Disclaimers and caveats first. I’m a supporter of VTDigger. It’s an essential piece of our diminishing news ecosystem. I shudder to think where we’d be without it.
Also, I have no inside knowledge. This post, as with my other writing about Digger, is based entirely on what I can see from out here.
And what I can see is disturbing, sorry to say.
The latest shoe to drop is the sudden departure of editor-in-chief Geeta Anand. She moved across the country to take the Digger job last spring, and now she’s moving back after less than a year. It follows on the heels of CEO Sky Barsch’s pending departure, announced in late January.
I don’t know why Anand is leaving so soon, and I’m not going to speculate. But her interim replacement, veteran editor and journalist Susan Allen, will be Digger’s fourth editor-in-chief in 16 months, including two interims. (Credit to Guy Page at the Vermont Daily Chronicle for being the only reporter to point that out.)
That’s… well, that’s just bad, for a newsroom that seems adrift from its original focus.
I’ve been thinking for a while about BETA Technologies, a.k.a. The Great White Hope for jobs and economic growth in the post-IBM era. Those thoughts have crystallized around a recently-published story by VTDigger’s Theo Wells-Spackman entitled “An Inside Look at Beta (sic) Technologies’ Big Plans for Vermont.”
(I guess we need an AP Style Guide ruling on whether the name is all caps or not but it’s listed on the stock market as BETA, so I’ll go where the money is.)
The story was well done. But it was an example of how an article can be diligently executed but still compromised by its concept. The most frequent offender in this regard is the class of story about “Local Residents Oppose [insert development plan here].” The usual evils are renewable energy installations, cell towers, and proposals for new housing. By their very framing, these accounts give more weight to the opposition — who get the lion’s share of the quotes and the column inches. Supporters are less often heard from if at all, and developers tend to stay away from active engagement because they fear it will just make things worse.
In the case of Wells-Spackman’s piece, “An Inside Look” is fun and exciting, but no matter how hard the reporter tries, the final product is going to make BETA Technologies look good. The shiny factory, the face time with company leaders and supportive officials, all nice. If you begin with “a private tour” of the factory, and you’re kind of already in the host’s back pocket. Access journalism, I think they call it.
Just can’t get enough of Diggerland, which sounds like a place that would appeal to a nine-year-old Phil Scott and very few others. It must have an audience or it’d be out of business, but I have no plans to visit.
Anyway. The latest from VTDigger seems… not good. Digger published a story on Monday announcing the resignation of CEO Sky Barsch, who arrived at the news nonprofit in April 2023 after the departure (ahem) of founder Anne Galloway. (The story was self-serving claptrap written by “VTD Editor” but read more like the product of a PR firm.)
Necessary disclaimer: I worked briefly for Digger in 2020 and was fired literally for using the word “dick” on Twitter. (Galloway found that distasteful.) Still, I am a financial supporter of Digger and wish them nothing but success. It is a vital component of our already meager media ecosystem.
Since my defenestration, I have had no significant contact with the organization or anyone who works there. What follows is my read of the situation from a completely outside perspective.
I can think of one benign explanation for Barsch’s exit: Perhaps it was simply time to move on for personal or professional reasons. Maybe she needs to move to Cucamonga to be closer to an aging relative. Maybe she’s gotten a better job offer from a larger organization here or elsewhere.
Any other explanation would reflect poorly on her tenure and on the state of VTDigger. I see many troubling signs, and I am concerned.
We know that Digger has suffered financial losses for three straight years, including all of Barsch’s time there. She inherited the issues causing those losses and there are no quick fixes. She did staunch the bleeding, but sustainable operation remains out of reach. Indeed, Digger’s problems seem remarkably consistent from Galloway’s tenure to the present. Her departure should have given the enterprise a chance to mature as an organization. It has yet to do so.
Well, when I went looking for a cheeky illustration for this post about the fortunes of VTDigger, I didn’t plan on discovering Diggerland, “the one and only construction theme and water park in the U.S.!” (Exclamation mark theirs.) But that’s the internet for ya. The real Diggerland, complete with opportunities to “Drive, Ride & Operate specially engineered, real construction machinery,” is located in a New jersey exurb of Philadelphia, which sounds about right.
So no, our favorite nonprofit “print” news organization hasn’t opened a theme park. Not yet. But the idea doesn’t seem completely farfetched given the sweaty, sweaty nature of Digger’s current fundraising campaign.
