What's news?
People these days barely have time to read a news story all the way to the end, and probably no time to question and understand it.
People these days barely have time to read a news story all the way to the end, and probably no time to question and understand it.
And reporters and writers, have less time, get less money, trying to give you all the facts and details.
Those are just some of the factors which play out in how you get your information. (Processing it: well that's a whole other matter)
Even if you did have all day long to read, you would still have to spend just as much time on the Internet or the library researching to see if you were sold a bill of goods. A fact is not a fact, just because I or someone else says it is.
I remember my favorite day of the week was Sunday, as I knew I would spend it ensconced in newspaper, black ink on my fingertips. Those big, bulky papers, too big to roll up, so they had to be folded in half for delivery, contained a whole section of comics, sports, pull out magazines, world news, and Lot's of puzzles you couldn't get the answer to until the following Sunday. (no cheating)
I grew up with the LA Times and the Orange County Register, Indianapolis Star, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and then on to the Wall Street Journal, and our local newspapers which monitored what these other huge news superstars couldn't.
The gap.
My father was always going to city council meetings about something. He wouldn't be seen as an activist, he simply knew that certain things got done and local government was how to achieve these aims.
It was pretty matter of fact that my father argued with the state of Arizona over his property taxes and then found out how to avoid the rise in costs.
Many people don't know how to utilize local government, which is always labyrinth like no matter how small the area.
Community newspapers should consider it their responsibility to cover all the local issues that cannot be addressed by the larger organizations. It should be first and foremost to keep the community "covered" as so many things get lost.
There are dozens of clubs, small franchise organizations, children's sports and hobbies, that rely on local news coverage to survive as fundraisers, memberships, and donations are necessary if they're going to be here next year.
Anything which has any urgency to the community, such as a change in laws, road construction, weather conditions, safety issues such as unqualified leaders in a hospital promoting the use of drugs that settle unwanted behaviors in patients which would require more staffing of which there wasn't, SHOULD BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS.
How do you know?
Well, let's take a story, and examine the origins and what you know about it. Here's a good one: what happened at our hospital with the news coverage.
The incidents and practices of chemical restraints used at the Kern Valley Skilled Nursing Facility between Aug. 1 thru Jan. 31, 2007, were investigated by the state of California Office of Medi-Cal fraud and elder abuse bureau, in 2008, after Department of public health scrambled around for more than a year gathering the confetti.
Now, there were a lot of us here who could tell this story from many perspectives.
But the investigators wrote their reports, jotted down notes, took recordings, removed the leftover evidence after the shredding and illegal tampering, and went home with it.
The lawyers then looked at what the investigators had, fit it into a winning scenario, added some charges to coordinate the outfit, spun the situation for their own purposes, then sent that case off with a, "next."
From the original incidences, witnesses, the perpetrators, the ombudsman, the department of public health investigators, the state investigators, to the lawyers, and finally, lovingly into the hands of the press.
Our bad boys of public relations at the DOJ, Scott Gerber and Evan Westhrupp, were pumping up the volume with one too many Starbucks on this day, and probably found the material to be quite viable for an attention getter of a story.
They did what millions of us out here do, spin baby spin.
They are public relations, the PR, the authors of press releases which go out to every news organization they can get them to. If they go in verbatim, the better.
That was one of the first things I did in the news business was to re-write the press releases, trying to drain them of some of the spin, before they would go in the paper.
Now, I see that practice has changed, as most of the coverage brought about by our local "hot topic" almost all coverage came from those press releases. Some with follow up calls, but not many.
So, now, do any of you here know Scott or Evan the authors of the press release about KVHD? (I don't know, I thought I'd ask, it is a small world up here)
But the newspaper, radio and TV will tell you that they're safe when they stick with this release. It wasn't there mistake it was Scott, he did it.
It was hot news, so the PR boys and their press releases flooded the information market as speed out runs accuracy.
You might find it funny, but ask either of the PR boys if they thought the press "got" what they said in the release right.
As the information comes down these channels, it gets a marked change as it goes through many filters. The attorney general has his slant as he is creating an image of fighting for the people as this might help him win the governors seat this next election.
Hey, its just the truth, we all have spin. (Only some of us admit it)
Now, you're a nurse, fired from KVHD, you break your last dollar to purchase the local newspaper and then you read the story...and you know its not what you experienced...and the bulk of the story comes from a stranger's interpretation a few hundred miles away in Sacramento in the form of a press release...but this is your local paper, your neighbor, what happened?
And then your grandmother has died under suspicious circumstances; family were frequent visitors to the KVHD skilled nursing facility but you weren't notified of changes made in the treatment; none of your questions were answered and you are labeled a simple "complainer."
You tune in the local radio station, the only one broadcasting for our area, and hear that CEO, Pam Ott, is on the radio with KVHD board member, Bob Jamison, and they're talking about rumors, laughing off claims that people died in this or that way, and you decide to call.
Taking action, you call in and after having to make your point sharp, you are then placated by Pam Ott, who tells you she's sorry, and she would like you to come in and talk to her. (But you'd have to make it quick as she was on her way out, just waiting for that job at Sierra Kings to come through)
Ott forgets and can't see your face, that you have already been to the hospital many times, trying to obtain paperwork, which you never could get all copies, and you realize this is the local media misleading and covering for a public healthcare district.
