND stupid. What a sad combination. And, how sad that this is what is becoming of Peoria's one and only daily newspaper. We need something new in Peoria.

* Background: Four Bradley University students face aggravated arson charges stemming from the death of their friend and roommate Danny Dahlquist. They have told police that the fire started as the result of a prank that went bad.

Cross posted to Peoria Pundits.

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