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Michaelle Frey
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09/16/04 Local Recorder posing as Big
Time Reporter
The rag tag consortium of aginners in Arlington who
are trying to save their city from getting ripped off by Grandpa Jerry Jones
will be learning the hard way not to expect fair coverage of their side of the
fight.
On their website, The Dallas Managed
News posted the text of Ch. 8's
Yolanda Walker's story about the not-surprising announcement that the Arlington
Convention and Visitors Bureau would be supporting Grandpa Jones. How in
the world is that a news event?
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Arlington CVB votes to support stadium proposal
Opposition vows grass-roots effort before Nov. 2 ballot
Tuesday, September 14,
2004 By
YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA-TV
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The Arlington Convention and Visitors
Bureau voted Monday to support a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys.
Board members
said it will improve Arlington's tourism by bringing visitors to the city
year-round.
..."Our focus is to get people to the polls to vote with us," said
opponent Bruce Deramus. "We can't compete with Jerry Jones' dollars, so how
we're going to do it is by our grass roots."
... The Cowboys organization is spending $10
million on its campaign, which includes several color mailers sent to voters
to tout the benefits.
... "One way the city can
grow out of budget issues or make life better in the city is to think on a
long-term basis about growing the overall pie," said John McMichael,
chairman of the ACVB board of directors. "I think that's what this project
has a great potential to do."
... "Taxpayers should not be asked to
subsidize and underwrite a private enterprise," said opponent Paul McConahy.
...
Also Online
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It shocked me that Walker
let the CVB's statement stand claiming "it will improve Arlington's tourism by
bringing visitors to the city year-round". How many tourists go to
any area to see a football stadium? When was the last time you took a trip
to a city, or even a side trip to go see a sports stadium? Sports
facilities are not tourist draws and they drain off the same jock-sniffer pool
that are already spending their money watching grown men play a boy's game.
It doesn't do any good to have
a thought and not share it, so I sent "Reporter" Walker the following:
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Re:
Arlington CVB votes to support stadium
proposal
Ms. Walker:
Why do you allow a statement like the visitor's bureau claim of economic
gain for Arlington stand?
You have several examples of such empty promises -- Reunion Arena, the
Hicks/Perot Arena, the Ball Park. These projects never paid back the
investment, much less generated the promised
economic boom or stirred development.
Why not ask one of those blowhards to tell you
where that return has happened in the Southwest or anywhere else?
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Ms. Walker actually called me.
She got very defensive and said she's "not an investigative reporter".
I said to let an interviewee make a statement that she should know has no basis
is just "recording" not "reporting". Well, I was told immediately that she
knows what she's doing, that she has a 4-year college degree. When I said
I also had a 4-year degree, she said "you are not a reporter". Another
shocker!
One reason we have so many problems in this city (as that high dollar DMN-funded study of City Hall confirms) is that our biggest media outlet (all
things Belo) cuts corners and puts some people on stories that they are totally
unprepared to cover.
Without a doubt, Dave Levinthal and Emily Ramshaw are as good as any reporters
who have ever covered City Hall for Belo's DMN. Chris Heinbaugh and Brett
Shipp also are great reporters for Belo's Ch. 8. What makes them good
"reporters" is that they are smart and up-to-speed on the issues they cover.
When one of them hears a statement that has no basis, any one of these 4 good
"reporters" would challenge the speaker for some specifics. That's what a
"reporter" does.
A "recorder" just runs a tape and plays it back to us. Helpful, yes, but
nothing a good camera man couldn't do. |
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John Willis:
I had to laugh when you said
Well, I may not be a "trained"
reporter/recorder like Yolanda Walker, but I think it is more important to
challenge the pronouncements of Our Downtown Betters (whether they are in
Dallas or Arlington) than just to accept anything they say as factual.
Ms. Walker may call herself a trained
reporter, but in actuality she lacks something
my good English teacher (High
School sophomore) did her best to teach.
What was that? Critical reasoning. To think
for oneself. Willingness to ask questions,
hard ones if necessary.
I've learned four (or more) years of
college level work oftentimes fails to teach the student, despite the piece
of paper that vouches for their attendance.
All you have to do to get a college degree is attend and
make a minimal effort. Sounds like Ms.
Walker did the minimum required. If she had done
more, she would know to look past the sound bites
in an effort to uncover underlying agendas. That
takes critical reasoning skills, which is something I'm sure the
Belo would rather she
avoid, hence her assignment to this story... |
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Assigning someone like Walker to cover the Arlington stadium campaign is a
statement by Belo as to its importance.
We simply cannot depend on the professional media for news of local issues.
Without DallasArena.com, Dallas.org, BarkingDogs.com, etc., there would be no
way to get the real news out to concerned community activists.
