Was the scooper scooped?

Today’s print edition of the Alameda Journal ran an article (timestamped 3:01AM) about the city settling a law suit with a former AP&T employee who sustained major injuries on the job. At 9:15 AM, a paragraph describing this settlement magically appears on ADN without any acknowledgement of the source — thus making it appear that Don was somehow privy to this information. In reality, it was the Alameda Journal that had a legitimate scoop, but evidently acknowledging it as such is not part of the “award winning” ethics at ADN!

Cherry picking letters to be published, lack of any objectivity (read extreme partisanship) in the news coverage and now failing to credit news sources … ADN is looking like a shoo-in for the Razzies in journalism (should there ever be such an award!) 🙂

Fair and Balanced?

We now return to our favorite local newspaper (er, blog) — Alameda Daily News. Despite Don’s assertions to the contrary, there is new evidence to indicate that he does cherry pick the letters to publish or, alternatively, bury the “troublesome” letters over the weekend. Additionally, an informal analysis of the letters published on ADN during the past month indicate:

• approximately 60 letters/comments were favorable to the Slate
• approximately 20 letters/comments were unfavorable to the Slate

I hadn’t realized that Fox News was also available on Channel 31!

With the increasingly partisan coverage, Don’s suggestion that ADN is the “source for the best informed Alamedans” is an affront to our collective intelligence.  Looks like objectivity is a quaint relic from a bygone era!

Faux News in our midst?

Might we have our own version of Faux News? Don Roberts recently proclaimed:

We do not “cherry pick” letters for publication which contain opinions with which we agree. Our readership does not consist “only of people who are opposed to Mayor Johnson”, however the majority of our readers who write letters on that topic, seem to be opposed to Mayor Johnson …

… In fact, we publish virtually all of the letters we receive and those small numbers that have not been published are predominantly redundant from anti-Johnson, anti-megaplex, anti-growth, and anti-traffic readers.

It didn’t take long to dispel the myth about Don publishing virtually all of the letters he receives. Here’s one letter I received from a reader that wasn’t published. And there’s also the small matter of Don rewording a letter (so as to actually change the intent of the original!) without prior consent from the writer!

If there are more such letters, please add them to the comments.

Alameda Daily News: Entertainment or News?

Don Roberts maintains alamedadailynews.com — an “award winning” site that positions itself as the purveyor of all Alameda related news. One of the first things that strikes the visitor is the rather loud font and color scheme that simply makes your head spin. Oddly enough, for a news-related website, there are NO archives. The postings on the site follow a FIFO pattern and old articles continually make way for the newer ones.

Don, perhaps you ought to rework the site as a WordPress blog?

A quick glance at the site is often sufficient to give you the flavor du jour (or atleast, those issues that Don deems important to publish) 🙂 Currently, it is long running debate over the feasibilty of Measure A exemption for Alameda Point. Don is also quick to publish articles on how he scooped the other newspapers on items of local interest (but the self-laudatory scoops can get annoying after the third or fourth time; Woodward and Bernstein, this certainly is not!)