Tag Archives: VTDigger

Russ Ingalls Can Do What He Wants With His Radio Stations, But He Doesn’t Have to Be an Asshole About It

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When state Sen. Russ Ingalls, a conservative Republican, bought a bunch of Northeast Kingdom radio stations earlier this year, he indulged in some high-toned blather about emphasizing local information and keeping politics out of the product.

Well, now we know how that turned out.

As VTDigger’s Shaun Robinson reports, Ingalls has raised some ire among liberal listeners by getting rid of newscasts from major network broadcasters and the Associated Press and replacing them with, you guessed it, Fox News.

And that’s the way our capitalist media system works, isn’t it? He who pays the piper calls the tune. Ingalls is well within his rights to air whatever kind of newscasts he wants. (Thanks, it must be said, to Ronald Reagan’s deep-sixing of the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to fairly represent all points of view from the birth of electronic media until its repeal in 1987.)

Actually, when I first scanned the headline, I thought he’d replaced the stations’ entire programming with far-right conservative talk. He hasn’t. He’s decided to air Fox News in the brief window devoted to news at the top of each hour. Which usually amounts to no more than a couple minutes of news along with plenty of advertisements.

Point being, if you depend on commercial radio newscasts to keep you informed, it’s kind of like making Lunchables the foundation of your diet.

So I don’t have much of a beef with Ingalls’ decision. I do have trouble, and plenty of it, with his comments about the situation. Which reveal him to be a tunnel-visioned ideologue with no patience for criticism of himself, the country, or its current (you should pardon the expression) leadership. Not to mention his open contempt for constituents who disagree with him.

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Two Reporters, Four Editors, and Three Nonprofit Administrators Walked Into a Bar…

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A pair of coincidentally-timed events have sparked a crazy idea in my mind: There is room in Vermont’s news marketplace for a scrappy upstart operation focused on state politics and government.

You know, kinda-sorta exactly what VTDigger used to be.

And if I were a younger man, I’d be tempted to create something that might be called The Blackfly or simply Skeeter: A news operation designed to get under the thin skins of our political class, to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. I leave the idea in a wicket basket on the doorstep, in hopes that someone will raise it as their own.

So what are these two events?

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

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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.

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The Milton Selectboard Needs a Refresher Course in Civics

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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.)

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Phil Scott Bends the Knee

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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.

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The Curious Case of the Squandered Scoop

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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?

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What the Hell, Vermont

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Man, VTDigger couldn’t have picked a worse possible day to literally slap a smiley face on a map of Vermont. Because it happened on the very day that “over 800 people — including nearly 300 children” were deliberately unsheltered, on one of the hottest days of the year so far, by an uncaring Scott administration. That’s on top of another 138 unsheltered in late June because they had timed out their administration-ordained eligibility limits for motel vouchers. (Further evidence, says I, that the governor doesn’t give a fuck about the homeless.)

This latest offense against humanity was triggered by an administration decision in early June to impose those limits on an extension of winter eligibility into the spring. The decision came as a surprise to helping agencies, advocates, and more than a few members of the Legislature. And it meant that a whole bunch of recipients suddenly found themselves S.O.L. at the end of June.

Including Samantha Burnett, whose shocking story is recounted by Keith Whitcomb Jr. of the Times Argus and Rutland Herald.

“I’m eight-months pregnant. I’m literally due any day,” said Samantha Burnett, 23, during a downpour outside the Econo Lodge in Rutland City.

She said she has been living at the hotel since November. Burnett said she’s from Addison County and lost her job two months ago because her employer wouldn’t approve maternity leave. She has a friend who will let her cook food at her place, but is relying on another friend to find her a rundown vehicle she can sleep in.

Despite her own troubles, she’s most concerned with what will happen to her baby. She’s afraid the state will put the newborn out for adoption because, well, she’s homeless. It wouldn’t matter that she’s homeless because of the state’s own policy choices.