If you haven’t visited VTDigger in the last several weeks, you’ve missed a huge number of fundraising messages competing for space with a shrinking number of actual news stories. You’ve missed messages directly from staff reporters, which rings ethical alarm bells among ink-stained wretches. You’ve missed pitches that tie support for Digger to the provision of heat and sustenance, which strikes me as a tad aggressive. The implicit message is if you don’t support VTDigger, you don’t care about the poor among us. Which is nonsense.
Anyone noticed the lack of activity lately from the Ethan Allen Institute? What used to be the closest thing to an idea factory for Vermont conservatism has all but fallen off the map.
Turns out, it’s not your imagination. Here’s how inactive the Institute has been — and for how long.
Its website lists former Senate candidate Jack McMullen as chair of its board. I reached out to McMullen, who told me he resigned as chair in… wait for it… September of 2023.
Yep, more than two years ago, and nobody has bothered to update the website on something as important as the Institute’s top officeholder.
Other evidence of inactivity: The Institute’s website doesn’t list any paid staff. The most recent post on the Institute’s Facebook page is dated March 2023. There’s been only one entry on the Institute’s “Blog” page since January 2024, when longtime EAI stalwart John McClaughry (still listed as the Institute’s vice president, for all that’s worth) announced the end of his long-running series of biweekly commentaries on the page. The Institute has yet to file an IRS 990 form for 2024, which was due in October. And, of course, they’re still listing McMullen as chair more than two years after he resigned.
“[The Institute is] in a dormant stage,” McMullen told me. The cause, he asserted, is the ongoing litigation involving Myers Mermel, who served as president of the Institute for 10 months before being ousted by the board in, ahem, September of 2023. (Also in September 2023, as reported at the time by VTDigger: The State Policy Network, a national organization of state-level conservative think tanks, suspended Ethan Allen Institute’s affiliate status. Currently, SPN’s website lists no affiliation with any Vermont organization.)
Mermel, now owner of WDEV Radio, filed suit for wrongful termination after his dismissal. According to McMullen, the action is still making its way through the courts. “Litigation is very expensive,” McMullen noted, “Representation is costly.”
That’s as may be, but you’d think an organization with deep roots and a well-connected board would be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. The lawsuit can’t possibly be the only issue.
This situation came to my attention a few weeks ago when Common Sense Radio ended its long run as the conservative-branded hour on WDEV Radio. The Institute had paid for the airtime for years, but chose not to renew its contract according to Mermel. (He otherwise declined to comment on the record.) The time slot is now in the hands of the Vermont Daily Chronicle’s Guy Page.
My view: The increasingly radical nature of conservative politics may have sidelined the Institute, whose stock in trade was old-fashioned fiscal conservatism and free-market capitalism. I rarely (if ever) agreed with McClaughry or any of the Institute’s other commentators, but they never engaged in conspiratorialism or Trumpian authoritarianism and I respect them for that.
McMullen still has hopes for the Institute’s future. “I think they could revive if they get through the litigation,” he said. I hope they do. There was little to no common ground between the Institute and me, but it was a credible voice in Vermont politics. There’s a hole in our discourse where the Institute used to be.
Before we get to the best of Vermont media, a reminder that many organizations have begun their end-of-year fundraising campaigns. In these uncertain times there are numerous causes clamoring for a share of your generosity. But please make room in your list for the news outlets you depend on, by subscribing or making a donation. They keep you informed about critical issues. They provide information you couldn’t get anywhere else. They connect us to our communities and to each other. Vermont is blessed to have a lot of local and statewide news operations, and all of them could use your help. Thank you for attending my Ted talk.
Two sides of the immigrant story. From The News & Citizen, two very different pieces, both by Aaron Calvin. First, he covers a “chaotic and violent” action by Customs and Border Parol — this time at a Jeffersonville gas station, where seven people were detained. And as usual, federal officials provided virtually no information about who the detainees were, what they had allegedly done, or where they were taken. Your tax dollars at work.
Second, Calvin writes about Tony and Joie Lehouillier, owners of Foote Brook Farm in Johnson, who have depended on Jamaican migrant workers for years. Those workers helped the farm recover from the July 2023 floods; the Lehouilliers paid it back this month after Hurricane Melissa wreaked havoc on the workers’ communities in Jamaica. They raised enough money to send each of their four employees home with $1,600, and will continue to send food and relief supplies as they are able. Gee, maybe migrant workers aren’t a nameless, faceless threat after all.