You're on the air...
Those are just some of the factors which play out in how you get your information. (Processing it: well that's a whole other matter)
Even if you did have all day long to read, you would still have to spend just as much time on the Internet or the library researching to see if you were sold a bill of goods. A fact is not a fact, just because I or someone else says it is.
I remember my favorite day of the week was Sunday, as I knew I would spend it ensconced in newspaper, black ink on my fingertips. Those big, bulky papers, too big to roll up, so they had to be folded in half for delivery, contained a whole section of comics, sports, pull out magazines, world news, and Lot's of puzzles you couldn't get the answer to until the following Sunday. (no cheating)
I grew up with the LA Times and the Orange County Register, Indianapolis Star, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and then on to the Wall Street Journal, and our local newspapers which monitored what these other huge news superstars couldn't.
The gap.
My father was always going to city council meetings about something. He wouldn't be seen as an activist, he simply knew that certain things got done and local government was how to achieve these aims.
It was pretty matter of fact that my father argued with the state of Arizona over his property taxes and then found out how to avoid the rise in costs.
Many people don't know how to utilize local government, which is always labyrinth like no matter how small the area.
Community newspapers should consider it their responsibility to cover all the local issues that cannot be addressed by the larger organizations. It should be first and foremost to keep the community "covered" as so many things get lost.
There are dozens of clubs, small franchise organizations, children's sports and hobbies, that rely on local news coverage to survive as fundraisers, memberships, and donations are necessary if they're going to be here next year.
Anything which has any urgency to the community, such as a change in laws, road construction, weather conditions, safety issues such as unqualified leaders in a hospital promoting the use of drugs that settle unwanted behaviors in patients which would require more staffing of which there wasn't, SHOULD BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS.
How do you know?
Well, let's take a story, and examine the origins and what you know about it. Here's a good one: what happened at our hospital with the news coverage.
The incidents and practices of chemical restraints used at the Kern Valley Skilled Nursing Facility between Aug. 1 thru Jan. 31, 2007, were investigated by the state of California Office of Medi-Cal fraud and elder abuse bureau, in 2008, after Department of public health scrambled around for more than a year gathering the confetti.
Now, there were a lot of us here who could tell this story from many perspectives.
But the investigators wrote their reports, jotted down notes, took recordings, removed the leftover evidence after the shredding and illegal tampering, and went home with it.
The lawyers then looked at what the investigators had, fit it into a winning scenario, added some charges to coordinate the outfit, spun the situation for their own purposes, then sent that case off with a, "next."
From the original incidences, witnesses, the perpetrators, the ombudsman, the department of public health investigators, the state investigators, to the lawyers, and finally, lovingly into the hands of the press.
Our bad boys of public relations at the DOJ, Scott Gerber and Evan Westhrupp, were pumping up the volume with one too many Starbucks on this day, and probably found the material to be quite viable for an attention getter of a story.
They did what millions of us out here do, spin baby spin.
They are public relations, the PR, the authors of press releases which go out to every news organization they can get them to. If they go in verbatim, the better.
That was one of the first things I did in the news business was to re-write the press releases, trying to drain them of some of the spin, before they would go in the paper.
Now, I see that practice has changed, as most of the coverage brought about by our local "hot topic" almost all coverage came from those press releases. Some with follow up calls, but not many.
So, now, do any of you here know Scott or Evan the authors of the press release about KVHD? (I don't know, I thought I'd ask, it is a small world up here)
But the newspaper, radio and TV will tell you that they're safe when they stick with this release. It wasn't there mistake it was Scott, he did it.
It was hot news, so the PR boys and their press releases flooded the information market as speed out runs accuracy.
You might find it funny, but ask either of the PR boys if they thought the press "got" what they said in the release right.
As the information comes down these channels, it gets a marked change as it goes through many filters. The attorney general has his slant as he is creating an image of fighting for the people as this might help him win the governors seat this next election.
Hey, its just the truth, we all have spin. (Only some of us admit it)
Now, you're a nurse, fired from KVHD, you break your last dollar to purchase the local newspaper and then you read the story...and you know its not what you experienced...and the bulk of the story comes from a stranger's interpretation a few hundred miles away in Sacramento in the form of a press release...but this is your local paper, your neighbor, what happened?
And then your grandmother has died under suspicious circumstances; family were frequent visitors to the KVHD skilled nursing facility but you weren't notified of changes made in the treatment; none of your questions were answered and you are labeled a simple "complainer."
You tune in the local radio station, the only one broadcasting for our area, and hear that CEO, Pam Ott, is on the radio with KVHD board member, Bob Jamison, and they're talking about rumors, laughing off claims that people died in this or that way, and you decide to call.
Taking action, you call in and after having to make your point sharp, you are then placated by Pam Ott, who tells you she's sorry, and she would like you to come in and talk to her. (But you'd have to make it quick as she was on her way out, just waiting for that job at Sierra Kings to come through)
Ott forgets and can't see your face, that you have already been to the hospital many times, trying to obtain paperwork, which you never could get all copies, and you realize this is the local media misleading and covering for a public healthcare district.
You're on the air...
i never thought of it that way-but i understand what you are saying. Laura-question for you-how do we change it? thank you for your hardwork- you have done more than others would ever do. keep up the good work.
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