Layoffs and Lackluster Efforts
by Al Diamon
Layoffs? What layoffs? According to reliable sources, the Bangor Daily News ended 2013 by laying off about a dozen employees. There was no official announcement or explanation, and BDN director of news and new media Tony Ronzio didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking confirmation. But it appears at least one reporting position was lost, not to mention a chunk of the newspaper’s credibility for covering other companies’ cutbacks and ignoring its own.
Lobbying? What lobbying? On Jan. 3, WCSH-TV anchor Pat Callaghan aired a long interview with Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, during which he gingerly inquired about a possible conflict of interest. “Some people get concerned about who’s influencing Congress,” Callaghan said. “Your husband is, runs a lobbying firm or is a partner in it. Is that …”
Collins cut him off with a sharp “No,” and Callaghan seemed to shrivel. “Oh, OK,” he said. The senator interrupted again to say her husband, Tom Daffron, is the chief operating officer of a “small consulting firm. He does no lobbying.”
As Dan Aibel at the Collins Watch website pointed out, that reply was disingenuous. While Daffron himself doesn’t lobby anymore, the company he oversees, Jefferson Consulting Group, does plenty of it, listing lobbying as one of its three “practice areas” on its website.
If Callaghan had done minimal research, he’d have been able to inquire about Jefferson’s involvement with clients interested in several issues dealt with by committees Collins sits on. But this being TV news, none of that happened. Instead, Callaghan timidly backed away from that line of questioning and moved on to topics less likely to draw the ire of a powerful politician.
Ombudsman? What ombudsman? Most journalists probably don’t know that Maine has an ombudsman in the Attorney General’s Office who’s supposed to help them, and other members of the public, with requests for public documents under the state’s Freedom of Access Act. The position has been around for several years, first without funding and now without much authority. As a result, it’s been of little use.
In a Jan. 17 editorial, Lewiston Sun Journal managing editor Judith Meyer laid out the job’s shortcomings and detailed efforts to upgrade the post by giving it the power to subpoena records and compel testimony. Meyer also cites examples of the ombudsman’s ineffectiveness and how that has affected the public’s right to know.
Must reading. And it should make fixing this situation a priority for every news outlet in the state.
Colin in Canada? On Jan. 13, Gov. Paul LePage was a guest on Laura Ingraham’s nationally syndicated radio show. Gerald Weinand, of the mostly moribund Dirigo Blue website, heard the broadcast and was roused from retirement to post evidence of another of LePage’s trademark falsehoods.
The governor told Ingraham that Portland Press Herald reporter Colin Woodard, who recently wrote an unflattering portrait of LePage for Politico, “once went to Canada to interview my ex-wife and children.” The host asked him how that went, and he replied, “Not too good, cuz she slammed the door in his face.”
This turned out to be news to Woodard, who told Weinand that while researching a story on the governor’s early years for the Portland Phoenix, he contacted LePage’s ex-wife in Canada. “I did have a short telephone interview — from Maine — with LePage’s first wife,” Woodard said, “as she was the best and only source who could set the record straight regarding allegations on liberal blogs that the governor had walked out on his children, not paid child support, and such. I had a very pleasant conversation with her wherein she backed LePage up on these points. … He should be happy I spoke to her.”
Radio roundup: Cary Pahigian, the general manager of Saga Communications’ seven Portland stations, announced in early January that he was leaving the company after 15 years. In a memo to staff, Pahigian wrote that he wanted a new, unspecified challenge: “I felt that the only way to properly examine what I wanted to do and aggressively pursue that opportunity, was to focus on it 100%. It would be impossible to conduct that process and still remain at my best with the demands of this job.” Pahigian’s replacement is Bob Adams, late of Cumulus Broadcasting, in Pennsylvania.
• At the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, there’ll soon be a new classical music host in the mornings. MPBN announced on Jan. 14 that it had hired Robin Rilette, of Northwest Public Radio in Pullman, Wash., to replace Suzanne Nance, who departed in August to work for a commercial classical station in Chicago. Rilette starts work in February.
• New ratings from Nielsen Audio for Maine’s three radio markets were released in early January, but, as usual, the only numbers made public were for stations that subscribe to the Nielsen service. Which ain’t all that many. In Portland, Top 40 outlet WJBQ held the top spot with a 7.2 share (average percentage of listeners per quarter hour), followed by classic rock WBLM (6.9), classic hits WFNK (6.3), adult contemporary WHOM (5.9) and country WTHT (5.4). In Bangor, rocker WKIT was number one with a 12.1 share, ahead of talker WZON and adult alternative WZLO, both of which garnered less than a 1 rating. In Augusta-Waterville, Top 40 WMME (10.6) edged country WEBB (9.8), with WFMX (5.7), WCTB (4.1) and WTVL (.8) back in the pack.
FOA on EBT: The Maine Heritage Policy Center’s propaganda arm, the Maine Wire, actually committed an act of real journalism this past month. The Maine Wire filed a Freedom of Access request with the LePage administration to obtain data on the use of Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, the plastic that carries welfare benefits. While its first story, by editor Steve Robinson, was heavy on sensationalism (“They may be on welfare, but that doesn’t stop them from vacationing”) and light on context, the article still prompted a flood of pieces from the mainstream media that showed serious flaws in the system.
The Maine Wire deserves credit for bringing this issue to light and for having the imagination to file such a sweeping FOA request. It’s hard to imagine that sort of thinking happening at more conventional news outlets.
Over – or under – board? On Jan. 14, the MaineToday Media newspapers added to the confusion about the company’s relationship with developer Robert C.S. Monks. Monks had been a part-owner of the newspaper business and sat on its board of directors. But last year, MaineToday announced he no longer had a stake in the company, although he still served on an “advisory board that meets about twice a year.”
In a story in the MTM papers last month about a legal case involving the expansion of broadband service in Maine, Monks, who’s an investor in a new fiber-optic network that’s being sued, is referred to as a “member of the board of directors of MaineToday Media.”
A request for clarification went unanswered.
It was a very good year: On Dec. 30, 2013, the Portland Press Herald ran a quarter-page house ad that read, “Just in time for the exciting 2012 campaigns, our reporters, photographers and columnists are bringing a new intensity and unique perspective to our political coverage.”
An historical perspective, no doubt.
Don’t ask: The River Valley Community Association of Rumford has been awarded a license for a low-power FM radio station. According to a story in the Jan. 16 Lewiston Sun Journal, the 100-watt facility will be used to promote tourism in the area, and will broadcast music that association director Kevin Saisi described as family-friendly.
“Our goal is to present the area in a good light, and that is hard to do when you are playing songs about alcohol, drugs, violence and promiscuity,” Saisi said. “That is not to say that we will be playing Gregorian chants, but rather, selected classic rock and oldies that don’t make small children ask questions.”
Questions like, “Mom, when does the next bus out of Rumford leave?”
In addition to serving as The Bollard’s media critic, Al Diamon writes a weekly political column that runs in the Portland Phoenix, the Downeast Coastal Press, the Daily Bulldog, some Mainely Media weeklies and some Current Publishing papers. He also writes a column for Current’s My Generation magazine. He can be e-mailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
