WHAT A DIFFERENCE LOCATION MEANS!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE LOCATION MEANS!

(Green Bay Press Gazette/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Chicago Tribune/Frazer Chronicle)

 

It is really interesting how a newspaper seems to mirror their communities’ attitudes with regards to the local news that is covered. Here in Green Bay it’s the Green Bay Packers first, in the middle, and at the end. During the season, the football season (is there any other) you’d swear that the local newspaper, the Green Bay Press Gazette was a major shareholder of the team.

 

During the season, almost every day, the front page of the sports section is headlined by Packer stories, their transactions, “even if one of the players has the runs,” and a continuing barrage of news, non-news, and what is called “filler articles,” stories with little or no purpose, but fill out a page.

 

The front page of the Press Gazette also reflects the importance put on the Packers in the community not only by the local fan, but the newspaper itself. Headlines about the Packers are a weekly routine, and I’m sure the coverage is popular with many, many readers in the entire region. I’m sure the newspaper uses this ”tool” to enhance sales…..and it is a service, but guess what, real news, real coverage of important issues suffer about as often as Packer stories appear on the pages of the paper.

 

I’m a sports fan, I root for the Packers just as much as my next door neighbor…..except when they play the Lions, but I also want to know what’s going on in the city as well as the region, and that is where the Press Gazette fails on all counts.

 

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION:

Have you ever been to Chicago, well I have…..way too many times, I’ve been lost there, spent a couple of days there, toured the Sears Tower, some of the downtown sections, “ya gotta know what the different colored zones are to safely travel there,” and was awe struck with the beautiful buildings, their size, and their regal appearance.

 

Chicago is a wonderful city, and if you’re in the right parts of town, a tremendous experience. I remember taking a trip with a baseball team from Northern Michigan to Chicago, getting lost…..and low on gasoline…..not a good thing on a Sunday night. Getting directions and gasoline was like being in a “killing zone.” Windows were grated, there was a little square to either pay in cash or drop your credit card in, and the directions…..well let’s just say, we found our own way out.

 

I checked this morning’s headlines out on the Chicago Tribune’s online site and was astounded at the headlines. Murder, rape, thugs, rip-offs, rap feuds, thievery, headlines that do not appear in my local paper. The city has a problem, clearly any community that is billed as “Murder Capitol of the United States,” has issues that really…..really need addressing.

 

Again, the cities’ newspaper clearly reflects what is important to their community, anytime you count in the hundreds the deaths of kids under the age of 20, something is graphically wrong with a large section of the population. The actions of a few, speak volumes of what is wrong with an out of control segment of Chicago’s citizenry who, mostly are under the age of 25.

 

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE BANK!

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about a hundred twenty miles south of Green Bay is another example of how a newspaper mirrors its community, and potential readers. There is hardly a week that goes by without a story of some state of federal agency getting ripped off, or some service group absconding with funds that were meant for disadvantaged folks.

 

I know every community has to, is, or has dealt with unscrupulous organizations or key members in alleged absconding with funds, paid the wrong people, or have been lax in how their organizations were being run.

 

I like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I think that their paper is newsy, informative, and digs at the truth on a myriad of issues. In addition, they seem to have an investigative attitude and really root out stories on abuse by individuals, organizations, and don’t really care who the people are…..they just report the news.

 

Their latest jaunt into the darker side of government is how a state funded, “taxpayers” job-creation agency has lost (potential) millions of dollars because nobody was tracking who borrowed the money, where it went, and exactly who was repaying the loans.

 

If Chicago is the murder capitol of the nation, then I guess maybe Milwaukee would be the corruption capitol of the nation. Clearly corruption, mismanagement or ineptness in government or private benevolent agencies is running at an unchecked breakneck pace.

 

There has been and is corruption in local government, in Governor Walkers appointed officials in the city and county police departments, and even on the judicial levels. It is abundantly clear that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is taking advantage of the foolish business practices, the ethics of individuals, and the greed in community hierarchy.

 

The Milwaukee newspaper is doing it’s job in a credible manner, placing focus on a troubling aspect of the greater Milwaukee community with regards to those people seeming intent on ripping off taxpayers two ways, taking the tax money that Milwaukee residents pay for services, and then ripping of those people who need those services.

 

TROUBLE IN DREAMLAND:

Ah Traverse City, Michigan, a wonderful, beautiful place to live…..if ya got the money to do so, the fantasy that Traverse City is not touched by urban blight, homeless people, or that programs for the poor are being cut, or erased altogether truly is a facility.

 

The Traverse City Record Eagle is not one of my favorite newspapers, in my opinion the regions only daily paper is like a “homer umpire,” they make calls that please the home team. I lived my formative years in this beautiful northern Michigan community, tucked away from the big city squabbles, injustices and corruptions.

 

Like everybody else, I knew that the city and region had some of the same problems as the bigger communities to the south, cities like Lansing, Grand Rapids or Detroit. But whatever the problems Traverse City and the region had, we could overlook because they weren’t quite as bad as those down state metropolitan areas.

 

But come to find out, Traverse City does have some of the same big time problems as the rest of us have. Homelessness is viewed like some sort of unmentionable, and now there is a real possibility that a “wheel” has come off the Meals on Wheels program.

 

Meals on Wheels feed poor, elderly folks that have no other access to a decent well balanced meal, even if it’s only once a day. Let’s face the facts of life, for many old people; a visit from a “meal wheeler” is the only contact they get with the outside world.

 

Although Traverse City has a population of less than 20,000, it is a hub community, serving more than 100,000 visitors on at least a weekly basis. There is a cultured atmosphere and attitude that the community portrays, and it is exhibited with pride…..as it should.

 

But the hard hitting reporting of the Record Eagle on these two major issues is to be commended, possibly the paper is moving more towards reporting what I suppose could be called the “underbelly of the community and region.”

 

The issues, stories and the reporting of them are crucial to people of any community understand, reacting, and actually moving on some of the more important issues of the day. People in this day and age still do rely on the printed media. Coming home after days’ work, drinking a beer and reading the newspaper after supper is still popular.

 

Rising in the morning, cup of coffee in hand, and a newspaper in the other is a world-wide habit that won’t be broken unless the printed media allows it. For me, reading newspaper articles is how I get my information, it’s what I base my blogs on, it’s also how I conduct certain portions of my life.

 

Remember that the next time you pick up a newspaper at your local supermarket, newsstand, or read the day old stuff at your local library. Printed material is still important in the 21^st century, newspapers need to remember that.