Slow News Daze?

Daily news is a beast that must be fed. Constantly. Unremittingly. Daily media – whether print, broadcast or online – needs to be refreshed with new content, new material, new stories to tell each and every day. Thinking about this never-ending demand for New! Breaking! Exclusive! each and every day, it makes me glad that this space is just a hobby, something I can pick up when the spirit moves me, when I have time, and when there is something worth writing about. This last criterion is critical for me. I try to write only when there is something worth writing about, and only when I think I may have something worth saying.

I write these words today after reading a few stories in this morning’s papers that, frankly, are not very newsworthy. The stories they tell are rather threadbare and don’t give us very useful information. In the ongoing narrative in this town of the slow-motion disintegration of Tony Mack the Mayor and Man, I suppose any tangential connection is now considered fair game. But many of the stories this morning fall short of most reasonable standards that I would use to call “news.”

The first example is in this morning’s Trentonian. An article describes a local businessman as “an ally of Mayor Tony Mack.” The article doesn’t describe the nature of this alliance, other than to include this one mention: “Sources have said [Herbert] Ames chauffeured Mack to Atlantic City in June 2010 for a meeting with powerful political players.”

That’s it. That’s the sum total, in this piece attributed as a “Staff report,” of the connection to Mack. The article goes on to narrate supposed financial problems of Mr. Ames, as alleged by the wife of a man to whom Ames owes money. The only evidence cited in the story was produced by this woman, who a reader could consider a biased source. The Trentonian says that Mr. Ames could not be reached to respond to the allegations by yesterday afternoon.

So, why run the story this morning? Was it that critical to publish today, without having given the subject ample chance to respond? This is a very thinly-sourced report, about a private person not a public figure. There is no suggestion of any public role, or involvement of taxpayer funds or property;  no city contracts or proposals are mentioned.

So why print today? Other than saying that “sources” reported one instance of him chauffeuring Tony Mack, once, there is not a single reason that Mr. Ames should be subject to this kind of attention this morning. Whatever the Trentonian may have in its files on the gentleman, there was nothing in today’s story worth printing.

I feel the same about this morning’s front-page story by Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, interviewing former Councilman and mayoral candidate Manny Segura. This guy has been missing in action for the last two years since losing the runoff election to Mr. Mack in June 2010. Other than surfacing once last November to add his support to the mayoral recall movement – days before the end of that effort – we haven’t seen or heard much from Mr. Segura. He’s been silent on issues facing the city under Mr. Mack and he’s been absent from any meaningful participation in Trenton’s public life for over two years. So why do we hear from him now?

Basically, it seems, to let us know he’s available in 2014. “Some candidates have already announced intentions to run in the city’s next mayoral election, but Segura said he will only run if a movement gets behind him and demands his leadership.”

Hmm, a guy who has been invisible for two years says he will run if we demand his leadership?

I don’t think so.

And Manny doesn’t make himself sound more attractive when he describes his current state of health: “I’ve been disabled. Today just went through another surgery. Sometimes I can walk, sometimes I can’t. I have to take a lot of medicine.”

Not exactly Tanned, Rested and Ready!

So once again I ask: why is this front page news????

Turning over to the Times, today’s installment by Alex Zdan profiles the commissioner of Trenton’s Babe Ruth Little League, George Bleistein. Mr. Bleistein was approached and interviewed last month by the FBI, and was asked some questions about Mr. Mack and other persons who have already been named as being under investigation by the Feds. The Babe Ruth League has received some funding from the City; the Mayor as well as his brother Ralphiel are involved as coaches; and one of the Mayor’s sons benefits from playing for a newly-created team for the league, the Giants.

There are some colorful and highly quotable quotes from Mr. Bleistein: “Under certain circumstances I would lie for him [Tony Mack],” and “If I was to steal $10,000 from the city of Trenton, it wouldn’t begin to pay me back, [but] I never took a dime.”

But, that’s it. No indication in this article that the money given by the City of Trenton was misappropriated, or ended up in Mr. Bleistein’s, or either Mr. Mack, or anyone else’s, pocket. Apart from the colorful quotes and vivid descriptions of the FBI’s interview –  “And they’re pounding on the door, 7 o’clock in the morning, like I’m some kind of criminal” – there isn’t much meat in this article. It’s basically gossip.

On its own, I probably wouldn’t have minded today’s Zdan article. But read after the two other lightweight stories in the Times, I am left with a very curious feeling that reporting of the Tony Mack tale has gotten to a stage where, in the absence of any real news, the papers are reduced to printing second- and third-rate stories with minimal value, just to keep the story alive during slow news days.

I understand that unless and until there are actual indictments and criminal charges brought against anyone, hard facts may be few and far between right now, as the summer slowly ends. But to me these facts don’t excuse printing thinly-sourced and news-value-free reports such as the three I read today.