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:: Saturday, November 21st, 2009The Great Gadfly
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An Open Letter to the Old Media
10/20/07 · 9:04 pm :: posted by Peter Kenney
SCOOP DU JOURWhile I have great respect for good reporters. I am constantly left wondering why so many people who use their title journalist as a club to beat down those of us who reach a global audience on the web do not spend less time berating us and more time doing their homework. For the past three months capecodtoday has been ahead of virtually every other press organ in some major stories. Furthermore, capecodtoday has provided more complete coverage and analysis of issues that Cape Codders know are important to them and to the future of this precious sand bar.
For example, the story of how Glenn Marshall fell from grace as the chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council has been received as a major news story in Boston and indeed nationally. Parts of this story appeared here at least one month before the local daily newspaper, where the journalists work, printed it. Day after day capecodtoday published new chapters in this incredible story.
For example, the story of how Glenn Marshall fell from grace as the chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council has been received as a major news story in Boston and indeed nationally. Parts of this story appeared here at least one month before the local daily newspaper, where the journalists work, printed it. Day after day capecodtoday published new chapters in this incredible story.
To this day, the Cape Cod Times has completely avoided some parts of the story and often has simply rehashed what first appeared here. The Times constantly refers to significant events in the Mashpee affair as having occurred after they, the Times, published a story, implying that it was they who broke the story. Fine, I was born after George Washington. That does not make him my father.
A former print journalist who now writes for capecodtoday just this past week reported, before anyone else, that district attorney Michael O'Keefe's house in Sandwich had been burglarized twice within the past year and that a firearm was stolen. Days later the Cape Cod Times told essentially the same story.
A former print journalist who now writes for capecodtoday just this past week reported, before anyone else, that district attorney Michael O'Keefe's house in Sandwich had been burglarized twice within the past year and that a firearm was stolen. Days later the Cape Cod Times told essentially the same story.
Now the Boston Globe has picked up the story and quotes the Times as its original source. Why? probably because we in the so-called new media are sometimes not considered worth reading or mentioning. Our reporter is now working on the next part of the story: did O'Keefe store his weapon(s) properly as required by law? In theory, storage in an approved fashion in an approved gun locker would have prevented the theft.
Neither the Times or the Globe even mentioned this point.
The "scoop" is not our only strength. While beating the competition is important, just publishing a complete account of events that have meaning to Cape Codders is equally important, perhaps more so. We have been taking the time and expending the effort to find out all of what is happening and then telling it all. Let the readers choose what to read and what to ignore. Unlike the Times, our editors all live on Cape Cod, know the people and the ground and care about what goes on around them.
While the Cape Cod Times apparently feels that Republican senator John McCain's public endorsement of the Cape Wind project is not worth mentioning, capecodtoday reported it fully and sent one of its reporters, a veteran print journalist to spend a full day in New Hampshire with a candidate in the presidential primary.
The "scoop" is not our only strength. While beating the competition is important, just publishing a complete account of events that have meaning to Cape Codders is equally important, perhaps more so. We have been taking the time and expending the effort to find out all of what is happening and then telling it all. Let the readers choose what to read and what to ignore. Unlike the Times, our editors all live on Cape Cod, know the people and the ground and care about what goes on around them.
While the Cape Cod Times apparently feels that Republican senator John McCain's public endorsement of the Cape Wind project is not worth mentioning, capecodtoday reported it fully and sent one of its reporters, a veteran print journalist to spend a full day in New Hampshire with a candidate in the presidential primary.
I believe he did not bump into any his former colleagues from the Times all day long. When the Times sent two journalists to cover a small group of Cape Cod residents who had traveled to Mozambique on a missionary tour, they did not have the presence of mind to have these two journalists remain in Madrid where they had stopped over for a night on their way home.
And why should they have?
While the Times people were in Madrid Muslim terrorists detonated a bomb in the Madrid railway station that killed hundreds, injured hundreds more and probably changed the outcome of the national elections in Spain and much of the political atmosphere throughout Europe. Why wouldn't any journalist want to be an eye witness to such history? The Cape Cod Times had been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be real journalists and they muffed it.
