I would not be so bold as to say that our news media are in the tank for Gov. Phil Scott. But their sadly reduced capacity has redounded to the governor’s benefit, over and over again. No one has the bandwidth and/or interest in covering state politics anymore. As a result, recent events that might be harmful to Scott’s popularity have gone completely unreported or, at best, substantially underreported.
Example #1: The legislative hearing that revealed the disastrous state of the administration’s biggest IT project, which includes the budget, human resources, and finance and accounting — a project that touches on everybody in state government and every dollar it spends. This project is so badly off the rails that no one can say how long it will take to fix, how much more it will cost, or even if it will ever come to fruition. That’s not coming from critics, but from top administration officials themselves. I cannot explain why this isn’t a big fat deal.
Example #2: Scott’s attempt to bigfoot the Democratic primary for Chittenden County State’s Attorney. He openly urged Republicans to take Democratic ballots and vote for challenger Bram Kranichfeld over incumbent Sarah Fair George. At best it’s an ethically questionable thing for a self-proclaimed non-politician to do.
Example #3: What the Scott administration has done to Act 143, the Legislature’s attempt to reform the emergency housing program. I’m preparing to write a full post about this. For now, I’ll just say that Scott signed it and immediately began subverting it. His administration has devised its own plan that certainly violates the spirit of Act 143 and probably the letter of the law as well. Carly Berlin, a reporter shared by VTDigger and Vermont Public, did post a story about this on September 1, but it didn’t explore the full extent of the administration’s skulduggery. Otherwise this sorry affair has gone pretty much uncovered. It ought to be a scandal.
Example #4: In late July, the University of New Hampshire Survey Center published a poll showing that one-half of Vermonters “have a positive overall view of socialism, while only about four in ten have a positive view of capitalism,” and “a plurality have a positive view of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).” (It also showed Donald Trump’s popularity at an all-time low of 22% in Vermont, bwahahaha.)
My apologies for not noticing this sooner. But hell, I’m a one-man shop. As far as I can tell, no fully-staffed newsroom gave this poll the slightest notice even though it’s clearly relevant to the mood of the electorate in a campaign season. In retrospect, it essentially predicted Janoo’s primary win over centrist Aly Richards. It also outlined the potential for Janoo to actually beat the “unbeatable” Scott.
Conventional wisdom is that Janoo is too far left to win a general election. But this poll has a different tale to tell.
That’s 51% of all voters holding a favorable view of socialism, and 47% of all voters with positive feelings toward the DSA. Among Democrats, it’s 71% positive to 4% negative. The DSA even wins a positive (if narrow) edge among independents. The survey suggests, quite strongly, that there is enough support in Vermont to elect a progressive governor.
So why didn’t this poll get any coverage? You got me.
It’s part and parcel of the almost complete lack of post-primary reportage. The general election season is very short in Vermont, and we’re already 40% of the way from August 11 to November 3. What have our media done so far to report on the campaign, especially the gubernatorial contest?
From our three best in-depth news sources*, the answer is damn little. (Note: I’m going by each outlet’s search function. If it missed any stories, not my fault.)
*VTDigger, Vermont Public, Seven Days
Take VTDigger (cue Henny Youngman), please take it. Since the primary, Digger’s search function finds exactly one article that mentions Democratic nominee Amanda Janoo: a September 10 piece by Shaun Robinson outlining “5 Things We’re Watching in Vermont’s General Election.” Points for accuracy, I guess: He did say “watching,” not “reporting.” Because whatever the hell Digger is up to these days, reporting on the campaign is off the list. Even more of a molar-grinder: On that same day, Digger published a fundraising appeal asking readers to “Help Sustain VTDigger’s Election Coverage.” It is to laugh, bitterly. (I remain a monthly Digger supporter, if only in hopes of future improvement.)
Vermont Public did publish a good piece on the September 1 campaign finance deadline, reporting that Janoo outraised Scott in August but lags far behind in cash on hand. Otherwise, not much at all. Seven Days is short on standalone campaign reporting, but has repeatedly made room for comments from Janoo on stories related to state government. That qualifies for top marks on this particular bell curve.
I expect that sometime in the middle of October, our media will collectively get their asses in gear and start churning out stories about the campaign. Maybe one of them will even dare to label the election “sleepy,” as Vermont Public did to the primary. If it was a “sleepy” contest, the media did everything it could to make it sleepy. Until the last minute, it basically mashed a pillow on the primary and cut off its oxygen.
Who does this benefit? The incumbent with an edge in name recognition. Who does it hurt? His challenger.
If this went through in comments, sorry for repeat comment.
While Amanda Janoo has gotten exactly zero national coverage, the hallowed NYT, a few weeks ago, published a feature length story about the kid in Stowe on the ballot for governor- not running a campaign. The reporter told us that the kid’s cred was that he had lots of friends, likes Formula one, and gets good grades. No mention of Amanda Janoo, and just a line insuring readers that Phil Scott was a shoo in to win again. I emailed her about the story- no response.
Should probably ask what the demographic of the poll was. Before we give it credibility. Public knowledge
Sent from my cell on the bench in front of Depot Pizzeria, just north of the fountain on the common
Legitimate question, but the UNH Survey Center’s previous Vermont polls have been very accurate.
Always do your research. “They have always been good in the past” isn’t research.
Sent from my cell on the bench in front of Depot Pizzeria, just north of the fountain on the common
Your input has been referred to the complaint depar — oh wait, I don’t have one
Re Example #1: I talked to members of the press about the money being wasted on state computer and communications systems while I served in the State Senate.