Apologies for skipping a week. Between Nicholas Deml and Sam Douglass, there was a lot going on. But here we are with another collection of news content worth your attention. Starting with a bit of sad news.
Remember when every newspaper had local columnists? They occupied a space between opinion and reportage. They were familiar figures to readers, and had their fingers on the pulse of community life. As a news consumer in southern Michigan, I got to know and appreciate Detroit Free Press columnists like Hugh McDiarmid (politics), Neal Rubin (entertainment, also penned the Gil Thorp syndicated comic for many years), and Bob Talbert (fluff and nonsense with a purpose). Those days are long gone, as newspapers have cut and cut and cut until there’s practically nothing left.
One survivor of the good old days: Jim Kenyon of The Valley News. I’ve been reading his stuff since I moved to this region in 2000. And now, at the age of 66, he’s retiring. I haven’t seen this reported in his own paper yet, but The Dartmouth has published an exit interview with him. I’m sorry to see Kenyon go, especially since I’m certain that he will not be replaced. He’s a luxury item in a bare-bones industry.
Over the summer, I kinda got out of the habit of checking in with the three campus newspapers in our catchment because they don’t regularly publish anything when the students are away. But hey, it’s fall, and one college paper has stepped up to the plate to give full coverage to a big story that’s landed on its doorstep. Also in this space: Another potential deportation that makes no sense, another town facing a water shortage, a telling indicator of the soft market for office space, and one story that deserve dishonorable mention. If you’re here for the snark, skip down near the end.
Trump administration trying to bribe Dartmouth. Our authoritarian-minded chief executive has taken a new tack in his war on academia. He’s offering financial incentives to select institutions that adopt his ideological agenda. Which would be the death knell of academic freedom, but hey, if you want an omelet you gotta break some eggheads.
One of the nine bribery targets is Dartmouth College, which has already flown its Trump-friendly colors in a few unsettling ways. And there’s The Dartmouth, its student newspaper, with broad coverage of how the Ivy League’s party school might respond.
This edition of NYSV features content posted last week by Vermont media outlets. I did most of the groundwork last weekend, and then other stuff intervened — a pair of more timely items and a bit of semi-elective surgery, to be specific. So here it is, finally. And once again, these pieces were posted in the last full week of September. Mostly.
Hey look, another local newspaper! Somehow I had never heard of The North Star Monthly, published in Danville, Vermont. That is, until it won a big fat award from the New England Newspaper Association. The Monthly took home NENPA’s “Newspaper of the Year” award in the Specialty Publications category. I will definitely add it to my list of Vermont media sources.
Other Vermont publications receiving hardware included The Vermont Standard of Woodstock, which will feature a bit later in this post, and Usual Suspects VTDigger and Seven Days. Vermont dailies were shut out of the awards for Daily Newspaper which, considering the quality of most of ’em, isn’t much of a surprise. The closest dailies to get NENPA recognition were The Keene Daily Sentinel (Keene, NH) and The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA).
The Old Guy’s Still Got It. If Mike Donoghue did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. The former Burlington Free Press fixture is now a freelancer who focuses mainly on cops and courts, and has a knack for swooping in and grabbing scoops from under the noses of established outlets. This time he scored a pair of stories about Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer, commissioned and published by The Vermont Standard.
Hats off to The Hardwick Gazette, not because of my association with it, but because they pulled off the scoop of the goddamn week. In the process, the doughty weekly showcased the importance of strong, active local news operations, especially as our daily papers have focused on their core communities and our statewide outlets just can’t cover all the gaps.
Last Friday, federal agents conducted “a coordinated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action that involved five vehicles” in the town of Hardwick, population less than 3,000, not exactly an epicenter of crime, not the place where Trump’s immigration crackdown could actually do anything to make our country safer. As The Gazette put the pieces together, what emerged was the apparent detention of nine individuals who all “worked for the same construction company,” which could not be immediately identified.
Rumors about this action reverberated around social media over the weekend. The Gazette’s editor, publisher, chief cook and bottle washer Paul Fixx put the pieces together in time for this week’s edition. And as far as I can tell, no other media outlet has reported on this coordinated action targeting people who may or may not have their papers in order, but who apparently held jobs in an industry desperately short of personnel.
The Vermont Political Observer. 