Keila Torres Ocasio did a nice job covering Bridgeport, the one CT Post reporter that chronicled the state’s largest city full time. Yes, the Connecticut Post had just one scribe covering Bridgeport full time. Incredible. No full-time City Hall reporter, however. Keila covered everything Bridgeport. The Post brings in scribes from here and there to cover this and that without really knowing the city. Some are seasoned journalists, but it’s impossible to build relationships, sources, moles, trust, respect in a city like Bridgeport without a full-time commitment. Most Post scribes are generalists. There’s a whole region to cover, editors argue on behalf of the corporate mantra. Baloney.
Covering a city here and there via journalistic rotation also leads to many reporting mistakes. CT Post Editor Tom Baden and a few other editors decide staffing deployment at the Post based on direction from the regional corporate bosses. The Post’s business model operates a regional mindset focused on shared stories in Greenwich, Stamford, Bridgeport and Danbury, the quadrant of Connecticut papers owned by Hearst. The paper announced on Sunday a new commitment to regional columnists. Keila, a member of the paper’s editorial board, will be among them. Much success to Keila in her new assignment. Yes, Keila will keep her eye on the city, but her new assignment leaves a large hole to fill.
Hearst’s regional mindset for profitability is understandable. Still, there’s no will to slot one full-time City Hall reporter in the state’s largest city.
That applause you just heard came from city pols: sweet, wonderful, peachy; we can do what we want without the bastards bothering us. That’s exactly the way pols want it. Baden and his corporate bosses Mark Aldam, Lincoln Millstein and company are accommodating them.
More on the Hearst decisionmakers: www.hearst.com/newspapers/
Maybe someday they’ll surprise us.
Yes and it’s gone from bad to worse.
Master Baden et al. are Dudley Redux!
The CT Post is a waste of time, they would not know a news story if it bit them in the ass. It’s time for Mike Daley to retire; enough family stories already, who gives a shit?
I think there is more than a casual link between the decline in the quality of Bridgeport’s newspapers and the decline in the quality of its local government.
Phil,
You make a very good connection here between two declines: quality of local government and quality of Bridgeport newspaper. Hearst is providing younger newshounds and giving them a wider territory to work. Things get missed by reporters or they do not yet have the training or experience to delve deeper to find the buried story (and that is no problem to the folks who are in control).
Missing from Bridgeport fiscal governance:
*** is financial expertise that used to talk about clean management letters from auditors and today won’t cough up those same letters and City responses;
*** are any sense of internal controls in the form of ‘internal audit staff’ to protect the City from a variety of risky behavior
*** is a legislative body that sees it has a stewardship role relative to taxpayer money
*** are frequent and open Council meetings to allow citizens to comment and question the uses of money
*** are voters buying and reading the Post about City issues or bothering to use their registration to make choices at the polls
*** is significant economic development activity that might produce advertising revenues for a one-newspaper town
*** a decline in straightforward budget accounting and overall transparency and accountability by the Chief Executive
*** a decline in public morale
Time will tell.
*** The Post needs more like Keila! ***