Pat Political

Two real journalists!

More on the media--

I’ve done so much media bashing lately that it is a pleasure to tell you about two men who have done a really good job in reporting about all the candidates for governor-- Greg Guma of The Vermont Guardian and James Jardine of the Caledonia-Record. Both men are real journalists, able to deal with describing the positions of the various candidates in an even handed way and without any of the editorializing that seems to characterize so much newspaper writing today.

I wish I could speak as kindly of my own hometown paper-- the Times-Argus-- which once again has declined to publish even a small paragraph in the local news section regarding my candidacy.

Candidate Coverage

I had the pleasure Friday afternoon of talking with Jim Hogue and Hardy Machia of the Libertarian Party who was being interviewed by Jim, and I am looking forward to meeting Hardy in person when we are together at the Candidates’ debate Monday at Channel 17 in Burlington..

WGDR, Goddard College’s eclectic and inclusive radio station, is presently offering air time on any of its local origin programs to any candidate for state and local office who wishes to call in and speak with the host of the program. Anyone wanting to take advantage of this opportunity should telephone the college at 802/454-7367.

Goddard College and Channel 17 both are serving the public interest as no other radio station or TV channel in the state is doing.

Vermont Public Radio is once again bypassing the women who are on the ballot as gubernatorial candidates, and it pretty much ignores candidates for other offices who are not the two or three it seems to have decided are the “important” ones.

Public TV offers each of the candidates for the office of governor four advertising spots during the month of October, which is indeed public service. But it hosts its Super Sunday debates with all the candidates for state office barely two days before the election. And these are undoubtedly the most important debates of the entire election season because they are seen everywhere in Vermont. If this were a true public service, these debates would be held no later than the first week in October so that voters would have time to think about what they had seen and heard, do further research on candidates, and make truly informed decisions when they vote. Public TV has a great Friday night show This Week in Vermont. But as I listened tonight they were discussing the statewide campaigns as though each was a contest between two or three people with not even a mention of the fact that there are from two to four other names on the ballot for each office.

Of the big newspapers, The Burlington Free Press offers the best candidate coverage, while smaller publications like The Vermont Guardian and Seven Days are as good or even better in what they give us.

But in general our news media have substituted editorializing for actual news. The fact that so many candidates have worked to get their names on the ballot and their reasons for doing this is news. But we are not offered this news. Instead we get an editorial judgment about what is important and that is fed to us as news..

Yes, I am criticizing you who are supposed to keep us informed, you the media. In the course of being a candidate two times now, I have met many angry Vermonters, who feel that they have been disenfranchised. A good part of the blame for why so many Vermonters do not vote lies with you.

VPR Candidate Coverage

You may have heard me on Vermont Public Radio last night. I called in while the Liberty Union Party was on with a question for them, but also for the host Bob Kinzel. He has now had all the men on the gubernatorial candidates’ slate on his program, either in a debate or an interview format. What I wanted to know was whether this was the end of his governor coverage. There are still two candidates, women, Cris Ericson and myself, who have not been mentioned by Mr. Kinzel as being candidates nor have I been offered any radio time. I shall ask Cris when I see her at the Channel 17 debate Monday how she has fared. Mr. Kinzel never answered my question about possible gender discrimination but quickly identified me and said that I now had air time in which I could provide contact information. And I did. This was a clever tactical move on his part, but most certainly not the answer to why the three women candidates on the ballot in 2002 and the two of us in 2004 have received neither mention nor air time; What is it VPR? Some sort of editorial judgment about the worth of any ideas we might have? Or some sort of real gender discrimination?