What the hell, Vermont. Is this who we are? Letting an expectant mother sleep in an abandoned car?

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Sorry, But I’m With the Litigious Developer On This One

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Friday afternoon brought us, courtesy of VTDigger, a fascinating story from down Bennington way, where local officials have basically waved the white flag over a proposed solar array north of town, planned by “solar developer and lawyer Thomas Melone.” Melone has been highly litigious in this matter, and numerous cases are pending before the courts. Apparently the town Parental Figures have decided to stop paying lawyers and let Melone have his way.

And you know what? In this case, the litigious plutocrat is the good guy.

I’ll sit back for a moment and let the brickbats fly.

Now, I don’t know the history of the case. But I sure as hell recognize a flaming outbreak of the NIMBYs when I see it, and this is a classic example. The opposition to this development goes to outrageous lengths to make its case. Reading this story made me wonder how in holy Hell we will ever get close to meeting our emissions reductions targets. Which, reminder, are established in state law.

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News You Should View: A Great Picture, a New Journalism Org, and Way Too Many Sugar Gliders

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Belated weekly roundup of the best reportage in Vermont, postponed due to the education reform vote and related stuff. Reminder: Although this post is coming out on June 18, it only covers material posted/published/promulgated no later than the 15th.

Glenn Russell strikes again. The best part of VTDigger’s Friday story about Gov. Phil Scott and the Legislature coming together on an education reform bill? Glenn Russell’s photograph. Not reproducing it for copyright reasons, so click on the link and enjoy.

Mmm, that’s the good stuff. In a single image, Russell perfectly captures the House-Senate conference committee dynamics that led us down this prickly path. The three Senate conferees are pictured. Two of them, Sens. Seth Bongartz and Scott Beck, strike identical poses, leaning forward, peering intently over their pushed-down glasses, holding copies of draft legislation, looking more than a bit skeptical of their House counterparts. The third Senator, Ann Cummings, leans away from the table with an expression that says, quite clearly, “I want nothing to do with these jamokes.”

In case you haven’t been reading me lately, Democrat Bongartz and Republican Beck share a common background and purpose. Both have substantial ties to the private schools that hoover up public education dollars, and both repeatedly centered those private institutions in what was supposed to be a discussion of how to improve the public schools. To capture all that in a single image? Chef’s kiss.

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News You Should View, Local Hijinks Edition

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This post is a bit later than usual* because it’s taken me a while to get my feet back under me after an exhausting but rewarding trip last week. I attended a conference organized by the Institute for Nonprofit News, one of several organizations dedicated to fostering a new wave of nonprofit journalism.

*I’m only including items published on or before Sunday, June 8 in hopes of returning to my usual schedule with the next installment.

It was intense, and I’m still processing what I learned. But my single biggest takeaway is that there’s an amazing amount of talent, energy and dedication in this relatively brand-new field. People all over the country are creating nonprofit news outlets at local, state, regional, and national levels, and coming up with novel strategies for achieving sustainability. (There are also a lot of organizations and foundations eager to promote and invest in this new, nonprofit model of journalism.) It’s not easy and success is not assured, but I was blown away by the quality of the people involved in this effort. Made me more optimistic about the project.

INN’s membership includes about 500 organizations. More than 400 people gathered in Minneapolis for three days of panel discussions, workshops, and one-on-one meetings with experts. I was there as a board member of the Hardwick Gazette, and I was determined to bring back as much information and as many ideas as possible. That meant taking full advantage of everything I could fit in. Let’s put it this way: I’d never been to Minneapolis before, and I still feel like I haven’t. Almost all my time was spent within a couple blocks of the conference hotel.

Coincidentally enough, this week’s edition of NYSV is heavy on content from Vermont’s own local outlets, many of which are now nonprofit. Some of the stories are about the local repercussions of state policy debates, while others are about the vagaries of small-town politics. These are services that only a grassroots outlet can perform, and Vermont is lucky to have as many small “papers” as we do.

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