Usually timid Reading Eagle publishes letter blasting all Latinos

“It is time for the Latino community to stop whining and contribute to our country,” a letter to the editor in the Reading Eagle said Thursday. “Every time I am with friends who grew up in Reading, our talk goes to the Latino community. It is bringing this country to its knees,” Richard Smith of Sinking Spring continued in his letter.

Wow! I’m glad America permits such speech to be published, compared to some countries where it would be censored.

But I wouldn’t publish that kind of venom in any publication I had control of.

Sure I’ll defend your right to say it, but get your own printing press!

To intelligent and educated people from out of the area, maybe considering Berks as a place to move their families or locate a business, or just to people who like to have fun, the Reading Eagle must make us look pretty hick.

Berks Community Television posts its policy on comments (which I put into the same category as letters to the editor) on its website:

“When commenting, you may not use profanity, make personal attacks or use libelous, hateful, harassing or sexual language.

"We will remove content we deem inappropriate.”

What IS the Eagle’s policy on publishing letters?

Does it publish all of those it gets, or does someone decide which ones? If the latter, who and how?

If the Eagle rejects your letter, please send it to me! I'll post it, unless it blames America's problems on one ethnic group.

Does the number of letters to the editors about religion really represent how many people write in about religion?

Just since Monday, the Eagle has published these letters (its headlines) about Christian faith:

• Jesus would be more accepting
• There is a God who answers prayers
• Answers found in the Bible
• Writer seemed to be reaching out for help (Paul said, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.")
• Saints suffered to enter heaven

The paper seems to have decided to not accept comments on its website, unusual for local newspapers. The Eagle’s comment-writers used to focus on issues more relevant to most readers than theology.

Leaders should demand that our local newspaper, the face of our community, make transparent its policies on publishing input from its readers.

The problem is not apathetic public, but lazy media

It’s true – people don’t give a hoot about local journalism, even though local journalism is so important it’s protected in the Constitution.

We can’t force people to read the stuff – so it’s up to news organizations to work harder to show why the news they publish is interesting, relevant and important. They have to think harder to find better ways to show readers how new facts relate to things the readers already know and care about. 

Here are some quotes from a new book by Alain de Botton, “The News: A User's Manual”:

“The problem with facts is that there is nowadays no shortage of sound examples. The issue is not that we need more of them, but that we don't know what to do with the ones we have.

“What should be laudable in a news organization is not a simple capacity to collect facts, but a skill — honed by intelligent bias — at teasing out their relevance.

“Central to modern politics is the majestic and beautiful idea that every citizen is — in a small but highly significant way — the ruler of his or her own nation. The news has a central role to play in the fulfillment of this promise, for it is the conduit through which we meet our leaders, judge their fitness to direct the state, and evolve our positions on the most urgent economic and social challenges of the day. Far from being incidental features of democracies, news organizations are their guarantors.

“But the modern world is teaching us that there are dynamics far more insidious and cynical still than censorship in draining people of political will; these involve confusing, boring,and distracting the majority away from politics by presenting events in such a disorganized, fractured, and intermittent way that a majority of the audience is unable to hold on to the thread of the most important issues for any length of time.

“A contemporary dictator would not need to do anything so obviously sinister as banning the news: He or she would only have to see to it that news organizations broadcast a flow of random-sounding bulletins, in great numbers but with little explanation of context, within an agenda that kept changing, without giving any sense of the ongoing relevance of an issue that had seemed pressing only a short while before, the whole interspersed with constant updates about the colorful antics of murderers and film stars. This would be quite enough to undermine most people's capacity to grasp political reality — as well as any resolve they might otherwise have summoned to alter it. The status quo could confidently remain forever undisturbed by a flood of, rather than a ban on, news.

“A popular perception that political news is boring is no minor issue; for when news fails to harness the curiosity and attention of a mass audience, a society becomes dangerously unable to grapple with its own dilemmas and therefore to marshal the popular will to change and improve itself.

“But the answer isn't just to intimidate people into consuming more ‘serious’ news; it is to push so-called serious outlets into learning to present important information in ways that can properly engage audiences.”

Why didn’t the Reading Eagle challenge Jerry Knowles on his BS?

Why don’t the Reading Eagle’s smart, capable and experienced reporters challenge officials and lawmakers when they say something stupid or inaccurate?

Is it because nobody expects real journalism from the local newspaper, and asking tough questions is such hard work?

In a story Friday, reporter Mary Young interviewed Republican state Rep. Jerry Knowles about his plans to run for re-election in the 124^th District, representing 60,451 people -- about 26,750 of them in northern Berks.

"I'm a very conservative guy,” he told her. “I don't think you should spend more than you have. I follow the same philosophy in government as I do in my own home.”

That comment shows me he’s a liar or an idiot.

Young should have asked him if he’s never borrowed to buy a home, buy a vehicle, send a son or daughter to college, or start a business.

