In chasing down the “scoop” from Sierra FoodWineArt magazine on Willie Nelson performing in Grass Valley, The Union wasn’t too generous about crediting our free, quarterly publication and its companion website, SierraCulture.com, citing “rumors.”
It was not unlike the interesting proposal being circulated among public officials to build a “mega-resort” here that broke last week on Sierra Foothills Report. The Union also cited “rumor” in this case, though the document was being emailed around.
Crediting a fellow publication is a routine practice in journalism — the Wall Street Journal and New York Times do it all the time. It’s a professional courtesy. In journalism, we call it operating “inside the sausage factory” — often a difficult, challenging and humbling process.
But we are a small, isolated community that has long been dominated by The Union and a very proud publisher/editor — until the internet and social media came around to shake up the “status quo.” The Union appears uncomfortable with the “new world order” — and justifiably so.
In fact, the newspaper tried to throw us under the bus before it presented the community with its own version of the Willie Nelson concert — on the front page, no less.
I got confirmation of the story by approaching Willie Nelson’s “camp,” the expert in handling hundreds of such deals and also by “digging deeper” by approaching locals. When I worked at Time magazine in the ’80s, I worked with dozens of Hollywood types, including Bob Hope’s “handlers.”
Our magazine will honor “embargoes” with our customers on a case-by-case basis, but we are not a news-gathering organization like a daily newspaper. That’s a very different role — or it should be.
Below is the email exchange with Willie Nelson’s “camp,” which I then flushed out with other sources, nailing down the fairgrounds as the venue and the benefit for the Bear Yuba Land Trust as the concert.
As it turns out, the information was rather widely known in our community. I’m sure The Union’s publisher/editor knew about it, but I’m less certain about how that translates into day-to-day communication with the newsroom staff.
The Willie Nelson concert is a very positive and exciting announcement for our community (that was never jeopardized by my report — and I was very careful to confirm that. I’m a seasoned veteran.)
But it makes you wonder how many other stories The Union (where the publisher also is the editor) is “sitting on” that would interest our community:
Me:
I heard Willie Nelson was coming to the Sierra Foothills this summer.
Do you know the dates?
-Jeff Pelline
publisher, Sierra FoodWineArt magazine
Response:
Thank you for your email Jeff. We are still processing the contract for that date. I should have details within 10 days available for public release. I will let you know as soon as I can.
Me:
OK. Thanks. Is it summer?
I believe it will be late summer/early fall by looking at the contracts we do have (September maybe).
When will The Union “play nice” with other media players in its own community, giving credit where credit is due and “collaborating”? Does it really think it still “controls” the flow of news?
Gosh, the “announcement” in The Union about the Willie Nelson concert is now behind a “pay wall” — not free. How does that generate business to “newcomers”?
People need to be asking some tougher questions about our local media’s own newsgathering practices — not letting them “have the last word” behind a “pay wall.”
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“It’s a professional courtesy as far as crediting a fellow publication.” Professional they ain’t. Sitting on, or slanting the news (ie. front page this past week on two Judges) is what The Union is known for here. And, slanted is to kind of a word.
Yes, that judge story was much ado about “leveling the playing field” when it isn’t really level. Sometimes you just have to tell the truth: Tom Anderson (regardless of your or his politics) is the most qualified candidate, just like Greg Diaz was. One day I would like to see The Union roll up its sleeves and take up all that ink by exploring the motives of our small-town political operatives, who go to great lengths to get their “guy” or “gal” elected, regardless of the facts. The Union always is in the thick of it. Political activists in a small town ruin its charm. The Union column could be called something like “Behind the Wisteria.”
While I just skimmed the article on the judges, it seemed content heavy toward Smyrnos. I did finally call and cancel my subsription to the Union and was transferred to some higher ‘desk’ for my reasons. I told them they were too Tea Party for me, stopped running Gene Lyons, which some one in the newsroom lied to me about when I called, asking where he was, etc. And I said that Ackerman’s obvious slant lost another customer. The woman told me she’d pass my remarks on to Ackerman.