Vermont Media Watch, Part 1

June 6, 2008

My friend, Boots, tells me that I shouldn’t be paying attention to the media this time of year. It’s an unnecessary distraction to the “real work” that needs to get done. He’s right, of course. But I can’t help it. As soon as the Vermont chapter of Media Anonymous opens, I promise to be the first to sign up for the ten-step program to rid myself of the sheer ninniness of it all. “My name is Mike, and I am addicted to pop-news.” Please, can’t someone help me?

But, for now, I’m just stuck on yet another media bender – taking it in and annoying the hell out of everyone around me for repeating it as if it matters. Of course, it’s all the worse because I’m living in what has to be the most barren media environment in the U.S. Opening a Vermont newspaper – even the so-called “alternatives” – is like walking into an ice cream shop and seeing nothing but vanilla. Eat it. It’s all they’ve got.

The closeness and coziness between the anemic Vermont media and the power elite – you know, the elected officials, the business leaders and the moneyed few – is as close and cozy as it comes. That’s why they so often – and seamlessly – shift roles. One day, for example, Anson Tebbits is reporting on the state for television and radio stations and the next day he’s working for the state — and yet still on the radio and television. Similarly, one day Chris Graff is leading Vermont’s Associated Press and the next day he’s the vice president of communications for National Life – and yet still in the news talking politics.
And those are just two examples of the many, many switcheroos that Vermont journalists of late have made, going from reporting on the state and business to working for the state and business (and sometimes switching again).

There’s a simple formula for “succeeding” in the little club known as Vermont journalism: Don’t rock the boat. Sadly, for those of us with quaint memories of a press corps that acted like watchdogs – not lapdogs – this means little, if any, investigation. It means mere press releases from Sanders, Leahy, Welch, Douglas, National Life, GE, General Dynamics and IBM, etc. become instant “news.” Print ‘em. Don’t research ‘em. Don’t ask questions about ‘em. Just print ‘em and then enjoy the friendly handshakes and job offers down the road.

And with no one in the media willing to launch serious investigative pieces or dig deeper than the cheerleading-like content of the press releases they’re fed daily, Vermont remains stuck in a self-fulfilling prophesy that leads us to no where other than the same re-election celebrations for the same old politicians.

Take Congressman Peter Welch, for example. There’s much talk now about how this first-term congressman may not be facing a “credible” (read: media anointed player) opponent. And while Welch and the Dems are telling themselves that this is all because he’s done such a “great job” and the “Republicans are a mess,” the bigger reason is that it’s really hard to challenge an incumbent politician in Vermont while the media acts more like their press secretary than a watchdog.

Welch’s people have been glad-handing the Vermont press of late with the happy little stories about how “successful” he’s been in his first term. And the Vermont press has been dutifully purring at his ankles by regurgitating the planted “success” stories nearly verbatim to how they’re delivered. Welch, for example, points to his coziness with the House leadership – especially Pelosi. And the Vermont media reprints it, without questions about what he’s traded away for that coziness or what the drawbacks might be (ahem, for example, his early agreement to side with Pelosi and vote to fund the war).

Similarly, the Vermont media slobbered all over themselves when covering Welch’s bill to stop oil shipments to the nation’s petroleum reserve. For days, we were serenaded with stories about Welch’s “effectiveness” and his ability to “address” the oil crisis. We even got quote after quote from Welch declaring that the passage of his bill would lead to an “immediate” drop in gas prices.

It was bad enough that the media largely ignored the voices of those who – at the time it was going down — declared the whole thing a political stunt. The shipments to the oil reserve, they correctly declared, had nothing to do with today’s skyrocketing gas prices. The Vermont media, however, couldn’t let those facts get in the way of their “Welch is effective” meme.

But it’s even worse now that those same members of the media haven’t revisited the story to see that the price of gas did not drop as Welch declared it would. It has, in fact, gone up. Please, don’t hold your breath for the headline that declares, “Welch Energy Bill Did Nothing.” Because Welch isn’t putting out that press release and, worse, the Vermont media isn’t bothering to investigate it.

The same thing could be said of Welch and the Iraq War. This was, as you’ll recall from his campaign two years ago, his “number one issue.” Well, how did that work out? Other than funding it before getting extreme heat from his constituents, Welch has done little on the war other than ignoring it of late. And the Vermont media plays along, penning articles about his “successful” first term without even mentioning the war.

How, exactly, can Welch’s first term be considered a “success” when he’s failed so miserably on the war issue? I can hear the good Dems out there answering that question this way: What’s one congressman supposed to do about the war? Well, that “one congressman” ran an entire campaign based on his number one priority being to stop the war. And he failed. Or, if you’d rather, he lied to us in 2006 about his commitment and abilities to “stop this war.”

Funny, isn’t it, that while the Dems are laughing at what a mess the Republicans are in because they can’t find a credible opponent to Welch, the Republicans are laughing at the Dems for not being able to find a credible opponent to Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie? But the reason neither one is facing any real re-election opposition has nothing to do with their parties. It has everything to do with the fact that Incumbents are King (or queen, Ms. Markowitz) in Vermont.

And all they have to do is thank those purring reporters at their feet for their seemingly lifetime jobs. Each knows where their bread is buttered. Eat up.

Posted by M. Colby | Filed Under blog, vt politics

Comments

2 Responses to “Vermont Media Watch, Part 1”

montpelier28 on June 6th, 2008 11:07 pm

Jack Hoffman leading Montpelier down the wi fi road - 5 customers - City and Library and 3 more. Now It’s going belly up and Jack is owed some money for something and Montpelier needs to bail it all out. I love CG but also don’t see why he’s on as a former political whatever. They do say former so perhaps he may become present soon. Never could see him up there on the hill.
Joe Smith on June 11th, 2008 7:32 pm

I drive to and from work every day tooling along, hitting my head on the roof from the potholes, and listening to the radio. You can tell what roads will not be paved in Vermont over the summer by the ones that get the lines painted on them. I drive down the road and see brand new paint, but there’s a catch this year…the paint is going right through the potholes! I can hardly wait for winter driving.

On the way home, listening to the radio I hear that governor “scissorhands” (He just loves to cut ribbons doesn’t he?) has signed into law a bill that claims that slavery is over and declaring that the third Saturday in June is the recognition day. “What?”, says I. Slavery is over? Not in my life it’s not. That’s news to me! I slave every day in this state as do the vast majority of working Vermonters.

Slavery is not over when we are paying $4 a gallon for gas, $4.25 for a gallon of milk, $2.50 for a loaf of bread, and a buck for a teeny-tiny newspaper that just tells us the current spin. We don’t have time to keep up with this spin due to slaving away to pay for the roads that are not getting paved this year. We are also wondering if the only way to be warm this year is to pull up stakes and split.

I’m tard, and my head hurts.

Got something to say?