The clamor over old media versus new media is just noise. There is very little substance to the old media's, whining about the adverse effects of the new media nor their claims that web-based media are not legitimate journalistic enterprises.
The clamor over old media versus new media is just noise. There is very little substance to the old media's, whining about the adverse effects of the new media nor their claims that web-based media are not legitimate journalistic enterprises.
One of the other capecodtoday reporters and I had lunch with the publisher, Walter Brooks, last week. After lunch we stood in the sun and talked about what we do and where media are headed. Walter mentioined "new Media" and he was immediately corrected by his reporter, a former print journalist who worked for Jimmy Breslin, "Walter, you have to stop saying "new media," you are media, pure and simple."
The Boston Globe sometimes gets it right and credits us in their stories when they realize that capecodtoday got there first or better. My own experience following the Wampanoag series was that the Globe recognized my work, as did WGBH, NECN and the Boston Phoenix.
The Boston Globe sometimes gets it right and credits us in their stories when they realize that capecodtoday got there first or better. My own experience following the Wampanoag series was that the Globe recognized my work, as did WGBH, NECN and the Boston Phoenix.
Eventually the Cape Cod Times actually found some great material in their own archives, material they had never pieced together to build a complete story. By then I had already found the information, verified it and posted it immediately on capecodtoday.
The Times actually had a reporter assigned to the Mashpee beat for over two years, and he lived in the town, and people in Mashpee are still telling me how he dropped the ball, how he was told what was happening inside the tribe but printed pseudo-literary puff pieces with no hard conclusions.
It sounds to me as if we need some "new media." One of the things that convinced me to accept Walter Brooks' challenge and start writing for capecodtoday is that I so often find reading the so-called mainstream media very unsatisfying. I often come away from a story with more questions than answers. Why do you suppose that is? Here is a news flash for the so-called mainstream or old media: we of the web-based new media are here to stay.
It sounds to me as if we need some "new media." One of the things that convinced me to accept Walter Brooks' challenge and start writing for capecodtoday is that I so often find reading the so-called mainstream media very unsatisfying. I often come away from a story with more questions than answers. Why do you suppose that is? Here is a news flash for the so-called mainstream or old media: we of the web-based new media are here to stay.
Our market share and advertising revenues are growing; people are beginning to realize that if they talk to us their stories will see the light of day... fast and accurately and globally. In his seventies and with decades of print media experience behind him Walter Brooks and his son and daughter-in law have started a revolution in media. We are the Gutenberg of the twenty-first century and many more to come.
NOTE: There is still some very good traditional print work being done on Cape Cod. Certainly the Barnstable Patriot is an example of this. Imagine, the Patriot and the Times are under the same ownership.
NOTE: There is still some very good traditional print work being done on Cape Cod. Certainly the Barnstable Patriot is an example of this. Imagine, the Patriot and the Times are under the same ownership.
10 comments
Blog posts and comments are entirely the thoughts and ideas of the people who write them and in no way represent the views of CapeCodToday.com, eCape, Inc., or its employees or owners.
bittersweet [Member] writes:
Yeah, well there's still one story that no-one will touch-old media or new, and that's "what really happened to Christa Worthington?"
A blogger said right here on this site that the whole lower cape knows "who really did it", yet the BS story lives on.
And P.S., if you believe that one, you're really not worth your salt as a journalist. That case has so many wholes in it, a blind person could see them.
As a retired lawyer said after the verdict, "It's a sad day for the justice system in Massachusetts." And that rates a big Ho Hum.
Guess we'll have to wait for Manso's book on that one.
Now come on with the tirade of insults and derision -all of you people who can't hear anything that doesn't suit your view.....
A blogger said right here on this site that the whole lower cape knows "who really did it", yet the BS story lives on.
And P.S., if you believe that one, you're really not worth your salt as a journalist. That case has so many wholes in it, a blind person could see them.
As a retired lawyer said after the verdict, "It's a sad day for the justice system in Massachusetts." And that rates a big Ho Hum.
Guess we'll have to wait for Manso's book on that one.
