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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PJS spreads the blame for District 150 woes

From the Peoria Journal Star's editorial page:

With classrooms now filled in Peoria and other central Illinois schools, our fondest wish for the 2008-09 school year is that everyone involved - students, their parents, teachers, taxpayers, school boards - stop lying, most of all to themselves.

And what follows is a lecture to parents, taxpayers, politicians and school officials to put their agenda's aside and start working to improve the schools.

Mostly, I agree with the points raised. But I must quibble over one: The editorial writer says it's a mistake to blame the lack of the three R's, when lack of parental involvement is the blame. They urge more counseling to combat the issue, and demand that parents get more involved.

Well, that ought to do it. I am sure that all over Peoria, those parents who gave birth to their children and turned them loose to be raised by the village have read this editorial and changed their ways and are now reading the Dr. Seuss to their little darlings after they tuck them into bed at 8:30 p.m. Folks, the parents who are the problem aren't going to be swayed by this.

I encountered this theory a lot when I was school reporter. I think there's a class somewhere that teaches school superintendents to reflexively blame lack or parental involvement and poverty. At least the editorial offers what it thinks are solutions.

What would be accomplished by hiring more counselors? We have to decide as community to what extent we want our schools to be distribution centers for various programs designed to take the place of parents rather than places to send children to get an education. Resources are limited. The more resources we devote to one means less resources we can devote to the other.

It's exactly the same issue teachers face in the classroom: The more time they spend with disruptive kids who've never been taught self-discipline, the less time they have for the other kids, and those students who need and want help suffer the most.

So, while the edit writer complains that throwing money at the problem won't make it go away, it also suggests solutions that cost more money that we have.

It's easier to throw the blame around. It's harder to offer solutions that work in the real world.

Cross posted to Peoria Pundit.

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Aaron Schock Digs Himself into Even Deeper Hole

Capitolfax has been providing blow-by-blow coverage of Aaron Schock's foreign policy plane crash.

Coverage which, CapitolFax notes, Schock's hometown newspaper, the Peoria Journal Star, is either unwilling or unable to provide.

Whether driven by their obsessive hatred of Schock's predecessor, State Rep. Ricca Slone, or whether they've just been hypnotized by Schock's boyish charms, the PJS has treated the "Boy Wonder" with kid gloves since Day One. And so we wave farewell to a once well-respected mid-size daily that has fallen victim to corporate take-over and tossed its journalistic integrity aside.

Cliff's Notes on Controversy

For those of you who missed it, Schock launched his campaign for Congress by saying he would arm Tiawan with Pershing missiles aimed at mainland China. A move so provocative that most foreign policy experts -- heck, most people with a political science degree -- believe it could trigger WWIII.

At the same time, Schock is on-record as opposing legislation requiring the Illinois Pension Boards to divest from Iran, to place economic pressure on them to halt their nuclear program.

Cornered into offering an explanation for his hawkish bent, Schock offered this weak explanation to the Springfield State Journal Register's Bernie Schoenberg:

"I don't believe that state government ought to be getting involved in foreign policy....With each additional restriction that's placed on a pension fund in Illinois, it further prohibits those pension managers' ability to make wise decisions, to keep those pension systems solvent," Schock said.

As CapitolFax points out, Schock voted for an identical bill that called for divesting from Sudan in response to the genocide in Darfur.

Flip. Flop. Splash.

I hope Bernie Schoenberg calls Schock with a follow-up question.

I'm just old enough to remember the fight in the late 80's and early 90's to divest Illinois pension funds from South Africa, in response to apartheid. Glenn Poshard was in the Illinois Senate at the time, and if my memory serves me correctly, he cast what was then viewed as one of his most courageous votes to do so.

I'd love to know what Aaron Schock would have done.

Whoever wins the three-way GOP primary will face Democrat Dick Versace, former basketball coach at Bradley University.

Please, give us Schock.

P.S. Don't expect Schock's brash plans to go too far too quickly. As ArchPundit points out, the U.S. destroyed our last Pershing Missile in 1991. When Schock was ten. God help us though if he ever figures out which nukes we do have and has his fingers within a hundred miles of the button.

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