Author Archives: John S. Walters

Unknown's avatar

About John S. Walters

Writer, editor, sometime radio personality, author of "Roads Less Traveled: Visionary New England Lives."

Welcome to the N.Y.S.V.E.C.U. Part 2: The Addy Indy Gets the Scoop

Leave a reply

See previous post. This week brings us so much media news that I didn’t try to make it fit into a regular edition of “News You Should View.” The first installment of the News You Should View Extended Cinematic Universe featured bad content; this one features a small newspaper trumping the big boys.

The Addison County Independent is one of Vermont’s best local newspapers. Unfortunately, its content sits behind a rigorously-enforced paywall and I choose not to subscribe to every paywalled content farm in the state. But over the weekend I was driving through Addison County, and picked up a print copy of The Addy Indy at the redoubtable West Addison General Store (complete with well-aged and uneven wooden floors).

And there on the bottom of the front page was a significant story about Vermont politics that I have yet to see in any other outlet. It informs us that Gov. Phil Scott is treading into the gray area when it comes to naming a replacement for former state representative Mari Cordes of the Addison-4 district, who recently relocated to Nova Scotia.

I’m not linking the article because rigorous paywall, but since I paid two bucks for the physical paper (which is impressively thick, their sales department must be doing something right), I figure I can spill a few beans.

Continue reading →

Welcome to the N.Y.S.V.E.C.U., Part 1: I Don’t Know What This Is, But It Ain’t Journalism

3 Replies

Sheesh, you go out of town for a weekend, and the media beat goes a little bit haywire. Lots to get to, so much so that we’ve entered the News You Should View Extended Cinematic Universe. The customary edition of NYSV will follow, but we have a couple of special editions to get to first.

____________________________

The Burlington Free Press needs to die.

I say this reluctantly, because it does still employ a handful of hard-working reporters. Nothing more than a handful, to judge by its Newsroom Directory, which lists six — count ’em and weep — SIX reporters laboring in the corporate-owned sweatshop of a formerly great newspaper.

Six. [Shakes head, mutters under breath]

Which means that in order to fill the Free Press’ greatly-reduced news hole, they have to rely heavily on “content” cranked out by Gannett functionaries spread far and wide. These pieces of Hamburger Helper “journalism” are disposable clickbait at best, an insult to the reader’s intelligence at worst. And boy howdy, I have rarely seen a piece as insulting as this one.

Continue reading →

The Governor’s Mass Unsheltering Policy Has Had Its Predictable Impact

2 Replies

I knew it was going to happen. There was no reason to expect any other outcome.

The annual “point-in-time” count of people experiencing homelessness showed a slight decline in total homelessness in Vermont — but a massive increase in unsheltered homelessness. And the results almost certainly underestimate the true scope of the problem.

Why? Three reasons, as explained by Carly Berlin, the housing reporter shared by VTDigger and Vermont Public. First, the PIT count happened on a very cold night in January, when the city of Burlington was operating an overnight warming shelter that gave dozens of people a very temporary place to stay. Second, the PIT count should always be considered an undercount because, well, homeless folk can be hard to find. And third, this is especially true of the unsheltered; they might be anywhere, and the state makes no effort at all to keep track of where they are or how they’re doing. No matter how diligent the counters are, they’re not going to find everyone.

Also, it must be said that if the PIT count were conducted now, the number of unsheltered would doubtless be even higher because of cuts in the General Assistance Emergency Housing program, a.k.a. the motel voucher system, imposed in the last couple of months.

Continue reading →

The Incredible Disappearing Corrections Commissioner

2 Replies

Well, this is a new twist on the old “Friday Newsdump,” the storied tradition of minimizing the impact of bad news by pushing it out on a Friday afternoon or early evening. I guess we can call this a “Monday morning newsdump.”

I’m referring to the sudden announcement, with absolutely no explanation given, that Nicholas Deml is resigning as commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, effective less than three weeks from now.

The announcement came in the form of a press release from Gov. Phil Scott’s office, which included the naming of Deml’s replacement: Fformer Burlington police chief Jon Murad will step into the roleon August 15, the day Deml officially departs. No reason for Deml’s resignation was offered.

And apparently, there was little effort to find out by the Grey Gardens of our Fourth Estate. The stories posted by VTDigger and Seven Days essentially barfed up Scott’s press release with no indication of much additional effort. Not even a line saying “Deml was not immediately available for comment.” Vermont Public‘s story did include one line from am emailed statement in which Deml wrote of launching “an advisory practice to continue the work I care about most.” That’s the only hint I could find, anywhere, of a reason for leaving or plans for the future.

