Continuing the trend of online-only newspapers, Paul Bass is now publishing the New Haven Independent. The Independent joins Sharon Bass's Hamden Daily News and WestportNow as area-specific online news sites (CT News Junkie, of course, covers the whole state).
It's interesting to see small news outfits starting up online instead of in print. We'll see if they find more success than most hyper-local papers.
This is an open forum. Feel free to talk about anything, or to continue to yell at me for my (admittedly vague and too-hastily written) Labor Day comments.
16 comments:
This is a very interesting development. Are print newspapers going away?
Are print newspapers going away? Perhaps. I would encourage everyone to read 'We The Media' by Dan Gillmor for his thoughts on this. I would also encourage people to check out Epic.
However, there is also the aspect of newspapers becoming 'more local' or, as is commonly talked about, 'hyperlocal'. As an example, check on Dan's blog entry entitled Hyperlocal and Google.
I have my doubts that physical newspapers will disappear entirely, just as I have serious doubts that physical books will disappear. People are tactile creatures, we like what we can hold and touch, and also what we can keep. The web is too mutable for a lot of people (for example, I could go back and change or delete half my entries: who could prove that I had?), but a newspaper (or a book) is more permanent.
Newspapers are going to change and diminish, but I think they'll still exist as simply another component in a greatly varied media landscape.
In terms of the mutability of the web, while it is not always easy to find old web pages, there are some great efforts to track how the web changes. In particular, I would encourage everyone to check out archive.org's wayback machine.
As an example, take a look at their archive of the DeStefano Campaign.
I do like Archive.org, but they aren't comprehensive, unfortunately, and archive sites at seemingly random moments. Frankly, someone who, for whatever reason, wants to preserve this website for posterity as it is right now is far better off printing out a copy than saving it as a page to disk. Great efforts have been made to track the web, but it's impossible to keep up. That's the nature of the beast.
We have old, dusty microfilm and microfiche in the library where I work. We've eliminated a big part of our collection in favor of online sources, but we'll probably keep some forever. Harvard still puts things on microform to this day, and will into the indefinite future. Why? Because while online sources are great for access, vendors could drop away, files could become corrupted and networks could fail. The microforms, durable plastic that they are, will outlast us, despite being annoying to access.
Let's get to what matters here - that Paul Bass has devised yet another forum to spout his own political beliefs. His comments over the years about New Haven elected officals can only be described as pathetic, whining diatribes. Of course, if you ran as a Green or against anybody Paul didn't like, you probably got pretty good coverage. His past comments about Rosa DeLauro and John DeStefano have been way past the bounds of either good taste or accuracy. So now we're supposed to read about an interview with John DeStefano and pretend that it's real journalism - professional and unbiased? Give me a break. And Genghis - if you take this comment down without removing the negative comments about Roy O that you've left up for days, you'll be telling us something about yourself.
Anonymous,
It's vicious personal attacks on other patrons of this blog that I mind. Political-based attacks on political figures are fair game.
Andrew Fleischmann, candidate for Secretary of State, had a good interview recently at CT News Junkie. More about Andy on his Web site.
Anonomous accuses Paul Bass of being unfair but why would DeStefano continue to grant him interviews if he thought that was true?
Paul Bass was always fair with DeStefano but wasn't the typical lacky so many in New Haven love being and profiting from.
I wonder what this Anon does for a living and would love to see the signature on his paycheck.
That's just the point - Paul Bass IS a political figure as much as Roy O. Roy is at least up front about it. It's not at all fair that Paul could sit there from his perch at the "Advocate", malign political figures and expect to remain immune from negative comments from the public. He has used denigrating nicknames for people and misrepresented their views according to his own bias, and now we're to regard him as a benign "patron of this blog?"
I seem to recall that Mr. Bass has published letters critical of his reporting, so he is hardly immune from negative comment. It's the archive of these reports that will be researched to question John DeStefano's judgements, an advantage for Dan Malloy who has had no such local oversight, but Mr. Bass's comments as always a worth what you have paid for the Advocate.
If you read nothing else in the next month PLEASE READ THIS
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197
Keith,
FEMA hasn't had its priorities straight, yet. Incredible.
I just read on CNN Money that CT is considering suspending the gas tax. Any word on that?
Fleischmann = Tedious
I am very excited about the emergence of hyper-local journalism and am very pleased to see Paul Bass’s new venture. I think we need a stronger and more independent media that is willing to take critical views of the government. I may not agree with all that Paul has written in the past and I expect I will have to address some of his comments in the future on the DeStefano blog, however, I believe DeanFan84 is right to talk about accountability. I believe we would be much better off if there was someone like Bass in Hartford looking critically at Rell and Bysiewicz and in Stamford looking critically at Malloy.
Do I believe Bass is ‘Fair and Balanced’? From what I’ve read so far, he writes from his own bias and that bias is fairly obvious. I wouldn’t call him ‘fair and balanced’, but I’d call him more fair and balanced than the network that claims that slogan. On the other hand, I think being fair and balanced is over-rated. With the rise of hyper-local journalism and blogs, there is much more space for people to bring their opinions to their writing.
For some interesting material to read on journalism, I would strongly encourage everyone to read Jay Rosen’s blog entry, "Things I Used to Teach That I No Longer Believe" Was the Title of the Panel.... He talks about the desire of journalism students to make a difference by speaking truth to power and how that relates to be objective.
So, no, Paul Bass might not be the paragon of objectivity. However, he appears to be living out the desire to make a difference by speaking truth to power and I think we should all applaud his effort, try to be a little bit more like him, and of course, be prepared to challenge his presentation of the truth.
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