Thursday, January 1, 2015

The PDN Paints a Poor Picture

Please know that I'm NOT advocating for newspapers to only tell official Happy News, or to ignore the Dark Side of Things. That does a disservice to any community when it occurs, creating a false reality that does harm in its own way.
 
And, mind you, we all know the PDN isn't above skewing or distorting the news. Sometimes they ignore the Dark Side of Things, even when it's painfully obvious and known by all. Sometimes they seem to only want to print official Happy News, no matter what else may be going on.
 
But really...I have to wonder if the bozos at the PDN have any idea of what they're doing, community spirit-wise, when they choose their daily poll questions.
 
We had some discussion here already about their New Year's poll, which showed that over 40% of those responding thought that 2015 would be worse for them than 2014. Less than a quarter of respondents thought 2015 would be better. This not only shows a depressed and beaten down populace, but can further help to foster that very feeling. Is this what the PDN intends? A self-fulfilling prophecy of doom and despair?
 
A related question would be: Did the poll results make it into the print edition?
 
Then there's today's PDN poll, which asks people "How many meals do you usually eat in a day?" I think the answers to that question say a lot more than the PDN likely intended as well.
 

On one hand, a majority - 35% of respondents - say they eat "3 or more meals a day." In other words, a third of those responding admit to being gluttons. Oh, okay. That's in line with American waistlines, to be sure, and with Clallam County waistlines to be specific.
 
On the other hand, close behind that majority comes the 32% who say they only eat "2 meals a day," and the 6% who only eat "1 meal a day." I don't think these numbers represent active dieters or anything like that, so much as they do the persistent poverty in Clallam County. Maybe I'm wrong, but these numbers seem significant to me. Just over a quarter of those responding say they eat the standard "3 meals a day."
 

In any case, it sure seems to me that the PDN is blissfully unaware of how their own little poll might well be a spirit-killing poison pill when the questions produce results that may cut to close to the bone. Sure, it's possible I'm being overly sensitive. It seems equally possible that the management at the PDN are totally insensitive. Do they in fact care about the community they live in and (claim to) serve? Do they take their duties as fact seeking truth tellers seriously? Or do they exist to sell ads, maintain the dysfunctional status quo, and simply perpetuate their own existence?
 
In other words, what role does the PDN play in representing Port Angeles and Clallam County? What role do they play in helping to shape Port Angeles and Clallam County?

(PLEASE NOTE: Obviously, these PDN polls are not scientifically valid, etc., etc. But, I do think they can serve as a quick and dirty way to take the temperature of the community on many issues. They may not get the details all correct, but they can serve to show a general outline, if you will...)

30 comments:

  1. File under...Be careful what you ask for. Does the PDN choose these questions intending to rub people's noses in their own misery? I don't believe they do. But if the results basically cause that to happen as a byproduct, I don't believe they care. John Brewer care? Rex Wilson care? Paul Gottlieb care?

    No. Not for a minute.

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  2. How does it go? "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and see if they'd like to buy some ad space?"

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  3. PDN doesn't care about the community. It is clear in how they charge for ads (based on totally bogus numbers, that rely on 3 people reading each newspaper...hahahaha, based on a NYTimes survey of newspapers left on subway trains). They give ad deals to the car sellers in town, but over-charge up the butt any small business ads. The commercial want ads are 2x higher than a Seattle paper.

    It's gouging small businesses, the ones who most need to advertise.

    The PDN and their wonky pay wall doesn't help, either. Since there is no other news source, to have a pay wall for local news is stupid. KONP doesn't routinely update. Too bad the PDN doesn't regularly report anything of interest -- like police activities (routine "reports") or what the city council is doing, or what is going on -- with a community interest perspective.

    The community interest reporter (the woman with too many names, that seem to forever keep changing) is a moron, and cannot write. I can't even follow her stories, because she writes like my addled, aged Aunt Millie. Various things are strung here and there, with no point, and with attention to details that have no bearing. (Talk about not knowing who you are writing for!)

    If I wanted to read essays like this, I'd go back to teaching grammar school.

