How to save journalism article timely and snippet from KVHD board meeting....

I happen to see a small paper, the Community Alliance, out of Fresno, and there isn't anything provocative or even high tech about the little black and white "free" paper, but the article on the front page caught my attention.

The article which actually was taken from the nation http://www.thenation.com/. The title is what caught my eye: "How to save Journalism."

If you get a chance this morning with your cup of coffee, take a read about what you read, and think about it more.

Nobody is going to convince me that there was a golden age of journalism where it wasn't "used" by one person or another for campaigns or money making ventures, but it can certainly be criticized for taking itself seriously these days.

Just becuase you can put up two hundred televisions on a wall, and look emotionally at each and every one of them, doesn't mean you are diseminating the news in a manner which helps anyone.

Plane goes down, thirty people are hurt, hundreds dead, and we have broadcasters crying it out on television. Help me out here, but did you know any of these people?

The job would be to get pertinent information to families of the victims, not start the wake before anyone has died.

Open up the community alliance, http://www.fresnoalliance.com/ and take a read just to provoke thought on these matters.

If you were completely interested in the topic, there is a professor, Michael Parenti, I believe he's still at Berkely, not sure, but he wrote some wonderful, scathing, but informative books on the relationship between politics and the mass media.

And here's another article with the ABC in it; I've been really reading about the sinking ship called the evening news, and have actually turned on the television which I don't like, and watched some old time news.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100305/OPINION12/3050321/1002/OPINION/As-networks-chased-profits-news-product-suffered

And now a hospital board snippet

Yes, I missed the board meeting as I struggled with a dead battery in my camera at 5:30, I knew it was not going to happen.

The news that has come to me so far has been that CCO, Cynthia Burciaga, attended the meeting and spoke during the public portion of the meeting, "the three minute warning."

Burciaga, had quite a few things to say such as that she had resigned because of personal issues, was supposedly ignored for two days before she could get an appointment with the "open door policy" the CEO, Tim McGlew.

McGlew refuted a few things that Burciaga said, but was generally quiet as she explained she had wanted to work in the ER. She said she is unable to do this because she, and we are not clear on this, may or may not have threatened a "grievance" procedure against two people, and one a board member.

We have heard the 20 plus year, board member, Brad Armstrong the trustee who voted to sink the hospital with debt in the 1980's, and was around for other ruinous mistakes such as the hiring of elder abuse charged former CEO, Pam Ott, and the prolonged problems in the nursing facility which were not policed by the hospital's own elected officials.

As board member, Bob Jamison likes to say, "stuck on stupid," these mistakes have been repeated and some still are.

There was no reporter or obvious support shown from the board for Burciaga, who wanted to work in the ER, and still wants to work at the hospital, but because of the technicalities with the grievance procedure, she will likely have to move on, unless the board works something out with her.

Armstrong at several meetings last year, and at one famous meeting in 2007, has talked about this "grievance procedure" and said it works, but the employees somehow don't' know how to use it, even though it it laid out in the manuals at the hospital.

Without going into detail, I have video of Armstrong's explanation of this employee policy and it does not match what is in the employee handbook.

It seems at this time, it is the community who is wondering what happened to Burciaga, and only time will tell if there is more to this story than is apparent at the moment.

Just finishing up her role as fundraiser for Whiskey Flats, Burciaga played the role of "Cimaron Cynthia" raising money for charity, and she said in her speech she would be forever, "Cimaron Cynthia."

We will dig a little deeper and see what we find, as people are inquiring as to what happened. I'm getting the impression people are thinking "cover up" ... Again.