Our Mayor was able to block Princess Velveeta's plans to raise our taxes for
"beautification" projects, but too much of this budget will go for unnecessary
"pretty face" stuff and not not for basic services or employee raises.
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I do not understand how Send Me Some Money Loza was able to get spousal
benefits for gay employees when all employees will see their health
insurance premiums go up again. It was more than generous of the
police and firefighters to offer delaying their raises if the city would
match the savings and apply it toward all health insurance premiums.
That's where the DP $$ should have gone -- not to curry political chips for
John Loza's future political goals. |
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James Northrup:
Soda Pop Windfall -
The way the Council divvied
up the soda pop windfall was telling, wasn't it?
Money for gay couples, but not a dime to meet
the cops' offer.
If the City provides subsidies for
gay couples, why not for hetero
couples? I have no problem with gays, but I do have problems
with how the City squanders money on political frivolities. |
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Avi Adelman of www.BarkingDogs.org distributed a fascinating
article that talks about "urban liberals" who ignore real problems like
decaying infrastructure and high crime rates, but will spend money on arts and "prettying
up" projects.
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Sewer Socialism: Cities
need a back-to-basics strategy. Catering to art-loving yuppies just won't
work.
Joel Kotkin
Los Angeles Times -
9/12/04
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Not too long ago, U.S. elections were
determined ? and sometimes stolen ? in cities. In the 21st century, however,
the nation's major urban areas have become largely politically peripheral,
except as stages for national party conventions.
... Missing today from national and local
agendas is anything remotely resembling the progressivism that spurred the
successful evolution of U.S. cities in the last century. Sometimes dubbed "sewer
socialism," this program for development started at the municipal
level and aimed to repair the legacy of the Industrial Revolution. From
small, faded industrial cities like Bridgeport, Conn., to Los Angeles,
enlightened administrations ? sometimes led by labor-oriented socialists,
other times by business-oriented "progressives" ?
cleaned up disease-ridden environments with new sanitation systems, created
municipal-owned water and power systems, developed parks and upgraded
education systems.
... Cities' declining political clout is reflected
in the state of urban policy. The focus now is
on what sociologist John Kasarda calls "visual
prosperity" ? the attempt to dress up urban areas with fancy edifices,
cultural attractions and high-end housing.
"Patronage aside, Democratic Party
policy in the cities," said Fred Siegel, professor of urban history at New
York's Cooper Union, "often boils down to how to attract the beautiful
people."
The policies of many of the brightest
stars in the Democratic firmament ? Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, Denver
Mayor John W. Hickenlooper and Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm ? seem
predicated on this beautiful-people principle. All emphasize the creation of
cafe districts, arts entertainment and culture palaces as the best means to
revive urban centers. In Los Angeles, Mayor James K. Hahn is similarly
hitching his legacy to a $2-billion double feature for the leisure class ?
the proposal for the ersatz Champs-Elys?s on Grand Avenue and the glitzy LA
Live project around Staples Center.
There is an alternative to the
culture-and-arts approach to revive declining cities. It's sewer socialism,
a back-to-basics strategy that encourages business investment and the
development of healthy neighborhoods....
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He did not include Dallas, but
he should have. Don't you hate being a clich?
We spend 10% of all public projects (including the new animal shelter) on
art work.
Look at Uptown! Look at Deep Ellum. All those interesting stores,
restaurants, etc. sitting on top of a crumbling sewer system that is actually
contaminating the buildings we are so proud of preserving.
Paul Kix has been in Dallas
less than a year, and he is more in tune and up to speed with what's going on
than Yolanda Walker will ever be -- and she's been
recording for WFAA for years.
We will spend $500,000 on art
for the walls in the tunnel between the garage and the terminal at Love Field,
but city officials want to charge the property owners and businesses in Deep
Ellum a bunch of money to hook into a new sewer system. Not to mention
that huge tax rebate the council approved for two millionaires to remodel their
multi-million dollar home.
Mr. Kotkin's essay is totally descriptive of 2004 Dallas. All show and no
substance. A city where we care more out our "cosmopolitan image" than
public safety. A city where we try to pretty up a river when we can't take
care of our existing stock of parks and parkland.
Don't you wish Laura Miller was doing a DMN column or had a Sunday afternoon TV
show (that she could record whenever convenient)? Now, I mean Our Laura
Miller, not the Stepford Wife Laura Miller. I would love to hear Our
Mayor's weekly report on what she tried to accomplish that week and which
council crook threw up obstacles.
Well, I may not be a "trained" reporter/recorder like Yolanda Walker, but I
think it is more important to challenge the pronouncements of Our Downtown
Betters (whether they are in Dallas or Arlington) than just to accept anything
they say as factual.
sb
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