Category: Media

Air Travel: The Battle over the Wright Amendment

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Virginia Postrel nicely summarizes the battle over the Wright Amendment which limits air travel from Dallas’s Love field:

Schnurman’s tough-minded coverage of the issue demonstrates the great virtues of distant newspaper owners. His paper is owned by Knight Ridder, which isn’t entangled in local crony capitalism. The Dallas Morning News by contrast seems terrified to even voice an opinion on the issue. (And I’m not just annoyed that they turned down this piece on the grounds that they’d already run too much on the topic. In fact, I’m delighted. D Magazine paid me twice the DMN’s rate, and I like them better anyway.)

Viewed up close, the whole Wright discussion demonstrates the wisdom of my old boss Bob Poole, who has spent at least two decades arguing for airport privatization. Locally, the only thing any politico seems to care about is what’s good for DFW Airport and, secondarily, for the airlines. The traveling public doesn’t count–either in the political equation (too diffuse) or, apparently, in airport management. Anyone who’s had the misfortune of traveling through DFW knows that, with the exception of its new Terminal D, it’s hardly a comfortable or accommodating place. Neither does it seem to maximize revenue. No mall developer would use space so pathetically.

The article is also an interesting look at the “devils bargain” that sometimes occurs between politicians and the mainstream media.

City Spending up 5.5%, Property Taxes to Rise 4.35%

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Two interesting perspectives on Wednesday night’s Madison City Council Budget votes:

  • Kristian Knutsen (Posted Thursday @ 10:52p.m.):

    Coming from another perspective, Brandon urges a no vote against this budget since it has a 4.35% increase, stating that no cuts were made “This isn’t the mayor’s budget. The mayor set a clear challenge to us, 4.1,” Brandon states. “We are playing into the state government’s perception, what they portray about us, is that we are big spenders,” he continues. “All we are doing is inviting more levy limits, and at worst, TABOR.”
    Konkel says “we could have done this if we really wanted to,” referring to the failure of the hotel room tax hike, which she states would have brought the levy down to 4.03, also lamenting the failure of several amendments to provide services to the indigent. “I know how I’m going to vote,” Webber says, while Bruer commends the council for the tenor of this year’s budget process. “This administration unlike others in the past did more truth in budgeting,” he says of the mayors role, continuing by pointing out cost-cutting measures undertaken by city departments in his defense of the budget and its process. “To go through all those hours and all that energy,” Bruer says, “I have no problem going out to my constituency and defending this increase” due to its “balance” of attention.

    Knutsen also live-blogged the meetings (which is fabulous)

  • Dean Mosiman (posted 01:10 a.m. 11/18/2005)

    The tax hike, Cieslewicz said, is the third lowest in the past two decades.
    It’s now time for the state to back away from tax caps, let cities make budget decisions based on their own values, and for the state to try to fix how it funds municipalities, the mayor said.
    Ald. Zach Brandon, 7th District, who led the group that made the 4.1 percent tax cap pledge, offered the lone harsh words about the budget.
    “Do you know what this is saying to the rest of the state?” he said, adding that Madison will become a “poster child” for its inability to contain spending and taxes.”

Drucker on Information Scarcity

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Peter Drucker:

WSJ: You also said the scarcity axiom was becoming obsolete. Do you mean the idea that things have value only insofar as they’re limited in supply?
Dr. Drucker: What I mean is that the scarcity axiom does not pertain to information. Let me give you two examples, one where they understand this and one where they don’t. I will not give company names.
There is the company that gave you the map and driving direction you used to get from the Los Angeles airport to my home; you go to the Internet, and they don’t charge a penny. They make their money from advertising, which you have to look at to get these directions. They understand that the scarcity axiom does not apply to information because they can keep giving away information and receive more revenue in another way.
On the other hand, there is a major newspaper, one I am very fond of, which believes in selling subscriptions to the online edition of the paper, which is a total misunderstanding. It should be given away to create a larger subscription base.
This first company understands information, the second one has yet to learn.

via Doc

Seniors Embrace Blogs

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AP:

There’s Dad’s Tomato Garden Journal, Dogwalk Musings, and, of course, the Oldest Living Blogger.

