This story on a small newspaper winning a local news reporting Pulitzer opens a window on why the business is in such bad shape. Good reporters are forced to leave because the folks in charge believe that good journalists will work for fast food wages.
You can't blame people for wanting a living wage for doing professional work.
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The FJ ran an editorial with this headline Sunday: "Flint leadership must not squander opportunity to lead city out of crisis." But it didn't take long at all for the squandering to commence -- big time. According to the FJ, "The Michigan Secretary of State's Office has told Flint Clerk Inez Brown that her office gave mayoral and council candidates the wrong cutoff date for turning in nominating petitions -- April 28 instead of April 21...In the mayor's race, all but one candidate -- Councilman Eric Mays -- filed petitions after the state's deadline, and Bade said in the two council races, all candidates filed too late to qualify for the ballot." This is not the first time that Ms. Brown has intervened -- intentionally or not -- on Mr. Mays' behalf. If you recall, a snap decision by Brown disqualified the 2013 city council election absentee ballots, which tend to favor the incumbent, due to some curious labeling issue, swinging the election to Mays by seven votes in his uphill race against incumbent First Ward Councilwoman Anita Brown. And now he's the only candidate on the ballot for mayor due to her snafu? Coincidence? You decide. Me thinks the embattled city clerk has worn out her welcome with this latest budding scandal. Actually, it's long past time for her to go. And speaking of mayor, what does that position even do for its recently restored full salary, anyway? We have a mayor, a city administrator and now an incoming Receivership Transition Advisory Board to replace the outgoing EM. I know all those duplicative layers of government were not wanted by local city officials, though they are to blame for the problems that ushered in an EM or several EMs over the years, but all these Flint governmental officials taking credit for writing the budget and so forth is a big joke and a spectacle Flint doesn't need. With the City Administrator now on board, what is Walling doing leading the new budget press conference and all of these other events, anyway? Isn't he a ceremonial figure now? If not, why not? Isn't that what we pay the City Administrator six figures for? Only in Flint, Cadillac of government salary and benefits. One thing is for sure amid all of this mess: the squandering is well under way.
Voters elected nine candidates to the Flint Charter Review Commission on Tuesday. Interestingly, the biggest name, John D. Cherry, lives in Clio, not Flint, and is an active, registered Michigan lobbyist. I'm sure Mr. Cherry got Inez Brown's, ahem, approval to run. Assuming that it's somehow OK for non-Flint residents to serve on this panel, what about active lobbyists for special interests? That OK, too? I'm sure the FJ is all over this story, but whether all this is legal and ethical or not, it is a story. Let the readers decide.
Nice news Blog ....with .Editorial News Articles
Flint Journal reporter, editor remembered for kind and hardworking nature
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/09/longtime_flint_journal_reporte.html#incart_m-rpt-2
OK, I'll try one last post and if this one isn't posted, I politely suggest this blog be folded. We've been editor-free for years now and with no new posts -- about the FJ or anything -- why continue? Yes, Blogger allows a blog creator to close the blog. See https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/41387?hl=en
The FJ's endorsement curse claimed its latest victim in Flint's mayor election -- this time incumbent Dayne Walling.
The Journal's Editorial Board endorsed Walling last Thursday (http://www.mlive.com/opinion/flint/index.ssf/2015/10/mayoral_endorsement_2015.html#incart_river), but instead of propelling him to victory, the paper's backing was more like the kiss of death for Walling, who lost by a large margin to challenger Karen Weaver, who becomes the city's first female mayor.
Local pols long have decried the curse for years, even as they line up to get the board's endorsement. Though no known data exists on the curse, anecdotally over the years numerous candidates have gone on to lose the election after garnering the paper's seal of approval.
Does Walling believe in the curse? If he does, he likely wouldn't have sat for a lengthy, videotaped board interview. But already treading water due to the his real or perceived complicity in Flint's water contamination crisis, Walling could've used a little rabbit's foot in his corner, not the curse he may have got instead.
Walling may not have believed in such superstitions before the election, but one wonders how he feels now?
In any event, no one need worry about his future. He'll land where all Flint pols land after leaving office, voluntarily or otherwise. If not GM or Mott, then Whaley Children's Center or any number of city, county or state office-holder's staffs -- that is, until he can run for another Flint-area office in a year or two. The man makes no bones about being a career pol and living off YOUR dime indefinitely. I have no doubt, despite his embarrassing loss to a neophyte, clumsy candidate, that he's right. Like Smokey the Bear's lesser-known brother, Pokey, admonishes: only you can prevent Dayne Walling from ever holding elected office again! You and the curse of the Flint Journal endorsement.
One or two interesting FJ reader comments about the paper's own culpability for Flint's self-made, or surely man-made, water crisis:
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/12/flint_mayor_karen_weaver_pin_h.html#incart_m-rpt-2
Such comments are spot on, of course, and reminiscent of the FJ's culpability, related to its silent or certainly soft editorial pen and threadbare, lackadaisical news coverage leading up to and during GM's shameful and totally avoidable bailout (yes, bailout -- the automaker slipped the noose when the feds forgave a remaining loan balance of several billion US taxpayer dollars; that's at least a partial bailout, folks).
Is this blog still alive? More 'restructuring' from the fearless leaders:
http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/01/mlive_media_group_announces_ne.html
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