    Meanwhile, since the pay wall, the number of comments as dwindled to ZERO, which just tells me that the paper is losing ground. It will, eventually, be a weekly rag, and then cease to exist.

    Too bad, we need a newspaper.

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    1. I marvel at how, on one hand, I have never, ever heard a single person say a single kind word about the PDN, it is held in the lowest possible repute...Yet they still manage to find businesses (suckers) to buy ads. Talk about the emperor's new clothes. It's a real mystery to me. I guess that our local businesses haven't yet learned how to navigate all the other options that exist for putting their business or service out there. The PDN is a 20th century model that, somehow, has survived into the 21st century, due, I suspect, to the much older demographics of Clallam County.

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  4. I don't think the PDN intends to paint or present Port Angeles in a negative light. Really, my complaint is that they cover up the reality of despair, distrust and hopelessness far too much.

    If you look at the list of stories online (who would pay good money for that piece of crap?) , most are presented as happy news. Contra dancing here, music show there. Makes it sound like Port Angeles is a happening town.

    But when people line up to protest something, no coverage. The coverage of city council meetings is just a regurgitation of the staff/party line, if there is any coverage at all. No investigation into what is actually going on.

    I'm sure many posting here have sent notes to Brewer, Goat-like and the Shrew over the years, as I have, to inform them of things going on that they should be interested in. Most times, no reply.

    The polls? That most replied to the "What do you think 2015 will be?" poll with pessimism is not PDNs doing. They just put things up that are pretty pro forma. Likely, to gather info on how many are paying attention to what ever they are doing.

    Just as an aside, about the meals-a-day poll, and conclusions drawn. I eat 1 meal a day, and have for many years. I know of others like me. Just a strange habit.

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    1. Clearly, the PDN confuses "feted" with "fetid" on a regular basis.

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  5. The PDN has been one of the greatest impediments to Port Angeles moving ahead that exists. They only exist to sell ads. People think there is news to be found, but soon find out otherwise.

    Given it has been the ONLY paper in town, they've been able to control what people know, and how to view what is going on. What slanted view they decide to publish and promote.

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  6. I thought that they meant feces when they would type feted.

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  7. If the PDN was REALLY concerned about serving the community, upholding journalistic ethics, and/or winning prizes for journalism, then they'd have a field day with all the corruption and double dealing that goes on here.

    The fact that they don't even go near such reporting serves to prove that they have been entirely coopted by the "Dark Side" CK speaks of. A free press is meant to reveal and enlighten; the PDN has taken on the mission to obscure and distract. They are a blight and an embarrassment to this community, and to their profession.

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    1. The closest we have to investigative journalism is done by Port O Call. Too bad they publish only once a month.

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  8. Speaking of the selfish and myopic people that live in the area, we see that the green-washed regressive property rights group that calls itself the Olympic Resource Protection Council has filed a lawsuit against the Dungeness watershed rules.

    Of COURSE the resource they speak of being concerned about has nothing to do with the natural resources of the Olympic Peninsula that most care about. Of COURSE the real estate folks like the distant views and vistas they can reference in the ads they run, that fill the pages of the PDN so dominantly.

    But none of those "resources" should impede, constrain or hinder their abilities to build on their properties. Who cares if the fish have no water to spawn in; the fish don't pay the real estate agents and selfish landowners any money. And we know money is the only thing that matters any more.

    Concern for any body else? No way. If new building in water scare and water sensitive areas will lower water tables for existing homeowners, dry up ponds, lower water levels in the river or impact anyone else, no the problems THESE so-called civic leaders care about.

    These people are just disgusting. The concept of "community" and caring about the future doesn't concern these poor excuses for humans.

