The Undignified Exit of The Citizen
Goodbye to the Tucson Citizen.
And, frankly, good riddance. I agree with Jay Rosen on this one. I'm no gravedancer...but... what a sour, nasty, petty self-absorbed, off-the-wall. pathetic editorial did the Citizen choose for its close-out editorial. A straight-on fug-you to the New Media at which it openly sneers with contempt.
I'm not going to waste any brain cells citing any part of it. You can read it for yourself.
But I want to make three points on this issue:
1) Of course I extend my sympathy to those workers and their families that will now lose their income. They will feel the same pain as the other more than 6 million currently unemployed.
2) I have a LONG relationship with Tucson and many, many personal and professional connections. I know some fabulous journalists --of my gray-haired generation-- who made their chops at the Tucson Citizen. And everyone one of them got the hell out of Dodge as soon as they could.
3) Over the last decade I have also come to know a disproportionate number of younger reporters who toiled at the Citizen. And everyone of them agreed the place was a veritable hellhole. Mind you, these were all top notch, ambitious reporters and for all its posthumous chest-beating about its dedication to hard news, the Citizen consistently snubbed the relentless digging of these younger reporters. And everyone of them also fled as soon as they could -- just like those of the prior generation. Indeed, the place was SO toxic that one very talented young reporter I know chose to work for an out of state alt-weekly rather than continue to be humiliated by the brain-dead management at his metro daily.
These reporters were discouraged by the obsessive dedication that the Citizen had to shaping its news by consumer focus group. Its editors hammered away at the reporters, insisting that the "news" always relate to what supposedly mattered to the readership's immediate daily lives. In other words, hard-hitting news and investigative pieces were subordinated to cheery and upbeat service pieces.
As the immigration and border crisis reached its fever point over the last decade right in the Citizen's own back yard, it became increasingly difficult for the reporters at the paper to adequately cover the human drama taking place a mere 45 minute drive from the newsroom. No matter that the border crossing death rate had zoomed 1000% in a decade, this sort of story was deemed to not be of sufficient interest to the hallowed readers of the hallowed Citizen. As dozens of dead bodies were stacked up in the Pima County morgue, Tucson Citizen reporters were told that this was all old news. Been there. Done that. Move on.
When one reporter wrote a great series about environmental abuses in the fishing industry just across the border in Baja, for example, it had to be reshaped to emphasize how this could impact or endanger the seafood consumed by Citizen readers. Otherwise, how could they possibly be interested, in such remote and boring matters such as massive pollution of the seas?
Before anyone gets too pissed off at what I just wrote, please go back and read points one and two above. In principle, there is nothing to celebrate in the demise of any long-standing news organization. But there is just as much reason to resist muddle-headed nostalgia for what became an embarrassingly degraded product. The shallowness of the Tucson Citizen's flip-off to the future is absolutely consistent with the general cluelessness that accelerated its folding.
This other auto-obit by the Citizen's Jeff Smith is much more to the point. The folding of the Tucson Citizen had a lot more to do with the small-mindedness of the Gannett corporation than it did with those despised citizen journalists and bloggers. I hope the laid off reporters from the Citizen find a new employer who appreciates their work and talent.
P.S. I'm going back on my word and now will quote this laugh-line from the Citizen's fug-you note:
It would be bad enough if we were just any company. But a newspaper is the type of high-salary, knowledge industry, “smart” business that any of the city’s TREOish, economic-development types would love to recruit.Well, yeah "a newspaper" might be a "high-salary company." I know what the Citizen paid its reporters. Peanuts. On a good day.
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May 17th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Latest research shows brain cells actually do grow back. So, what the heck:
Now is your chance to…do what we in our dying industry like to call “reporting.”…from sweet Mary Bustamante’s long-time devotion to schools to Dan Buckley’s vivid mariachi videos…
It’s like young Colbert’s stint at a local tv news station covering “what mattersons to Pattersons…Springs.”
May 17th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Nice article, Marc.
How’s that 5 stages of grief thingy go again?
1 Denial
2 Anger
3 Bargaining
4 Depression
5 Acceptance
From the tone of Tucson Citizen editorial, seems like they’re doubling down on number 2.
May 17th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Marc: …younger reporters who toiled at the Citizen…agreed the place was a veritable hellhole. …And everyone of them also fled as soon as they could….
Maybe these “fabulous journalists” and “top notch, ambitious reporters” have found their real place in business — out of work or at the bottom of the pay chain…and, maybe, they will later learn that their education just begins once they leave college.
Perhaps the best advice that kids could learn in journalism school is to not accept, in the first place, a position with a company if they don’t like it or if they want to exercise personal views contrary to the goals set by management.
May 17th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Woody would replace professional journalistic standards with the malleable ethics of, among other toadies and stooges, those accountants who assisted in creating paper “profit” models for Enron and the big banks that sank the economy.
I guess I should be shocked, but I’m actually bored by the steady stream of self-exposure as a mindless, amoral ass always eager to defend the indefensible.
(Yeah…I know…I’m “gay.”)