Other media outlets, including the comatose Burlington Free Press and WCAX and WFFF/WVNY, led their stories with Murad’s appointment. Deml’s resignation didn’t even warrant headline placement.

That’s awfully thin coverage for a significant departure, likely thanks to the weekly rhythms of the newsroom. Monday is for gearing up to full operations after a weekend of little to no activity. You’re trying to get some news out there ASAP, and often starting from scratch. Which means that Monday morning isn’t quite as good a time to bury news as Friday afternoon, but it’s not a bad second choice. The administration got the kind of minimal, incurious coverage it probably hoped for.

Continue reading →

Local News Matters (In Lieu of News You Should View)

3 Replies

Note: My weekly media roundup, “News You Should View,” has taken the week off. I’ve been very busy with non-blog-related work lately. In particular, there’s been a lot of activity around my duties as a board member of The Hardwick Gazette. This post reflects that involvement and broader thoughts about the importance of local news, which is the bread and butter of “News You Should View.”

Local news has always mattered. It’s the only way we can keep in touch with our town and city governments, school boards, high school sports, arts, and community events, not to mention road construction, floods, fires, crashes, and crime. But it matters even more now, at this moment, than it ever has before.

That’s because larger media outlets, such as daily newspapers, radio and TV, have shrunk to an alarming degree. Local outlets, including weekly newspapers and digital-only operations, occupy what would otherwise be “news deserts” — places with little to no news coverage at all. These “deserts” would include most of Vermont if not for the valiant efforts of our local papers and digital outlets.

Continue reading →

The Milton Selectboard Needs a Refresher Course in Civics

1 Reply

Strange doings up in Milton, where a longtime volunteer member of various town committees has gotten the boot from all his official duties for purely political reasons.

As reported by VTDigger’s Charlotte Oliver, Henry Bonges has served his town “for forty-some years.” And then he made the mistake of publicly criticizing members of the town Selectboard, three of whom happen to be Republican state representatives. (A fourth, Rep. Chris Taylor, just resigned from the board when he was hired as town manager.) In response, the Select Board has refused to reappoint him to his volunteer posts.

(The story has yet to be reported by the local Milton Independent, which appears to be highly risk-avoidant in its coverage of local politics. The paper has yet to be featured in my weekly “News You Should View” roundup because its content is generally bland and uninteresting. It’s a sorry state of affairs, when the town has had more than its share of political firestorms of late. The Independent is shirking its duty.)

Continue reading →

Phil Scott Bends the Knee

9 Replies

It’s been obvious since January (if not before) that Gov. Phil Scott has adopted a very different tone when it comes to That Man in the White House. It used to be that Scott felt no qualms about openly criticizing Trump. Lately, his approach has been decidedly more circumspect. I used to chalk this up to a new realpolitik in which the November election gave him many more Republican allies in the Legislature, most of whom are avid Trumpers. In response, Scott had to be more careful.

Now? I think Phil Scott is bending the knee, taking the coward’s way out, keeping his head down, sacrificing principle in favor of expediency. He doesn’t want to join the likes of Harvard, UPenn, immigrants, transgender folk, Stephen Colbert, the Washington Commanders, and Rosie O’Donnell in Trump’s crosshairs.

Two points. First, Scott’s transportation secretary refusing to cooperate with Attorney General Charity Clark’s lawsuit over cutbacks in federal funding for electric vehicle infrastructure. Second, his staunch defense of state cooperation with Trump’s immigration regime despite the fact that his own Department of Corrections is having a hard time dealing with the feds’ extraconstitutional thuggery.

Also this: A carefully worded statement from Clark that hints at a broader Trump-avoidant stance by the Scott administration.

Continue reading →

News You Should View: Local News FTW

3 Replies

Apologies for another belated posting of this feature and the general lack of posting recently, but last week was kind of all over the place. Plumbing problems, likely mold issue, business trip out of town, blah blah, trying to catch up. Here we go!

When local coverage really matters. A couple weeks ago in this space, the lead item was a piece in The Stowe Reporter detailing the tremendous number of short-term rentals owned by non-locals. And now, reporter Aaron Calvin gets to follow up in what must have been a satisfying way: the town Planning Commission is considering limits on short-term rentals, and as Calvin writes, “the need for such a cap is generally agreed upon; the discussion centers around how best to go about implementing it.”

