I hate to take anything that might be construed as a cheap shot, especially at someone who's been personally civil to me. But I also hate to see avoidable mediocrity rewarded.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors must not have exceptionally high standards for its awards. Recently, ASNE feted Mark Mahoney, editorial writer for the Glens Falls Post-Star for his work.
Mahoney was a finalist in the ASNE’s 2005 annual writing competition, with his editorials being judged among the top two out of entries from 550 newspapers around the country, reports the paper.
Coincidentally (I assume), this was announced in the paper on the same day as The Post-Star's managing editor Ken Tingley was appointed to the board of directors of the very same ASNE.
In the past, I've been a defender of the Glens Falls' daily against some of its harsher critics. I've read a lot of smaller newspapers; every time I travel, I pick up a local daily of wherever I'm going or passing through. I used to think that The Post-Star was an excellent paper for an area this size. It was far better than many other papers that serve larger markets.
Notice how I used the past tense.
The paper has clearly gone downhill in the last few years. From enormous contrived photographs to gaudy graphics to cheesy, tabloid-style headlines to an op-ed page layout that literally changes every day, The Post-Star has gone whole hog down the lowest common denominator route.
The paper's editorials are not immune from this trend. I do give them credit: at least now they're actually giving proper attribution to the many editorials that were written by other papers. Even without the attribution question, The Post-Star's own editorials would be clearly evident by the style. They are curt, irreverent, flip and almost insultingly casual. They are overreliant on cutesy, simplistic metaphors in an attempt to ingratiate with readers and to avoid the possibility that readers might be challenged to think. Metaphors are fine, but should be done sparingly in serious essays.
I may only be an amateur blogger, but I have certain expectations of editorials, which are supposed to be the collective opinion of a paper's editorial board. I expect them to be straightforward. I expect them to factually based. I expect them to show a modicum of restraint, to not throw a journalistic temper tantrum. I expect them to treat readers like intelligent adults. In other words, I expect them to be professional.
I remember one recent editorial that contained the sentence, "In the neighborhood we grew up in..."
Who's 'we'?
The editorial is supposed to reflect the collective opinion of the paper. Did the entire editorial board grow up in the same neighborhood?
This unprofessional casualness is not limited to editorials. A news article that ran yesterday included the following paragraph: So we walk our kids a block and a half to school, even though they’re old enough to look both ways. And we leaf through the binder of local sex offenders in the school office. And we don’t let our kids roam the neighborhood the way we and our friends used to. And, finally, we don’t notice — or maybe we don’t care — when officials report that crime rates have been falling for years and our neighborhoods are quite likely safer than they used to be.
I expect this informality of a opinion column, but not of a purported news article.
Revisiting an earlier topic: the The Post-Star induced teen drinking witch hunt is not going away, counterproductive as it may be. Just yesterday, Tingley wrote yet another patronizing column patting himself on the back for whipping up this hysteria, which he misleadingly calls a 'discussion.' Two days earlier, a self-congratulatory editorial did the exact same thing.
Update: The Post-Star caused an uproar last year by axing liberal columnist Molly Ivins. Managing editor Tingley claimed she was a one-trick pony. I was never a huge fan of Ivins, but I did wonder how she was any more predictable than George Will or Cal Thomas, whose columns the paper kept. My friend Matt wondered why being a one-trick pony was sufficient for Ivins to be axed but when Tingley himself consecrates nearly every opinion column in recent weeks to one topic, he pats himself on the back for starting a "discussion."
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