And to equate household finance with federal borrowing is inane.

Young and Knowles both know the economy would never grow if people, companies and governments couldn’t borrow money. So why perpetuate that silly conservative blather?

We’d know more about the people we elect if Reading Eagle reporters would press them even a little on what they say and do, rather than simply writing down and publishing whatever they bloviate.

And how about the editorial’s headline Friday: “Republicans ensure no government shutdown for a year.”

Yay!! Thank God for Republicans!! :)

Reading Eagle suggests Obamacare helped push out medical-device manufacturer

Does the Reading Eagle think Obamacare was a reason Surgical Specialties decided to move to Mexico?

That’s a message in Matthew Nojiri’s story about U.S. Sen.Pat Toomey and U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts touring Reading Hospital (in scrubs! How cute!):

“While talking with reporters, Pitts and Toomey also blasted the federal Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

“They particularly criticized the rollout of Healthcare.gov, which both called ‘a disaster,’ and a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices.

“Their comments came after Surgical Specialties, a Vancouver, British Columbia, manufacturer of surgical devices, announced it would be closing its Exeter Township plant sometime in mid-2015 and laying off 265 employees.

" ‘It's a job killer,’ Pitts said of the device tax. ‘What is happening to a lot of medical device companies is they are growing overseas.’ " 

But when the Eagle's Business Editor Karen Miller asked Mark Sherman, vice president of human resources at Surgical Specialties, he didn’t mention Obamacare: “Sherman cited the company’s decision to improve its long-term financial strength, given the economic climate, as the reason for the move.”

Lots of Berks companies closed or left before Obamacare was adopted.

Obviously Toomey and Pitts are conservative Republicans, who as a group have dedicated themselves to trashing the new health-care program.

So did the lawmakers make the spurious connection between Obamacare and the flight of Surgical Specialties? Nojiri isn’t clear.

Or did the reporter, despite the sensitivity of the issue, drop it in gratuitously, and his editor and then the copy editor and copy chief and proofreader just let it slide?

It’s a minor mistake, but these are the types of gaffes that discourage people from taking local journalism – the most important journalism – seriously.

Beyond the Travel section ...

Thousands of people in Reading have a connection with the Dominican Republic. Many of them might be interested that Vice President Joe Biden is going to meet DR President Danilo Medina next month.

And that Danilo has announced he won’t run for re-election.

But they wouldn’t have found out in the Reading Eagle, as far as I can tell. A Dominican man told me about the news. I don’t remember seeing it in the local newspaper, and could find mention of neither event using the Eagle website’s search engine.

The Census says Reading has about 9,600 people of Dominican heritage, give or take 1,000. That’s about one in eight city residents. 

Why would the paper ignore the interests of such a big part of the community while giving us headlines such as (from Monday) “Workers break concrete pour record” and “Abbas signals flexibility on refugees”? 

If the reason is, they don’t buy newspapers, well, why not try to attract them by acknowledging them in your publication?

[How did WFMZ scoop the Eagle on 265 jobs to be lost because Surgical Specialties, in Exeter, plans to move to Mexico?]

Absurd behavior of local TV stations

Don’t read the Reading Eagle to learn about important local stuff? Do you instead get your local news from WFMZ, the television station?

Here is a clear, brief and funny article about how silly so much TV news is. As Jeff Jarvis describes it, you wonder how professionals could seriously behave like this.

The Eagle has had two good stories this week. One focused on the need for bilingual police officers in Reading. 

I think the reporter could have given Chief Heim a little more space to explain how hard is it to attract qualified minority employees to a podunk like Reading, a problem the newsroom has grappled with.

The other explained how the bad weather has diminished the supply of blood.

It’s funny, though, that the Eagle included the website addresses for the Red Cross -- giveapint.org and redcrossblood.org – but didn’t insert the links. What, are we supposed to cut and paste them? Including obvious links in your text is Web Management 101, and the omission suggests the Eagle leaders would be happy if this whole Internet thing just stopped.

Mike Urban is a really smart, hardworking, insightful reporter and a very strong, clear writer. I wish he wrote about more substantive matters.

I hope the reporters – who are out on the streets developing contacts and sources – choose their own stories. It would be sad if all the stories were simply assigned by editors who think they know what needs covering.

I read the 'news' today, oh boy ...

I love the Beatles. I have all of their recordings and a book about them. If I want to know more about them, I visit the library or Internet.

Someone at the Reading Eagle decided devoting hours of staff time and three days of prime newspaper real estate to the old rock band would sell newspapers.

Why can’t the media leaders in Berks experiment with producing good journalism to try to sell papers? What this area really needs is news about this area, not fluff. Original content about local events is rare and valuable.

This after the Eagle’s online editor Adam Richter laments in a column, “When we restricted full access to our website to paid subscribers, part of the outcry went something like: ‘I won't visit readingeagle.com anymore. I'll get my news from Google.’ “

Who would you visit to learn about the Beatles?

