Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper loves the Ritz

We have had several well-received discussions here about how Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper covers the Dallas Independent School District. Most of the posters and commenters are surprised that The News doesn’t do more than it does — mostly reacting to breaking news and doing enterprise pieces (newspaperese for longer, investigative stories) about the scandal of the month. There is very little else, even in their various neighborhood sections and publications.

My point in analyzing this sort of thing is that it’s not so much what outlets like The News don’t do, but what they do instead. Hence some story counting on the eve of Dallas getting a Ritz-Carlton, about as swanky a hotel as possible. This is certainly newsworthy, but is it worth this much? Since Aug. 1, there have been six articles in The News about the new Ritz, plus a video and some web-only photos (and I didn’t have the heart to count the mentions on the various blogs). Is a hotel, no matter how fabulous, worth a story every two days?

It is if The News’ agenda is to portray Dallas as a sophisticated, worldly city that attracts captains of industry and the social elite. You’re not going to do that if you run a story about the third-graders at Stonewall or Lakewood elementaries. Sadly, there will probably be more News’ reporters and editors at one Ritz media pre-opening freebie than have ever been in a DISD school to do a story.

Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper loves the Ritz

We have had several well-received discussions here about how Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper covers the Dallas Independent School District. Most of the posters and commenters are surprised that The News doesn’t do more than it does — mostly reacting to breaking news and doing enterprise pieces (newspaperese for longer, investigative stories) about the scandal of the month. There is very little else, even in their various neighborhood sections and publications.

My point in analyzing this sort of thing is that it’s not so much what outlets like The News don’t do, but what they do instead. Hence some story counting on the eve of Dallas getting a Ritz-Carlton, about as swanky a hotel as possible. This is certainly newsworthy, but is it worth this much? Since Aug. 1, there have been six articles in The News about the new Ritz, plus a video and some web-only photos (and I didn’t have the heart to count the mentions on the various blogs). Is a hotel, no matter how fabulous, worth a story every two days?

It is if The News’ agenda is to portray Dallas as a sophisticated, worldly city that attracts captains of industry and the social elite. You’re not going to do that if you run a story about the third-graders at Stonewall or Lakewood elementaries. Sadly, there will probably be more News’ reporters and editors at one Ritz media pre-opening freebie than have ever been in a DISD school to do a story.

Teddy Roosevelt, the Trinity, and The Morning News

Apparently, no one at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper saw my post about referendum and initiative and why we have those things in a democracy and which included a nifty quote from Teddy Roosevelt, so here it is again.

Wamre addresses Sunday’s foolishness much more eloquently below. I’m past eloquence. I’m disgusted with the paper’s partisanship in its news pages, which violates every tenet of journalism. I’m fed up with its posturing, with its phony intellectualism, and with being told what to do by people who aren’t even allowed to vote in this election.

And yes, that’s TR lecturing The News editorial board in the picture — metaphorically, of course.

Democracy still more than voters can handle

It’s not unusual to see this kind of hurly bury from the editorial page or the metro columnists at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper, but from Gromer Jeffers, The News’ political reporter? "Though the average resident certainly won’t find the debate over the Trinity tollway scintillating. …"

I realize we aren’t as smart as everyone who works for The News, but we’ll figure out some way to make sense of all of this. (And I also thought the new plan to discredit the referendum was to shout fraud, not to accuse us of being stupid.)

One more time, for Gromer and his colleagues: The toll road is a bad idea. So we don’t want it. That’s simple enough, isn’t it?