We can’t say for sure that the earlier story influenced the Planning Commission’s approach to short-term rentals, but the timing would suggest that it did. This is an excellent example of why good local coverage is so crucial.

The Commons continues to track the Trump damage. Last week, The Commons grabbed the lead spot in this space with a good piece about how Trump’s Big B**** Bill is likely to impact Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. For those just tuning in, the story quoted BMH’s chief exec as calling the bill “vicious” in its effect on rural hospitals. Well, reporter Joyce Martel followed up with an equally vital story about Grace Cottage Hospital, the state’s smallest hospital. Grace Cottage CEO Olivia Sweetnam was more measured than her Brattleboro counterpart, but she did say that dealing with the BBB “is going to be very difficult.”

As I wrote last week, every local outlet in the state should be covering their hospitals and other major health care facilities in the same way. (For example, I would suggest to my co-conspirators at The Hardwick Gazette that there’s a story in how the BBB will impact the Plainfield Health Center, a major provider of primary care health care for miles around.)

Continue reading →

The Curious Case of the Squandered Scoop

1 Reply

A very strange thing happened a couple weeks ago at VTDigger. It’s been on my backburner for a while, as other events have clamored for attention. But I didn’t want to let this pass into oblivion without comment.

Digger published a very important story by Ethan Weinstein about the Vermont Department of Corrections’ difficulties and frustrations in dealing with federal immigration authorities.

It was a terrific piece. But it was posted at 7:01 a.m. on Saturday, June 28. Saturday is the lowest day of the week for news consumption. When daily newspapers were actual dailies, the Saturday edition was always the scrawniest paper of the week. And it was the first to be jettisoned entirely when “dailies” became less than that. Weekend TV newscasts are long on canned features, weather and sports. Most of their field people don’t work weekends. They don’t waste their good stuff on Saturdays.

I’ve been in charge of news operations, and I know that all we did over the weekend was fill the space as painlessly as we could. In fact, much of the effort on Thursdays and Fridays was devoted to banking solid content for the following Monday, when the audience/readership starts paying attention again. Digger publishes very little content over the weekend, and what they do produce is generally soft feature material or shared content from other outlets.

This was a big story. The state’s relationship with ICE and the border patrol was a major issue before the Legislature this year. And the article was the product of a public records request — a vital journalistic tool that’s rarely employed these days because it requires a lot of work. Journalists write their PRR’s as broadly as possible so they don’t miss anything. As a result, they often get a ton of material to sort through. Weinstein did the scutwork and found a bunch of telling details that added up to a meaty scoop worthy of maximum attention.

So why the hell did Digger effectively bury it?

Continue reading →

News You Should View: A Commons Trifecta

4 Replies

I think this is a first in the brief history of NYSV: Three separate entries from a single outlet. That would be The Commons in Brattleboro. The honor does come with a pair of asterisks, because only one of the three is actually a piece of journalism. But all three are worthy of note.

The local impact of the Big Brutalist Bill. The Commons did something that every other outlet in Vermont would be wise to do: Evaluate the local consequences of Trump’s mega-bill. In the Brattleboro area, three separate medical centers are at risk of closure due to Medicaid cuts in the bill. Reporter Joyce Martel quotes Brattleboro Memorial Hospital CEO Christopher J. Doughtery as calling the BBB “vicious” and saying it would “disproportionately affect rural community hospitals.” Given the fact that Vermont’s community hospitals were already in severe straits, there are plenty of stories just waiting to be told in every corner of our B.L.S.

The Commons expands. Vermont Independent Media, the nonprofit that operates The Commons, has acquired The Deerfield Valley News, a weekly that serves a bunch of small towns in south central Vermont. The combined entity hopes to achieve some economies of scale without visible changes in either publication. Here’s hoping it leads to better financial sustainability for both.

Poking Pieciak. The Commons’ opinion pages were graced by a letter from Nick Biddle, a retired professor and Brattleboro resident, urging Treasurer Mike Pieciak to run for governor — or else get out of the way. Biddle observes that Pieciak has clearly been planning a run for governor someday, and is “in the leading financial position to run.” Biddle urges Pieciak to “Run, Mike, run – and announce it loudly… Or step aside now, so that another strong candidate can ready a powerful campaign” to challenge Phil Scott, assuming he seeks a sixth term. Amen, brother.

Continue reading →