I’m guessing their employers didn’t want them spending months researching complex issues, which wind up being reduced to sound bites anyway.
https://www.wrenner4senate.org/_files/ugd/b35356_77fdfaea084a4167ac179aafd025fa90.pdf contains the latest version ($139 million) of a piece the Vermont Daily Chronicle published in December of 2024, when the ERP’s pricetag was merely $88 million.
Those of us doing the work of oversight and accountability are few and far between. People say they want to save tax dollars, but those in charge seem to prefer to save face rather than kill off the no-bid projects.
Thanks for this piece. It’s a mystery to me as well and, sadly, I don’t have the time to try to find out why, but this stuff should get out there.
VTDigger isn’t even a shell of what Ms Galloway very graciously gifted the state of Vermont with. This non-news outlet no longer bothers to correct event the most obvious mistakes – they simply don’t care anymore about anything beyond not ruffling feathers.
I myself caught the “digger” [sic] laying claim to a large scale dam failure in Williamstown that led to “quite a lot of damage.” The problem being there was no dam failure in Williamstown that led to any damage whether unnoticed or lots or any other description (here’s the link – despite a fair number of contacts from me, that line remains cemented in their version of Vermont hisotory -> https://vtdigger.org/2025/12/21/nine-vermont-dams-were-removed-in-2025-there-are-many-more-to-go/)
Or what about the “digger” [again sic] and their obvious misuse of AI to put their stories together and post on their site? Example? Sure -> https://vtdigger.org/2026/08/27/burlington-artist-dug-nap-struck-and-killed-e-bike-rider-in-crosswalk-new-court-filing-alleges/ wherein “dug Nap” is used in the headline in place of “Doug Knapp”. Crap is still there on their website.
This is the polite liberal approach that is actively assisting Scott and his warmly embraced VTGOP/GOP along with their god-king and proven rapist Trump as they institute an anti-environmental, vile, violent, racist, bigoted, authoritarian agenda. Avert one’s gaze, cover one’s ears, and just plain misrepresent the facts or shut the fuck up.
Note that if someVTGOPer comes up with any bullshit claim about a non-Republican, these same stenography outlets will run with that story for weeks on end. Witness the coverage provided then Lt Gov Zuckerman over the provision of FREE women’s personal care products (period stuff) in a place they were not beforehand made readily available.
There is no good statewide news coverage anymore – they all require way too much interpretation.
The poll is stupid. 99% of Americans have no real practical or theoretical knowledge or depth of understanding of what each of these ‘systems’ actually are and how they are all organized around the same fundamental principle. All that’s different the quality of fairy tales legitimatizing the social order (the spectacle- something US elites are very good at) and the flow/quality of goodies to the proles (commodity fetishism). The USSR looked a lot like the US in its hey day in terms of the types and colors of toothbrushes, women’s shoes, fashion and consumer-based social life. Its social hierarchy functioned the same. Its ruling elite, just the US, accumulated wealth and horded resources just like the rest of them – their transition to ‘capitalism’ was seamless as their fairy tale fell apart. The famous scene setting of Arthur Jensen setting Howard Beale straight in Network https://youtu.be/sOt-G2LVgfI?si=0jgVk0l77UgxBCfS still stands the test of time as Andre Gunder Frank and Leslie White (the most cited economic historian ever) would attest. The idea that DSA are anything other than just another con job staged on behalf of one faction of the ruling class is ludicrous.
Unfortunately Janoo is a politic naif. Training as an economist is not what politics is about. I suspect she will not raise a peep about the failings of the Scott administration because that would be impolite in the Vermont mind. Calling out incompetence, corruption, self-dealing, etc in the public domain are considered rude and anti-social behaviors here. I suspect the obsession with the ‘idyllic Yankee picket-fence dream’, the “Vermont way’, the ‘civility’ and ‘not rocking the boat’ is to mask the darker underlying reality of Vermont’s racist, classist and wholly corrupt upper crust – just look how the state market’s itself and the population segment it wants to move here – RICH WHITE PEOPLE ONLY NEED APPLY – nevermind that this population demographic has an ethics problem.
The fact that Janoo is cozying up to the mainstream democrats signals a move to toward the establishment and a drift away from what she built her support on. Can’t say I’m surprised – I think she will be surprised to learn her party and the establishment is working to give the Scott another term (hence the veritable black out of news on the race). Her drift back in will just be either another betrayal and/or strategic ignorance of the material conditions. Her primary victory could have a strategy to give a Scott a weak, unsavvy candidate to run against and a shoe in for him.
Thanks for bringing all this to public view.
VTdigger sucks
SevenDays sucks
Most of them suck.
RE your example #3, it is also worth pointing out that since the end of the covid pandemic (at least as such), the motel program has been grossly mismanaged. The program began at a time when motels and hotels were losing most of their revenue due to the pandemic, so it made sense to subsidize them at the same time as providing shelter for the homeless.
But since then, it’s made no sense at all. The State is paying for these rooms without negotiating with owners, and thus grossly overpaying for them. Instead of cutting back on the numbers of beds, the State needs to provide them at far lower cost. It should also consider buying old motels and using them for temporary shelter.
Vermont has been spending more for beds than shelters which in addition to beds provide numerous services to this population, and THAT’s the expensive part.
Nobody likes the hotel/motel program. The Scott administration has been shortchanging and undermining it for years without moving toward a replacement system OR making meaningful progress on shelter and affordable housing. It appears the admin is using Act 143 as a pretext to rush through a new system that has some obvious flaws and failings. More coming soon to a blog near you.
“The Scott administration has been shortchanging and undermining it for years without moving toward a replacement system OR making meaningful progress on shelter and affordable housing.“
I wonder why they can’t just raise wages high enough and lower rents low enough so that we could all enjoy housing of some kind. Sigh, I know, that’s not the Vt or the American way. We have to be “worthy.”