Category Archives: The media

The Freeploid: Putting the “K” in “Kwality”

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Yesterday, news leaked out that the Burlington Free Press is imposing subscription price increases. The paper hasn’t formally released the tidings; it’s just sending notices to individual subscribers. Chickenshit.

Well, today’s page 3 (print and e-newspaper editions) brought the following reflection of the Kwality Jernalism we can expect from the new, costlier Freeploid:

Screen Shot 2014-06-26 at 2.55.29 PM

Yup. “Breaks.”

Whatever our subscription dollars are paying for (extra-large margins, pictures and fonts; lots of reader-generated content; plenty of stock photography), not enough is going into the editorial process.

Me on the radio (updated)

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Hey, I’m at the very compact digs of WDEV, getting ready to do the Mark Johnson Show today from 9 to 11 a.m. EDT. 550 AM or 96.1 FM in northern/central Vermont. One of m;y scheduled guests canceled yesterday, which set off an invigorating scramble for a substitute.

Bit it all worked out nicely. Here’s the revised rundown.

9:00 am: Roger Allbee, former Douglas Administration Agriculture Secretary. The lifelong Republican is running for the State Senate as a Democrat. He’ll talk about his decision to run, and to switch parties; and we’ll ask him if he had an honest change of heart, or if it’s sheer political opportunism at work.

9:40 am: Cary Brown, Executive Director of the Vermont Commission on Women. She just returned from the White House Summit on Working Families. We’ll talk about the summit and what was actually accomplished, beyond the sound bites and photo ops.

10:10 am: State Rep. Chris Pearson, chair of the Progressive Party caucus in the State House. He’ll be talking about the state of the party heading into the 2014 campaign, its challenges and opportunities, and its highest-profile candidate: Dean Corren, who will take on incumbent Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott.

Tune in if you can, on the radio or online at wdevradio.com.

 

Me, on the radio

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Guest hosting The Mark Johnson Show on WDEV Radio, Wednesday June 18 from 9-11 a.m. First hour guest: Paul Burns of VPIRG, talking about the group’s new push for campaign finance reform, its recent successes on GMO food labeling and toxics in children’s products, plus a new poll showing broad support for renewable energy in Vermont.

Second hour: Historian Rachel Hope Cleves of the University of Victoria, author of “Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America.” It’s the story of two women who lived openly as a couple in a small Vermont town in the early 19th Century. They were married in all but title, and were widely accepted in their community. They were even buried in the same plot with a single headstone. In the book, Cleves tells the story of these two women, and what it has to say to the America of today and our current debates over marriage equality. The book is published by the Oxford University Press; Dr. Cleves’ blog is  here.