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  9. Everyone on this side of the Strait knows the PDN is a POS but no one is getting the message in Victoria where their home office is located. If all those who gripe about the PDN were to follow up with David Black, owner of Black Publishing, owner of Sound Publishing etc etc. His contact information is: dblack@blackpublishing.ca or you can call his office at 604-575-2744. John Brewer is a longtime newspaperman. He knows a story when he sees one and he knows how to present a story where the community can follow and get involved. Instead he merely writes what the chamber of commerce, the city council, the port of port angeles want to hear and to hell with the community members he purports to serve. If you will make known to his top tier advertisers that you are unsatisfied with his coverage they may put some pressure on him. Right now the main advertisers include Swains, Realtors, Car Dealers and so on. Call these folks and tell them you are going to buy your car in Seattle until we get a community serving newspaper. Tell Swains you are going out to Walmart until they apply pressure on the PDN to serve their public. Tell the Dick Pilling you will purchase your home off Craig's list until we get a community paper. These ideas are so simple sometimes they are over looked. Griping alone won't help. Griping to those who can bring about desired changes--that's the ticket. Now, if someone will copy and paste this thread and send it to David Black maybe just maybe he will cause Brewer to come up for air or he may send in a new publisher who is not in bed with the greed heads who have brought us to this pitiable state of affairs.
    Happy New Year

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    1. Excellent post, and excellent suggestions!

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    2. Dick Pilling won't care, but it's worth doing/saying anyway. Dick's as clueless as they come.

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  10. almost on topic, I am presently doing some research on the "poverty line" locally. My theory is if we assume the average family income in PA is $38K and we remove from the equation all government workers income then the remainder of the population is at or below the poverty line. Think of the wide separation between most of the workers in town as compared to these incomes: City of PA, Clallam County, Border Patrol, Schools System, Port of Port Angeles, Olympic Medical Center, EDC, Library, and more I cannot think of just now. These are the only ones making any living wages in the entire community. How long can we survive when the overseers are making twice to four times the taxpayers?

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    1. Forget TWILIGHT, this is a REAL vampire economy. Government workers sucking the very lifeblood out of everyone else.

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    2. That's a very astute observation about the majority of the PA population being well below the poverty line, if one removes the top tier income folks who are working for, or retired-from, government jobs. Aren't we all glad that people like Glenn Cutler and Jeff Robb can rake in lucrative public pensions and live amongst us serfs?
      Too bad there are apparently not enough rich retirees opting to fly from PA to their second homes or lavish vacation destinations; otherwise there might still be commercial air service from here.

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    3. City Attorney Bill Bloor takes home $160,000 per year. The Cascadia Law Firm, the one he calls when he has a legal question bill the city for another $200,000 per year. Why don't we just hire the Cascadia Law Firm and dump this drag on the economy which is all I can see of Bill Bloor. Likewise the Department of Public Works farms out all the public work to private contractors yet we pay sufficient personnel to accomplish our work but they never get the chance. Most of the work on the so called million dollar "Rain gardens" on the west side was done by private contractors. Why do we even have a crew if they cannot do simple excavation and landscape type work? We can go all the way down the line department by department and show where they get these world class salaries yet farm out all the work that actually gets done.

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    4. Good idea about dumping Bloor. He is worse than a drag on the economy. He gives errant advice and his legal skills are marginal. It's disgraceful that the city hired him in the first place; even more so that he wasn't replaced long ago.
      If the Cascadia Firm possesses a shred of integrity they could help the city locate and hire a better city attorney. Of course, if they did that, their lucrative consulting fees would diminish in proportion to the new city attorney's talent. So the symbiotic relationship between Cascadia and Bloor will continue on, to the detriment of everyone except them.

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    5. Bloor is terrible. He certainly acts as if the typical city resident is the enemy, and he is some wizardly dude. Screw him, and his ridiculous salary. Dump him. Get some second rate ambulance chaser for half the amount, and we'd be better off (probably get better legal advice, too).

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    6. For those of you who don't know...The standard line around City Hall for the past couple of years now (that's a long time, I know) is that Bloor really is a capable attorney, but his wife is sick and therefore he's distracted. No, really. This is what is offered up, by the City Manager among others, when the subject of Bloor's competence comes up.

      Now, first of all, no one wants to have a sick spouse. No one is wishing that on Bill Bloor. But if it's true, it needs to be separated from his professional life and (publically funded) commitments. If the only way to do that is to tale a leave of absence or to step down, that's what he needs to do. His position is too important, and he is paid too much money, to be allowed to skate due to outside problems. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's just the way it is.