I depend on the local paper for things I can’t find in the library or online.

Here are some topics I wish the Reading Eagle would investigate, rather than the Beatles. And none of them needs a three-part megaturd – just regular coverage so we know what’s going on in Berks County.

I’ll agree, it’s all much less fun than the Beatles. But if the quality of life in Berks and Reading is going to improve to the point that our children want to live here, good journalism has to be part of the solution.

• How are our libraries funded? Is it enough? Why do some townships donate a lot and some donate nothing?
• How many “bad air” ozone days did Berks have in 2013? More or fewer than in 2012?
• What is Berks doing about its lead-pollution problems?
• What’s new with Our City Reading, the non-profit run by Al Boscov that spends millions of Reading’s federal grant money every year? Does the Eagle ever sit in on its board meetings?
• What’s new with Ricktown, the ballyhooed arts district proposed near the GoggleWorks? How many artists have moved in?
• What’s new with the Buttonwood Gateway project, where Our City Reading and the Reading Redevelopment Authority own lots of property?
• What’s new with the GoggleWorks? It seems to survive on huge contributions. Will it ever be able to stand alone?
• What is Reading doing with the properties it bought downtown, other than putting up an ugly, intrusive chain link fence?
• What is the city’s history with buying and selling major properties?
• Does Reading have an economic development plan? MayorSpencer said we'll see Phase II in mid-March. What was Phase I?
• What do parents and teachers think about what’s going on with Reading School District? How are parents involved? How active are the PTOs?
• How does the district teach Spanish-speakers? Why does it graduate students who can hardly form a written English sentence?
• What do the advisers think of Reading’s progress or lack of it under Act 47?
• How did Reading get so horribly gerrymandered (look at a map) as to be stuck in a district where no Democrat's vote counts? How is that affecting politics now?
• Are more or fewer agricultural properties being preserved?
• How are county services performing? How are the prison and retirement home held accountable for safety and effective programs? Do they measure up? How about all the private nursing homes?
• Is it easy to get public documents from local governments?

• If a mother on Medicaid moves to Berks, what are her health-care options?
• What’s up with the Latino Chamber of Commerce? What are its plans and activities?

Websites about Berks: Well-told, very personal stories, and a new business blog

I’ve added two links to my list of sites with original content about Berks County.

Please let me know about others.

Berks Story Project

Dave Walker and Jane Palmer team up on a website that lives up to its promise – a growing collection of videos telling extraordinary personal stories about ordinary people who live around here. The production is simple but expert, always considering the needs of the narrative and the viewer. The videos are brief but never rushed.

We’re in Business: The business blog of the Reading Eagle

Dan Fink, editor of the Reading Eagle’s business weekly, launches a blog using Wordpress. He comments on the effect of gas drilling on the labor market, and on Bob Dylan selling cars. Fink’s choice of platform underlines how easy it is for journalists to attractively spread the news. As always, the hard part of journalism is digging up facts.

How did the newspaper get this photo?

This is an amazing photo of a robbery suspect in Sunday’s Reading Eagle.

It appears she stole a phone in West Reading and took a selfie, which somehow got sent to cloud storage so the police could retrieve it.

If so, the robber is pretty dumb.                                      

Also, what a great newspaper story that would make!

Most crime stories are entertainment. Lists of most-read stories in local media are crowded with stories about trouble. I doubt they are read mostly out of sympathy for the victims. Stories about violent crime, fires and car wrecks have action, conflict, juicy details – what every reader wants.

Well, not this story. We’re left to our imaginations.

(Sensitivity alert! Describing suspects merely by their race tends to bolster prejudice and is bad journalism.)

Over-the-top headline underscores shoddy journalism

According to Sunday’s Reading Eagle, heroin has a tight grip on Berks County.

The paper’s big headline is false. Cocaine caudillo Pablo Escobar had a tight grip on Colombia. It’s not so bad in Berks. But it’s so much easier to write a scary headline than to prove it.

The paper clearly violates one of the Society of Professional Journalism’s ethical tenets:

“Journalists should make certain that headlines ... do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.”

The reporter gives only one fact supporting the claim that heroin has a grip on Berks – heroin deaths have risen from six in 2007 to 23 in 2013.

Most reporters know that is misleading to represent changes in small numbers in a large population – Berks has more than 400,000 people – because such changes are statistically insignificant.

When I wrote a similar story in December 2012, treatment centers told me they were seeing more people hooked on prescription drugs. It would have been interesting to see what they say now. And the reporter could have asked how many people are treated for narcotics in emergency rooms.

Shoddy reporting on a sensational topic again shows that Berks needs better journalism.

If you are worried about prescription drugs leading to heroin use, tell your state lawmaker you support a law that would let doctors check an online database to see if patients are getting painkillers from other doctors. It seems like a no-brainer, though Big Pharma probably has some good reasons to keep the status quo.