I called my local paper about GOP disallowing Dems to hold any hearings.

[blm]

I asked for the national desk and they hadn't even heard about it. They figured I was the same person who gave them the heads up on the Patriot Act hearing that Sensenbrenner cracked up at, and thanked me and said they'd track down this story, too.

They asked me to call again with other tips saying I had a good ear for important news.

We can make a difference, folks. Call your papers and email important articles, too. Sometimes they're so busy on other stuff that really important stories pass under the radar.

[fooj]

1. Good to know! Thanks for the heads-up!

peace.

[WilliamPitt]

2. The story is on TheHill.com

[cthrumatrix]

3. good idea...pass it on. Our tax dollars paid for those buildings tooo.

[Eloriel]

4. Nominated!! C'mon, folks -- let's get on the ball here. This is a VERY

excellent, elegant and important tip for activists.

Here are a couple more that may or may not work for you (they don't work as well anymore for the AJC for various reasons):

* If you've submitted an LTE and after a couple of days it doesn't get printed, call and ask for the Letters Editor and lobby (nicely, of course) for it to be printed. If yours was to counter something printed in the paper -- an article, commentary/editorial or another letter -- all the more important.

* If you see something objectionable or inaccurate, call the appropriate editor. This could work for issues of bias, not just for text but for photos and graphics too. Or headlines.

* Call the head honcho -- General Editor, and/or even the Publisher -- to make your thoughts known.


But I really think blm's is an absolutely DYNAMITE suggestion. Pure gold. (And she and I don't see eye-to-eye all that often. :evilgrin: )

[Coexist]

12. all right - just got off the phone with the St. Pete Times

A great paper- by the way. Directed them to thehill website - they thanked me and said they would check it out.

They hadn't even heard of Conyer's forum yet. Let's see what happens.

[blm]

13. Amazing, isn't it? A little push helps.

Not ALL news desks are dishonest. They just don't know.

The major news desks, however, KNOW and manipulate and that will trickle down to the smaller papers.

[Coexist]

14. Oh - I don't think they are dishonest

I love my paper. They get on top of a good local scandal like nobody's business. I am just happy that I learned a lesson here - they are willing to talk to me and look at info from their readers.

She was actually at the website as we were talking. Then she got another call.

[blm]

15. I was speaking generally. St. Pete Times has a great rep for being on the

ball.

[kittenpants]

21. that is a good paper (and it's my paper too)--

I'll have to look for the story coming up! Thanks!

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

22. I'll be reading with a critical eye.

Indian Rocks Beach here. I was going to call the St. Pete Times but I guess you already have. Tampa Trib?

[AmBlue]

28. Hey neighbors!

I'm from St. Pete. We should have a DU meetup sometime!

[Cleita]

5. You have a good ear for important news?

Isn't this what they are supposed to be doing? No wonder our media has gone to hell.

[blm]

6. I swear, Cleita, local newsrooms depend on national wire desks. If they

don't see the story they don't KNOW the story even exists. It's not always the fault of the paper, especially smaller and midsize papers. My local is just a bit larger than midsize, but, fortunately it's a KnightRidder paper, so it's a step above most.

[Cleita]

7. I respect what you are saying, but I'm pretty isolated and

I don't have any more resources than they do, yet by listening to the radio and reading the internet, I have been able to keep up with this stuff. Why can't they?

[blm]

9. We're glued to the wires here at DU more than they are. They usually have

one person at the desk and many stories get missed.

Some newsrooms have local folks trying to cover both local and national. It's a shame, but too much nayional and international news gets missed.

It's the big papers that have no excuse. And you see how many stories drop through the cracks with them, even.

Of course, I have no doubt that some editors pull some stories on purpose to not upset their rightwing publishers.

[dmr]

26. Those are excellent points, and

perhaps when we get the smaller papers active, it just may put the pressure on the large papers to do their jobs. It's worth a try, and I'm going to do this now too!

[tavalon]

16. Because they're lazy and don't really care

and you aren't lazy and you do care.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Don't they search the internet?

:shrug: I come here for my news and for local news we have a good site where people can write in news and opinion pieces. (chattanoogan.com)

[B Calm]

25. They are too busy doing live helicopter coverage of the Jackson

verdict than report the real news..

[SmokingJacket]

8. It's so bizarre to me that they don't "hear" about news...

What are they doing -- sitting around waiting for memos? Since when is that journalism?

[blm]

11. They're waiting for their national news wire to send them a story.

See, when AP didn't cover DSM, most newspapers had NOTHING. They get most of their national news stories from AP, Reuters or UPI.

[EFerrari]

17. That's right.. Great job! n/t

[steve2470]

18. thanks for all your help nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

19. I'm glad that has been you experience...

my local paper has flat out stated that if AP doesn't deem it an interesting story they don't think it has any news value. Arrgh!

[dweller]

20. okay... wait......you're kidding?

they've never heard of the internet? liberal blogs? CSPAN??

jayzusjumpingonapogostick... i guess they thought 'follow the money' was directions for a salary requirement.

i'm stymied.
dp

[BR_Parkway]

29. Makes some sense. Medical Dr isn't the one who's going to run

out to an alternative health practitioner, why think that a print reporter is going to use the Internet the same way we do.

The AP does drive alot of what other stations think is newsworthy, but it's a 2 way street. Lots of activity at the local levels can get picked up by the AP and passed along.

I think contacting the local papers is a great idea.

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. Very, very important and end encouraging. Here are media contacts:

many, many throughout this list:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=106&topic_id=8816#9153

and here is Skinner's national media list:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x17759

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

24. Do news outlets.........

Do news outlets (i.e. papers, TV, and radio) have newshounds that their only job is to watch news and gather up the stories of the day and post for writers to pick from?

[dooner]

27. See other thread -

See this thread on DU (greatest) for further explanation of wire services and newspapers: "AP: We Dropped the Ball on Downing Street"


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1855094