The Gang of Eight
July 21, 2010 - by
Laura Leslie of North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC is a great reporter and one of my favorite bloggers. She recently had a post about the capital media that is worth attention.
Since 2004, she wrote, the legislative press corps’ ranks have dropped from 20-something to, at the end of this year’s session, eight. That brought a sea change in how those reporters work:
“The competitive urge is still there in spades, but it’s different these days. We’ve learned to work together because, after round after round of cuts in the industry, we have to. Cooperation is the only way 8 people can keep tabs on 170 legislators, ad hoc committee meetings, and the dozens of floor amendments that fly by in a 19-hour session.”
This raises a question: Was the entire press corps’ approach to the Alcoa story influenced by UNC-TV’s Eszter Vajda, whose unedited reports were critical of the company?
Will Alcoa’s FOIA request unearth communications between Vajda and other reporters? The press corps might learn the hard way what it’s like when your emails go public.
The Gang of Eight
July 21, 2010/
Laura Leslie of North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC is a great reporter and one of my favorite bloggers. She recently had a post about the capital media that is worth attention.
Since 2004, she wrote, the legislative press corps’ ranks have dropped from 20-something to, at the end of this year’s session, eight. That brought a sea change in how those reporters work:
“The competitive urge is still there in spades, but it’s different these days. We’ve learned to work together because, after round after round of cuts in the industry, we have to. Cooperation is the only way 8 people can keep tabs on 170 legislators, ad hoc committee meetings, and the dozens of floor amendments that fly by in a 19-hour session.”
This raises a question: Was the entire press corps’ approach to the Alcoa story influenced by UNC-TV’s Eszter Vajda, whose unedited reports were critical of the company?
Will Alcoa’s FOIA request unearth communications between Vajda and other reporters? The press corps might learn the hard way what it’s like when your emails go public.