May 17th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Marc: You are kind of gravedancing here. The paper – I never had the pleasure of reading it – may have been utterly dismal. I’m sure it paid badly, and the editorial malfeasance sounds pretty awful.
But whatever its faults, it undoubtedly cast at least a casual eye on City Hall, covered school district corruption sometimes, challenged polluters and uncovered developer malfeasance, if only by accident – you know, the stuff that newspapers do. A crappy first job at a crappy newspaper is still a newspaper job, which is currently a commodity in short supply. There wasn’t much worth reading in the last years of the Her-Ex, for example, but I don’t know anybody who was glad to see it die. I don’t see much of a difference here.
And because you seem genuinely close to the newsroom, you probably have specific insights, but to a reader not so situated, the signoff editorial may be a bit bitter – and hell, why not – but seems to be challenging online media to step up to the plate rather than blaming them for the paper’s demise.
May 17th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
reg: professional journalistic standards
Professional journalistic standards?! Ha! Where are they? Who follows them?
Sorry, reg. You can’t smear all accountants, one of the most trusted groups of workers, by bringing up an isolated crime by a few, who, by the way, were expelled by the profession. You don’t see journalists expelling their members but, rather, continue to take up for those who should be disgraced.
But, this wasn’t about crime, idiot. What I wrote was about people who take money for a job and then refuse to do that job and who work counter to the instructions by their employers; i.e., “fabulous journalists” and “top notch, ambitious reporters.” Those people should be out of work and have no business telling the rest of us what to do.
However, if you’re concerned about crime, you could pay a little more attention to the high black crime rate and not turn your back on black people you encounter.
May 17th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
No accountants for the big banks and institutions that brought down the economy have been fired – nor should they have been, because they’re just a bunch of low-level toadies following the bent rules of their masters’ game.
May 17th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Your last comment is a measure of your severe mental disorientation and racist obsessions.
May 17th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Which group murders more people every year…accountants or blacks?
reg, please stop exposing your business ignorance and stay on topic.
May 17th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Marc, did you feel that up in Woodland Hills?
Apparently a 5.0 between Lennox & Inglewood.
13 kilometer deep.
May 17th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
USGS Site on the Quake
Hope everyone is okay.
- – -
Those young journalists don’t need any lessons from the NYT.
NYTimes columnist admits using blogger’s words
May 17th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
A better article on Dowd
May 17th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Maybe Marc or someone else singing the praises of “web 2.0″ can point me to the blog that has the 4 part investigative series on the state or our Oceans? Or maybe the LA centric site that has been covering the corruption in the OC Sheriff’s department via Corona? How about a human interest story like Steve Lopez fine series that has since turned into The Soloist book and film?
Why is it so easy to think of anything new as progress? Why should we go blindly into the future without considering the ligit drawbacks of digital media?
As someone that works in the media (not in journalism but in music) I can assure you that the death of daily’s will have a tremendous consequence to or democracy, especially at the local level. Yet I think the “net pioneer” spirit has gotten a hold of writers like Marc who do not want to seem behind the curve. They all know better cause they surely understand what will die when daily’s, weeklies, and monthly’s die.
I could write a blog about the death of the music biz and I can assure you it is not as simple as many would think. I can say this, as soon as the sense of community was lost with the death of “ma & pa” retail, the cultural connection was lost. When music became digital it lost its value in every way.
The other challenge with the digital world is the sheer ineffectiveness of online advertising. That is the huge problem with online journalism. A family owned operation is fine with a 10 percent margin. A corporation is not. My guess is that most internet sites struggle to even make ten and will continue to struggle.
The culture of the net is not one where readers really challenge themselves intellectually. It is for the most part about short clips of people smashing their balls. It is straight out of Idiocracy. Why are so many on board?
David Simon (former journalist and writer for The Wire) is one of the few that seems to understand that the death of daily’s is far more complex and the cheerleaders should have some honesty about what we are losing.
I am not excusing the sins of corporate media conglomerates but I hear some shitty things about online companies as well. Namely, most of them are about out of business.
May 18th, 2009 at 5:39 am
What really happened at the Citizen: (LIINK)
May 18th, 2009 at 6:05 am
I liked your editorial GM.
You make a crucial allusion here:
“I can say this, as soon as the sense of community was lost with the death of “ma & pa” retail, the cultural connection was lost.”
I think you captured to horror…
May 18th, 2009 at 6:05 am
I mean “the” horror.
May 18th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
First, The Undignified Exit of The Citizen
Now, the NYT Hangs on in Disgrace
New York Times Finally Admits It Spiked Obama/ACORN Corruption Story
NYT Says Don’t Worry, Dems — Pelosi Under No ‘Serious Threat’ on Waterboarding
These are reg’s “professional journalistic standards.”
May 18th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Self-parody – “The American exSpectorator” and “Newsbluster” against the NYTs….
May 18th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
The despicable scumbaggery of Woody’s World (ball-less, bigoted little pricks):
http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/05/gop_previews_its_outreach_strategy_to_women.php
May 19th, 2009 at 7:22 am
So, reg, you don’t dispute the truth of the articles…only that you don’t like the publications. It’s your typical style to not argue something on its merits but rather on how much you can demonized the sources without facts. You lose…again and again and again and….