“It’s too easy to sit in your own cave and let the world go by, eh?” said Ray Sutton, the 73-year-old Oldest Living Blogger and a retired electrician who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. “It keeps the old head working a little bit so you’re not just sitting there gawking at TV.”

Civitas

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www.civitaswi.org:

CIVITAS will host 10 monthly luncheon forums focused on local finance, public education services and finances, and an analysis of local government services. (See Forum Calender for schedule of topics). Each luncheon will include presentations by past and current local officials, academic experts and representatives from community, business, professional and civic organizations. Presentations will be followed by questions from a panel of civitas members who have studied the monthly topic and audience questions.

All presentations will be recorded and posted on a civitas web site and media coverage of the information presented in the forums will be encouraged.

Civitas graduates will receive a certificate of attendance and a complete set of the presentations. Appointing authorities will receive an annual list of civitas graduates and will be encouraged to consider these individuals for appointments to boards, commissions and committees.

In addition, any civitas graduate who decides to become a candidate for local public office will be eligible to attend an annual civitas Candidate Training Program and an annual civitas Seminar on the Public Agenda which will examine the results of a county-wide public opinion survey of local issues.

Civitas is a joint undertaking of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce and Wood Communications, according to a letter sent to chamber members by chairman Gary Wolter.

All the King’s Media

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William Greider:

Heroic truth-tellers in the Watergate saga, the established media are now in disrepute, scandalized by unreliable “news” and over-intimate attachments to powerful court insiders. The major media stood too close to the throne, deferred too eagerly to the king’s twisted version of reality and his lust for war. The institutions of “news” failed democracy on monumental matters. In fact, the contemporary system looks a lot more like the ancien régime than its practitioners realize. Control is top-down and centralized. Information is shaped (and tainted) by the proximity of leading news-gatherers to the royal court and by their great distance from people and ordinary experience.

This is largely why I emailed Tammy Baldwin regarding her vote against free speech. Via Dan

Newspaper’s Utility?

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Jeff Jarvis, a blogger and newspaper consultant posted some recent newspaper circulation statistics, in addition to several comments on those numbers:

Half the American population no longer reads newspapers: plainly, they are the clever half. — Gore Vidal
People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. — A.J. Liebling
It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper. — Jerry Seinfeld

I’ve been asked a number of times whether I like newspapers, or not. The answer for me, at last comes down to quality and utility.
I’ve always been a news junkie, often winning 7th grade Milwaukee Journal classroom news contests (my parents have always been avid readers). Like my parents, however, I read mostly online these days, often via my RSS newsreader. Once you get into this groove, purchasing, flipping through and disposing of the paper (and all of the stuff packaged with it) truly is yesterday’s news. Like many, I’ve also become used to obtaining information when and where I want it – not waiting for the print news cycle to deliver the hard copy to me.
The print products I read include The Economist, The New York Times (not for long, perhaps still Sundays…) and locally, the Isthmus. I’ve always enjoyed the Economist and the NYT for their national and international coverage. However, I think the Washington Post is now doing a much better job on those fronts than the Times. The Post has the confidence to interact with emerging media that most others seem to lack. Jay Rosen has more on that issue. Blogs have also added an interesting element to the discussion, from local issues to global matters. One blogger (I don’t recall who), captured what’s happening rather nicely: She correctly recalled the perception that Big Steel had of the emerging mini-mills during the 1970’s and 80’s. The mini-mills were perceived as bottom feeders, living of the scraps of the big mills. The mini-mills had much lower costs, superior processes and in many cases, have convincingly taken over their markets.
I think we’ll see a growing amount of original work from emerging media (a Silicon Valley blog broke the rather amazing story of Google’s founders purchasing a used 767 for their personal travels). This work will, by its very nature take advantage of the latest technologies.
Getting back to the question of whether I like newspapers or not. The answer, it seems to me is clear. I like those that use their tremendous (TREMENDOUS!!) resources (cash flow) effectively. I don’t have time or interest in those that don’t. The numbers Jarvis posted and Vidal refers to demonstrate that my views on this matter are not unique.