By Jim Sack

Ben Lanka missed a point this morning in his political column in the Journal. His error, while slight, gave me time to think about the media in Fort Wayne.

Ben chided the mayor, Tom Henry, an old-family Fort Wayner, for referring to State Boulevard as State Street. So? Most of the old-timers in Fort Wayne, most who have been raised here would know it that way, not just as State Boulevard. Point for the mayor flub for the out-of-town reporter. Ben, however, is a very nice guy, works hard at his craft, but blew that one.

That brings me to the media. It is poor to lamentable around here. There is no radio news to speak of. The TV stations are staffed by youngsters who barely know the difference between Lafayette and Clinton before they move on to another gig in a bigger city. The editors don’t seem much more aware of the history, even recent history, of the city. As for the papers, you can now toss a hand grenade into the newsroom and only be charged for property damage.

Doonsbury once lamented the “vacuous brunettes of TV news.” I fully agree. They are ambulance chasers locally. They pick on government for most of their stories and the weekends are stories about one charity event after another. Watching council over the past few years, observing the reporters who “cover” council, it is clear that beauty is a prerequisite to carrying a microphone. The reporters, men and women, are usually very pretty. They are good on camera, but do they know the background on a story. Probably not. These young people come to us from Philadelphia, Cleveland, Columbus, Milwaukee and other larger cities through IU on their ways back to bigger cities. Fort Wayne is a training ground where some rise to the next level and others find the loves of their life, marry and become PR reps for local industry, the school district or other major employers.

Mass Fire Drill on WOWO Radio in 1948 with Bob Sievers on right.

The radio stations are worse. Once upon a time WXKE had a nine-member news staff. Gone. WOWO once had real journalists. Gone. . There were a half dozen newsrooms competing to ferret-out a scoop. Gone. Now, they are more concerned with timing stories, with drama, than with content and explanations. WBOI has stepped up its local coverage, but depends on “rip ‘n read” wire copy which is often flawed and written with Indy, not Fort Wayne, in mind. Sad. All sad. The decline and fall of local news.

As for the papers, there are a few good reporters left, some who are very good. While I have given up on TV news I have bulked up on newspapers, just to get the information I want and need. The News, JG and Wall Street Journal come to my door. I also ready the NY Times and the Guardian on line. Left to right. Balanced, if not fair.

The problem is money. Always is. Newspapers have lost revenue to Craig’s List, to myriad other on-line sites. TV is afraid of ticking-off a sponsor so they seldom if ever criticize business. Government is their target, when they can pull themselves away from a spaghetti fund raiser for some perhaps worthy charity. Easy copy, smiling kids for the 10 O’clock news.

They don’t even cover government well. It is a “big” moment when the reporters show up for council, and they do not dare sit through the whole meeting. They are there for a big issue, for a quick quote, for a highlight. The business of the people in a 20-second sound bite. They miss many of all of those big moments because they are so understaffed. They missed the 80 to 100 blacks who showed up on Wayne Township Trustee Ricky Stevenson’s call to “raise hell” over a recycling center on Pontiac. And, they did raise hell. For those of us who where there and who are there regularly it was a moment of high-political drama and substance. The TV folk, the radio folk all missed it. They were surprised to hear about it, so superficial is their coverage.

So, I don’t blame Ben Lanka for not knowing State is also called Street, not just Boulevard. I doubt he knows the Coliseum Boulevard was once the Circum Urban and before that portions were called the Krauskopf Road and Bueter Road. He can’t be expected to. His editors, however, should. Shame on Tracy Warner.

Unfortunately, we are a pass through market, so the electronic people are just there for mild entertainment. I expect more, though, from the papers. Sometimes, I get more from them, but with increasing money woes, decreasing circulation and many other news and information options I do not expect the New Sentinel to last much beyond this year. I hope I am wrong, but money talks and times are tough in the local media.

Photo credit: historyofwowo.com

If you find this article informative? Consider donating any amount you choose.

Related posts:

1. Get the hell out of my sandbox If anyone outside of Fort Wayne is...

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 10:24 am and is filed under City & County Government, Fort Wayne. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.