The facts are what they are, and the NYT is a mouthpiece for the Democrats.
Hey, isn’t it funny that your source titled “GOP Previews Its Outreach Strategy To Women” didn’t include one comment from a GOP representative…and, that’s a fact and doesn’t denigrate the source. That’s how you’re supposed to do it. Loser.
I hope you’re enjoy the financial crisis that California is currently suffering. That’s what you and your ilk have voted for the entire nation.
Here’s some other things for you to think about:
Congressional Democrats from economically struggling regions are getting frustrated as President Barack Obama backs away from campaign promises to renegotiate NAFTA.
Despite Obama’s Plea, No Compromise on Card-Check Legislation Likely – “I think that there may be areas of compromise to get this bill done,” Obama said. “I’m supportive of it. But there aren’t enough votes right now in the Senate to get it passed.
Oh, as you brought up “ball-less, bigoted little pricks,” you’re giving away your private fantasies. Don’t you hate being so effiminate, reg? I would.
May 19th, 2009 at 7:46 am
I dispute any necessity to dig into garbage just because some miserable little troll drops it on the front lawn…
You’re a racist little slimeball, utterly ignorant of economics, history and politics – and constitutionally incapable of responding with anything more “convincing” than mindless homophobia and bigotry when your ass is showing.
May 19th, 2009 at 7:53 am
reg, once again….
(More fantasies from reg: your ass is showing)
May 19th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Woody, once again…
You’re a racist little slimeball, utterly ignorant of economics, history and politics – and constitutionally incapable of responding with anything more “convincing” than mindless homophobia and bigotry when your ass is showing.
May 19th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Can it be totally coincidental that our two resident trolls are both flirting with their adversaries?
I’m speaking of Woody’s “deep reading” of Reg’s posts (queer theory comes to Atlanta?), and to Jim R’s gruff, manly grunts in Anna’s direction.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Michael, as long as you’re a government employee, should you be commenting rather than working when you’re on our time?
reg, here’s an article that I researched, just for you: LINK
May 19th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Hired News (Selections)
Will P.R. pros take the baton of investigative journalism?
May 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I’m (a) not a government employee, and (b) not on a clock.
Feel free to mail me (my lastname@lastname.org) for more.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Major metro dailies are a mixed blessing.
While they provide sustenance for hard-working journalists, who couldn’t afford the risk of pursuing longer-term investigative and enterprise-reporting type stories as freelancers, they also foment laziness and, even, arrogance.
If Marc’s description of the Citizen is accurate, sounds to me like a good riddance.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I wasn’t being serious, Michael Turmon, but I did think that you were with the JPL.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
The Tuscon Citizen’s good-bye editorial is state of the “Progressivism.” It combines narcissistic self-regard with hysterical fear of the future, contempt for the demos, and a complete lack of knowledge and interest in political economy and business. I eagerly await the NYT’s swan song.
May 20th, 2009 at 3:52 am
Why is it that right leaning news/commentary media is doing fine; WSJ, FOXN, Talk Radio, while left leaning media struggle and are dropping off like flies?
If every there were a need for the FCC to step-in with a ‘fairness’ doctrine, this situation demonstrates it. It’s just not ‘equal’…..and that’s not fair.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Of course there would be no need for government ‘help’ and ‘management’ at all if more money were allocated to improve the education of its people.
Educated them to which side is really on their side. Which side sends them free money and other stuff. Which side wants to mother, father, and wetnurse them, no strings attached….just trust them.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:54 am
‘If every there were a need…’ would be ‘If ever…’.
‘Educated them to…’ would be ‘Educate the to..’.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:43 am
WSJ is not doing fine. Like many of Murdoch’s properties it’s largely underwritten by the Film and TV divisions.
Talk Radio? Clear Channel, which bankrolls Rush and much of the wingnut right posted a 428 million dollar loss in the first quarter and has monstrous debt service that may sink it.
Of course 2 minutes of actually looking would have turned that up. Instead you’re just content to make shit up.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Randy, Rush Limbaugh’s show is profitable. Liberal talk radio is not. Look it up.
But, you assume conservative talk is the reason for Clear Channel’s P&L results rather than research the reasons.
Liberal talk radio goes down the drain without tax money…as does almost everything liberal.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Woody,
Part of CC’s problem is also the amount they pay Rush.
Terrestrial radio in general is making a beeline for the toilet. CC just laid off 2,500 people.
In 1990 I sat across the table negotiating an audit settlement with Mark Mays, his father Lowry and Herb Hill there then CFO. Given the nature of the audit and their fast and loose relationship therein, if Mark Mays said the sky was blue I’d look out the window.
In any event, your last flatulent comment shows the inherent contradiction underlying so much your nonsense: the liberal media is tanking, but the MSM is dominated by liberals.
Can’t have it both ways.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Randy: Part of CC’s problem is also the amount they pay Rush.
Randy, if I pay someone $100 but he brings in $500, am I overpaying him?
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
BTW, I didn’t say that the liberal “media” was tanking but rather liberal “talk radio.”
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