      As is, Bloor costs us all a lot of money, and makes a lot of bad decisions, and, at best, offers up a "poor pitiful me" excuse to distract from his own shortcomings. This is completely unacceptable, especially given that it's been trotted out for so long. Shame on the City Council and the City Manager for putting up with Bloor's shameful and expensive performance for so long, excuse or no excuse. Because, really, there's no excuse.

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    7. So, what was his excuse before his wife was sick?

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  11. Speaking of the PDN...I love how, now that he's violated the terms of his bail, Walter Mozingo is no longer just an accused child rapist. No, now he's a "disabled Army veteran."

    Oh, I see. Well known scumbag "reporter" Paul Gottlieb is now trying to inject some sympathy into the coverage of this case? Sympathy for the accused (and it sounds like admitted) rapist?

    Good job, PDN. That's just about what I'd expect from you.

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    1. Must be one of Gottleib's drinking buddies.

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  12. So, off the topic, but still on the greater topic: Why in the HELL did the Port pay $18,000 for a larger sign for the airport? Jackson Smart (who's name implies intelligence) made a killing on that high-density urethane foam. The NEW sign "stands 5 feet tall and is 16 feet wide, replacing a smaller wooden sign that had been at the entrance for more than 20 years" (thank you PDN, when in doubt about covering a news story, get all the inane details). So, now quaint. We're now shouting from the rooftops that the Fairchild INTERNATIONAL Airport is there -- great. $18THOUSAND dollars for a urethane foam sign to announce what a failure we are. Thanks Port. Wise choice. What next? Valet service and skycaps?

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  13. Still the realization here is the same question. Why does someone stay here if things are so bad? Or, is there so much bad that no one sees the validity in trying to change things? Or, have tried to change things and we are in the minority of the politics with power? I don't see currently the vision or the populace with enough monetary influence to affect change anyway. I hear "golden-eyed" locals touting the mantra....of please be positive...we can change this place, etc... After so many years when a fire is out of control, the fire department lets the fire burn out. Of all these people that say this a wonderful spot...I must be in the minority who shops locally as I see cars packed at WalMart and not downtown. The PDN posts something about how much people eat. Guess what, out FAT populace eats at least 3 big meals a day in the majority. This sound like poverty to me. I would love to be more positive about this dump, but what is there to be positive about? More videos of the Elwha? How about the trashed homes of the Elwha Nation and properties? How about reoccurring exits strategies of the mills? Nippon? Too many motels to accommodate out wonderful "tourism". More alcohol/drug treatment centers? A college that does actual good...They do. A very poorly marketed High School Levy/Bond vote. The list goes on and the City Council sits on their laurels. The PABA is BS. Middle income people with maybe an AA or less need skilled labor work here, not working on a lumber line for 20 year old somethings.Not a drop of new industry here in high tech...What is the excuse now? High gas prices? Not now. Money that is getting piped away goes to BS Casino gambling by people that have no hope. This economy here is pitiful. The state economy will continue to do well as this toilet continues to rot. I should have never moved here. You people that think there is hope, are way off base. And very delusional. I regret this move until I die.

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  14. The happy talk, "think happy thoughts" that is so pervasive around here is more like "come on folks, lets to piss on that forest fire. Drink more water, pee more."
    It's why the facebook group "revitalize pa" ferrets out anyone who says a discouraging word with their "guidelines" and private messaging to ask people to "just stop" being so negative.

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  15. I see on today's PDN poll, as of just a few minutes ago, a hypothetical 2016 Presidential race between Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton shows Bush ahead by ten percentage points. Not ten votes - ten percentage points. In other words, Bush would win here (it seems) by a landslide.

    Sigh...

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  16. Today's poll is asking people to describe their marriage - I'm actually offended!

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  17. Another day, another happy PDN poll. Today's poll asks people to rate the quality of their marriage. When I was just there, 20% of those responding picked "Failing" to describe their marriage. Wow.

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