Now come on with the tirade of insults and derision -all of you people who can't hear anything that doesn't suit your view.....
Shecky [Member] writes:
It will be amusing to see if they EVER report on your Kennedy-Kerry-Stevens airport scoop today. These pols have the daily in your pocket.
Chuck [Member] writes:
What about McCain and Richardson endorsing Cape Wind?
Richardson played in the CCBL and the wind farm is the ONLY local angle in this year's presidential race, and the Times is ignoring it !
Wonder why?
Could it be that they've written 80 editorials against the wind farm and are totally prejudiced on the subject?
Richardson played in the CCBL and the wind farm is the ONLY local angle in this year's presidential race, and the Times is ignoring it !
Wonder why?
Could it be that they've written 80 editorials against the wind farm and are totally prejudiced on the subject?
Jeff [Member] writes:
CCTimes: Yes, Sir?
Murdoch: Get me everything you've done on these windmills!
CCT: But, sir, the only stories we do attack them as the mortal enemy of mankind.
Murdoch: For six years?
CCT: Well, yes, Teddy said he doesn't want to have to sail around them, or even look at them, so we've treated them like any other terrorist threat.
Murdoch: Get me rewrite.
Murdoch: Get me everything you've done on these windmills!
CCT: But, sir, the only stories we do attack them as the mortal enemy of mankind.
Murdoch: For six years?
CCT: Well, yes, Teddy said he doesn't want to have to sail around them, or even look at them, so we've treated them like any other terrorist threat.
Murdoch: Get me rewrite.
breeze [Member] writes:
I thank Walter Brooks every day for reassuring me I did the right thing in dropping the Cape Cod Times years ago after the publisher and his editor in chief both responded to my personal letters to them urging fairness on Cape Wind, only to be told they werte sure they were right. I also thank Mr. Kenney, Mr. Coleman, and the many bloggers who keep us informed.
Buzz [Member] writes:
Let's face the facts. The CC Times is a piece of crap. On several occasions, I've emailed their reporters and challenged or questioned their reporting. Let's say they're not please to hear from John Q Public especially when told that the CC Today has been kicking their ass. Albiet, if there's a drag queen festival in P Town, they'll own that story:)
capecodresident [Member] writes:
Peter, Keep up the good work! I am not as NEUTRAL as you think I am!
crusader [Member] writes:
Thanks to Walter Brooks for allowing our stories about the story of Christa Worthington to be read here on CCToday.
The Cape Cod Times never scratched the surface on it, but by the comments of many who have visited this site, the wheels have been turning right along. Don't worry bittersweet, you've got to keep the faith.
Not until blogging did I fully understand the motives of privately owned papers. For some, it's not about printing the facts, it's about protecting them.
There are people in power that do not allow certain papers to print the ugly truth. And one of them is probably looking for the next toga party.....
The Cape Cod Times never scratched the surface on it, but by the comments of many who have visited this site, the wheels have been turning right along. Don't worry bittersweet, you've got to keep the faith.
Not until blogging did I fully understand the motives of privately owned papers. For some, it's not about printing the facts, it's about protecting them.
There are people in power that do not allow certain papers to print the ugly truth. And one of them is probably looking for the next toga party.....
not_rockerfellar [Member] writes:
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GADFLY. YOUR TV SHOW IS GREAT AND HOPE ALL GOES WELL WITH BOSTON JOB!!!!!
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About This Blog
The Great Gadfly is the public persona of Peter Kenney. Born in Boston Kenney has lived in Yarmouth for decades, a town he describes as the best run town on Cape Cod. He is the son of Boston public school teachers and the product of a varied educational path. A long-time commentor on local television and radio he is adding his voice to the blogoshere. You may email Peter here.
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My hat, as usual is off to you Peter, and Walter, and CWN of course :) Count me in as one who would still be a very happy reader with even a 1:1 ratio of excellent reporting and self-congratulations such as this article. If there is any justice in the world, someone will immortalize some of the long overdue words and truth in the above article. Regardless though, the happening is right on the mark and the old media is crumbling in all the right places where us readers will no longer support it.