Journalism Is Not Public Relations--Take Note, Ideologues

Part I: The Demise of Independent Journalism

I want to look "beyond the headlines" in this piece to use my training as a journalist and newspaper editor to clarify some misimpressions about what, traditionally, has been the purpose of journalism and media in a democracy.

I studied this in my years to achieve a bachelors of science from the University of Maryland School of Journalism, as well as time spent as a reporter in the 80s and early 90s at four daily news organizations.

This, I learned, practiced, and continue to

expect:

The most trustworthy news organizations are not meant to be a voice of the people, but an independent voice for the people.

The United States had 267 fewer newspapers in 1990 than in 1940 (Colliers Encyclopedia). In 1992, only 37 U.S. cities had major, competing newspapers and the numbers have continued to grow worse since then. The loss of independent newspapers has meant a watering down of independent reporting that has given way to a rise in "viewpoint" news organizations such as Fox and MSNBC, where pretenses of presenting both sides (which I was taught in J-school) are gone.

Many of today's American news consumers seem to no longer realize they have a right to expect, demand and seek independent sourcing and information--- a sad state of affairs in a democracy!

Locally, this got under my skin when Blaine Young wrote his response a week or so ago to the Frederick News-Posts editorial, Tone it Down. He seems to think the newspaper is obligated to use its editorial columns to support his point of view.

He made that pretty clear in his reply to the newspaper's recommendation that he choose between his political career and his talk show. "Under no circumstances will I allow critics, in the media or otherwise, to silence me or run me out of office," he wrote. (His reply is here.) It was an editorial, Blaine, and the purpose of editorials is to publish opinions.

Young says he studied Mass Communications, so he should have had at least one class on History of the Media or Media and Democracy. Or you would think in high school, he might have had a basic Government class. That's where you learn the vital role an independent media plays in a democratic society.

But I don't think he paid attention. Not only does Young accuse the editorial writer of attempting to "silence him" for failing to succumb to his campaign rhetoric, but goes on to accuse the newspaper of trying to put its competition out of business by criticizing. Maybe he's really showing us the cynical way his own mind works with this line of reasoning.

In an editorial column, the newspaper has no duty to be a mouthpiece for a particular point of view.

A similar situation occurred when Joe Volz, a columnist for the Frederick Gazette, talked about this in a piece back in 2010. A letter writer had taken him to task because his column failed to reflect the letter writer's perception of the community's leanings on the subject of illegal immigration.

Volz said, pretty eloquently, that as a columnist, he is not bound to adhere his viewpoints to the perceived opinion of the community. He is absolutely right.

We all know what we expect when we turn to news reported by Fox, NPR and MSNBC. Thats why we should cherish those editorial writers, columnists, and news organizations (I, for one, love WTOP and CNN Radio) who continue to derive their information from sources on both sides of the story.

There are fewer and fewer independent, trustworthy media voices left in our community, and increasingly, in our country. I hope all the Americans who are turning back to the Founding Fathers to guide their opinions in recent years pay special attention to the Founding Fathers belief in the necessity of an independent Fourth Estate.

Part 2, coming shortly: Do we consume news, not for information, but to reinforce our own point of view?

LEED & Marriott: ROI Can Bring Mainstream into the GreenStream

Green building continues to work its way into the mainstream of development in Frederick County. And with it may come changes to county regulations that developers and builders hope make it even sweeter to save resources in new and remodeled buildings.

The latest is an evaluation by Frederick County's Department of Utilities and Solid Waste Management (water and sewer) of the impact of water conservation on buildings.

It was brought to the table by Plamondon Hospitality Partners, representing Marriott and Roy Rogers locally, as a result of their new Towne Place Suites five-story hotel opening this July.

Towne Place Suites: A "Conversion" for the Owner

When a return on investment becomes predictable, (in contrast with a fuzzy, long-term bottom line) businesses are eager to get on the wagon. The Towne Place project is an example of one that finds itself at that place where classical environmental goals dovetail with reality: return on investment.

The project's architect told me recently that when he first encouraged management at Plamondon to strive for LEED, there wasn't a high interest level. They were skeptical about returns, and even more skeptical about investing the high cost of applying for LEED (a building that size has thousands of dollars in application fees at stake) without knowing whether their efforts would qualify.

(LEED is a qualification process monitored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) that uses a rigid set of criteria to award points for resource-conscious design of a building, ranging from practices to decrease useage of water and energy; increase the amount of construction waste recycled, or the amount of recycled content used in building materials; and many other sustainability areas.


(The photo at right shows the I-70 Rest Stop, westbound, which was a LEED project for the State Highway Administration for which Canam supplied steel and LEED qualification information.)

When he found out Marriott worked with USGBC on a pre-approved templates that guaranteed Silver LEED (a kind of "third place" behind Platinum and Gold LEED) if the prescripted steps were followed, he reversed course and had the project redesigned. Cost savings in design elements like low flow shower heads, LED lighting and other resource-light design choices also began to look sweeter.

A Break from Frederick County?

He brought their efforts to the attention of Frederick County's Department of Solid Waste and Utilities Management with the seemingly logical argument that, if the hotel is using less water, connection fees (charged by the County at time of building to help pay down debt for water and sewer facilities) should be decreased. That argument still has to be vetted, though, according to DSWUM water head Kevin Demosky.

That's because the county bases connection charges on CAFs, or Capacity Adjustment Factors. In 2000, they calculated the useage of water by numerous users of a certain type, and based connection fees on an average of use by all in that category. Those numbers haven't been revamped for years, so its possible that with all the low-flow toilets and showerheads being installed as a matter of course in the hotel/motel category, Towne Place Suites' LEED work may only be "average"--which may not be the answer Pete Plamondon was looking for.

Demoskys department is studying the implications of the request as well as the feasibility of revamping the CAFs to reflect current user categories' useage.

Stay tuned, because incentives for businesses to "go green" still seem to be the carrot that is needed to get the stick moving. Its good to see a hotel going green, not only for the right reasons for resource conservation, but for a more practicable measure of sustainability: profitability.

SEE ALL MARYLAND LEED PROJECTS HERE (TYPE IN MD IN THE "STATE" FIELD).

If you know of local businesses who are implementing sustainable business practices, please comment here....