Way back when we started this blog, over four years ago, we weren't up and running a week before we received an email from the Fort Worth Weekly. They were working on their article "Falling Star" about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and it's rapid decline. They asked if we thought the "news"paper had become irrelevant. With each passing day, it's more and more obvious, the answer is yes.
The FW Weekly, Durango, KERA, CBS 11 and the Fort Worth Business Press have all reported on what Durango refers to as Olivergate, concerning the latest fiasco at the Tarrant Regional Water District (Okay, not the latest fiasco, that would be them setting the levee on fire during the fireworks show).
And YOUR local paper, the one that claims to bring you the "news" has not even made mention of Olivergate. WHY?
WHY would YOUR local paper devote so much time and energy into getting the same old incumbents elected just two short months ago and then not report on what happens after? Do they have ulterior motives? A hidden agenda? WHO is keeping the sinking paper from being a real "news" paper? WHY? WHAT will happen when that question is answered?
Remember when the real newspaper to the east apologized to its readers? It manned up and admitted it had been lied to by the politicians and therefore misled voters on a boondoggle. Do you think sales of the S-T would increase if they became a real "news" paper again?
As usual, if you want to know the scoop, check out Durango. Sometimes the man outdoes himself.
Local TV has covered the Olivergate Scandal. The Fort Worth Business Press has editorialized in an editorial titled "Outrageous. Infuriating. Unacceptable." that Jim Oliver needs to resign or be fired. While the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not said a word about the Olivergate Scandal.
And now, after well over a decade of the TRV Boondoggle, what has J.D. Granger wrought? The world's premiere urban wakeboard lake. The world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st Century. Weekly happy hour inner tube floats. An imaginary world class music venue called Panther Island Pavilion. A 4th of July fireworks extravaganza which lit the Trinity River levees on fire. And a restaurant.
Oh. I almost forgot something else the TRV Boondoggle has wrought, as in dozens of businesses and property owners left in stress and financial straits via the abuse of eminent domain to take property for an un-needed flood diversion channel.
A lot of people think there is some conspiracy or coverup as to why newspapers do what they do. I've worked at them, and that is not the case. What happens -- and the resoan they are irrelevant today -- is they are afraid of doing ANYTHING that is going to piss ANYONE off. That includes the powers that be mostly, but they have always been that way. What they do not do now is look out for the public in all sorts of issues in any way, because that takes time and bodies and a will to do it. They figure that doing nothing has less risk than doing something. How wrong they are. How long does it take to read the S-T these days. Five minutes? They are losing readers -- in part because of the online world choices people have -- but mostly because they have nothing to say. That is bad for the community, but it is also bad business. They will be gone soon enough, and years later people will look back and wonder why they approached their business they way they did.
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