Even Less Coverage of Montana’s Congressional Delegation?

Written by: PogieMay 31st, 2008
Comments:5 Comments
Category:The Media
Rating:
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

Loading ...

This is hardly encouraging news: The Lee Newspapers are closing their one reporter bureau in Washington, D.C. that covered the Congressional delegations from Montana and Wyoming:

“To adjust to the continual rising expenses our newspapers are facing, we’ve decided to move coverage of the congressional delegation back to our newsrooms and our three-reporter state bureau in Helena, and to rely upon the Associated Press for our Washington coverage,” said IR editor John Doran.

I’ve been as critical as anyone of some of the coverage of politics done by Montana’s Lee papers, but maybe it’s too easy and unfair to criticize the reporter working the stories when corporate ownership is more interested in increasing profits than actually keeping the the news in their newspapers.

IR Issues Baucus/Abramhoff Correction

Thanks, Max

Sat, May 31, 2008

The Media

This post was written by:

Pogie - who has written 938 posts on Intelligent Discontent.

I am an English and debate teacher from Helena, MT.

Contact the author

5 Comments For This Post

Ex-reader Says:
May 31st, 2008 at 6:28 am

It’s too bad Lee Enterprises’ cost-cutting doesn’t apply to its chief executive officer, Mary Junck, who just took a 17.8% raise to a total compensation of $3.4 million. Lee’s stock value is in the toilet, and for a decade its employees were granted raises that don’t even match the inflation rate, so they’ve taken a pay cut every year. Lee’s being looted by its management, just like Montana Power.

Mark T Says:
June 1st, 2008 at 8:51 am

I had occasion to look through the Billings Gazette archives at the library some time ago, and unrelated to what I was doing began to notice coverage of the Montana delegation. It was absolutely fawning - “Big Jim” Battin, Mansfield and Metcalf - even Baucus would pay money for that kind of coverage.

These days they don’t cover them at all - just reprint their press releases, and claim they are doing their job becuase they don’t, after all, reprtin all of them. It’s cheapskae journalism, but when they had the money, when they did cover them, they didn’t do their job then either.

Pick ‘em.

Pogie Says:
June 1st, 2008 at 1:28 pm

That’s fair. I can’t say that the Washington Bureau has been especially critical of any of them, but the negatives you mention are only going to get worse with one less person reporting, I think.

Jedediah Redman Says:
June 1st, 2008 at 3:04 pm

There isn’t much which can be said about these three almost colorless and nearly motionless creatures.

Ex-reader Says:
June 1st, 2008 at 3:28 pm

I see Ed Kemmick’s City Lights blog is going dark at the Billings Gazette, too. He is one of the few Lee talents worth a daily read.

Ex-reader Says:
May 31st, 2008 at 6:28 am
It’s too bad Lee Enterprises’ cost-cutting doesn’t apply to its chief executive officer, Mary Junck, who just took a 17.8% raise to a total compensation of $3.4 million. Lee’s stock value is in the toilet, and for a decade its employees were granted raises that don’t even match the inflation rate, so they’ve taken a pay cut every year. Lee’s being looted by its management, just like Montana Power.
Mark T Says:
June 1st, 2008 at 8:51 am
I had occasion to look through the Billings Gazette archives at the library some time ago, and unrelated to what I was doing began to notice coverage of the Montana delegation. It was absolutely fawning - “Big Jim” Battin, Mansfield and Metcalf - even Baucus would pay money for that kind of coverage.

These days they don’t cover them at all - just reprint their press releases, and claim they are doing their job becuase they don’t, after all, reprtin all of them. It’s cheapskae journalism, but when they had the money, when they did cover them, they didn’t do their job then either.

Pick ‘em.
Pogie Says:
June 1st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
That’s fair. I can’t say that the Washington Bureau has been especially critical of any of them, but the negatives you mention are only going to get worse with one less person reporting, I think.
Jedediah Redman Says:
June 1st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
There isn’t much which can be said about these three almost colorless and nearly motionless creatures.
Ex-reader Says:
June 1st, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I see Ed Kemmick’s City Lights blog is going dark at the Billings Gazette, too. He is one of the few Lee talents worth a daily read.

Intelligent Discontent