The New News

Update and Correction Below


I picked up a copy of the Lindsborg News Record for August 30th.

Top story, graphics above the fold - no photo from the meeting, but a large graphic representation of Abercrombie's plan - was the remodeling proposal for the Sundstrom building.

You read it here on the 20th. You read it in the LNR on the 30th.

First item in Valley Voice - notice on the new stop signs on Grant street, along with a convoluted explanation on why Grant Street at those 3 intersections. You read it there on the 30th. You read it here on the 24th. There, no photos. Here two photos.

Want to know about the Boxing Club? The Prairie Trail byway? Helen's closing of Lindsborg Antiques? You won't find out about that in the LNR, apparently. Read the blog, this is the new news.

No, you haven't read about the Boxing Club - yet - that's coming next week when I go there with two of the Bethany Messenger reporters.

Update and Correction

I was incorrect on the date on which I first published news about the Sundstrom building. It was the 24th and not the 20th. I should have consulted my archive before making a boast. Thanks to Dan Carr of the LNR for the correction.

A little crow eating

Before I go on to Midsommar festivities, I need to make a public apology. Julie Ann pointed out that the Lindsborg News Record did publish my article on Cody Whetstone and Damn Yankees on page five of this week's LNR. I have egg on my face. I have to eat crow. I am sorry. Whatever I need to say, it is now clear that it was NOT personal. The LNR did include Broadway RFD. Whatever I was feeling is my own paranoia and not reality.

It's beginning to feel personal

I glanced through the Lindsborg News Record today. I may have missed it, but I didn't see anything about Damn Yankees, the summer 2007 Broadway RFD production. I wrote and sent a press release to the LNR - or at least I think I did - I used the same e-mail address I used last summer.

The LNR refused to publish anything about Talley's Folly, the show I directed for the college. That was frustrating. I was told that they didn't publish because we mentioned prices and hadn't purchased an ad. Bad journalism. Almost every paper I know of keeps a dividing line between the business and the news, so that we don't have all the news that money can buy. The exception was the LA Times a year or two ago. A new publisher wanted to do what the LNR does as a matter of policy, and the journalists at the paper raised a stink. So did the Columbia Journalism Review and a number of other journalism commentators.

However, knowing the policy meant that I would abide by it. So I sent a press release about the show and the Membership Party on Sunday, June 23rd. Nothing about money in the release. In fact, the Membership Party is free and open to the public. I sent a photo of Cody Whetstone. I got the release to the paper early - Wednesday morning. Nothing. So, is it me? Am I on a banned person's list because I dare to say that there are things about the New Record that could be improved. I also defend some of the things that others criticize. But I have to wonder if it is a personal issue.

I have sent another press release for next week's paper. This one is accompanied by a photo of Rachel Bouza, the same photo I've posted here. I won't be in town to see the photo, so somebody tell me whether or not it shows up in the press. Then I'll know that it wasn't me, but a genuine news judgment that kept notice out of this week's paper.