If you're one of the lucky folk who've not already been banned for telling him the truth, feel free to log on and read Ray's
Ray, you see, cannot tell the difference between the truth and the lies-of-carefully-calculated-omission he's fed the community for so long. And that's because he won't even TRY to discern the difference.
My spies continue to forward text/comments as they come online.
(Big surprise) the commentary so far on Ray's latest article would indicate that the move is going to be about as well-received as Mike Miller being appointed President of Pfeiffer University. One of my 007's asked for my take (you see, I do have some experience with other local newspaper Editor's failed experiments in "citizen journalism" - which failed because they did not deliver what they promised).
I responded in an e-mail that I thought I'd post (slightly edited/modified) here (because I can't post it there):
. . . what one commenter said is very true. Ray Criscoe has ZERO experience actually running a viable business - particularly a business in an industry that is UNIVERSALLY FAILING . . . largely because it long ago forgot what it was supposed to be about.
In terms of a newspaper's survival, accountability and credibility matter. But they have not mattered AT ALL to The Courier Tribune in a very long time. It's all and only been about scratching "the right people's" backs . . . and covering their asses.
Moreover, Ray puts out a horrible product . . . as in fingernails-on-the-blackboard horrible. Even with all of the new & improved bells & whistles (including the always-present-and-usually-intrusive Randolph Hospital ad), the website is simply not reader-friendly.
Hell, even the Randolph Guide is kicking Ray's butt - they actually have a fairly sharp website.
(Indeed, in terms of increasing local buzz and circulation, the smartest thing the Guide could do right now is post more of its stories and open up to no-holds-barred comments . . . give folks an alternative to the Pravdaish tactics of our local daily.)
Everyone in town knows that over the last decade-&-a-half, the Courier Tribune has turned into a sad/sorry mouthpiece for the right crowd . . . and because of that, a whole lot of we lesser beings have decided to stop paying for the privilege of reading their gilded leavings in print.
(For example, the Courier's drool over Mike Miller being named President of Pfeiffer University is just mind-boggling. People's lives and finances were DESTROYED because of this man. There IS NO rational/fair/just explanation for Mikey getting a soft landing while so many of his shareholders are left with little but spit & bailing wire. I'm thinking that someone - or group of someones - down in Misenheimer/Richfield is very glad they got a bad loan that they won't have to pay back when FNB finally tanks out).
Do you really think the ordinary citizen who canceled because they got tired of lugging newspapers out to the recycle bin is going to pay $87/year to read Ray's inane musings online?
You can't even get coupons with that.
As for "in-depth local coverage"??? Who-the-hell does Ray think he's kidding? That's just laughable.
After you cry.
Criscoe has been coddled and insulated from market realities - and has done what he was told - FOR YEARS - and now he's listening to some clueless wet-behind-the-ears consultant who is blowing smoke up his rumpus about Randolph County's "potential" . . . when there is no online community of regular commenters/personalities already flocking to the site to comment (as until very recently there was NOTHING to flock to).
And that's mostly because Randolph County is LIGHT YEARS behind other areas of the state in term of the online savvy of its readership.
I mean, I've been here in the ether for five years - at the invitation of a newspaper just 30 minutes up the road. But the Courier purposely avoided boosting its online presence.
Indeed the Morrisons and Eblins and Renfros and (Keith) Criscos and Millers of this town have BANKED on keeping the ordinary folk of Randolph County offline and in-the-dark. It served their purposes . . . like Morrison flying his over $700,000/year salary as CEO of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital in under the radar.
Who at the Courier is going to ask a coherent question about that as they lap up the ad money? Ignorance is BLISS for Bob Morrison.
And/so, Asheboro has YEARS to go before it can even catch up to now . . . and it will STILL be behind.
In that sense, we really are suffering from the Wobegon affect of our town's "leaders".
Moreover, my blog, the little engine that could, is THE most prolific blog in Randolph County right now - and hits are slowly but steadily increasing as I hammer the right crowd - a crowd that Ray should have been hammering all along.
And hey, I do it for FREE.
With a "12-14,000"readers-per-day circulation (that's about ten thousand LESS than I thought they had), Ray does not realize that the Stephens Media Group is setting him up as an expendable experiment - a newspaper they can afford to let fail (and probably wouldn't mind too much if it did). His head is very much on the block and he's too stoooopid to realize it.
He might as well dress up like one of Henry-the-8th's doomed wives and run screaming through his castle tower - where the air is apparently very thin.
He's not going to be around very long unless he pops his head out of his own sigmoid colon and starts actually being a reliable/accountable/UNBIASED journalist, and telling the citizens of Asheboro the whole truth . . . as opposed to the truth according to "the right people".
Hey, I think I just composed a blog post.
Tomorrow, I hope to do some "in depth" reporting on a part of a story Mary Anderson glossed over in her story on Peachtree Street Produce a few weeks back.
4 comments:
I pay $88 per year for the News & Record, that means 365 days dropped in my driveway at 4:30 AM by a guy named Leroy. In other words I pay $.24 per day for a substandard newspaper, which is losing money and is desperate for readers. I buy it for the obituaries, and crossword puzzles. Quite often they have news in it, but I get mine free off the Internet. Oh, I used to read the N&R on line for free, but figured that $.24 per day was worth it for the crossword puzzles.
Ray Criscoe.....Asheboro's William Randolph Hearst wannabe.....
I don't begin to understand what they're doing or thinking at these newspapers.
But then again, I haven't understood for a long while.
"Home and Heart", it'll be about as effective as "Shop at Home" done several years ago. The idea was to keep people from going to Greensboro. Wishful thinking on the part of the local mullahs. Then Mayor Joe Trogdon(hope I spelled that right, then again I don't keep up with those folks) had a son, who purchased a new Nissan, from a dealer out of town, Burlington, maybe High Point. Anyway, he's down at Dan Thomas Pontiac overseeing a construction job which his company was doing, and the late Becky Hyder, wife of then local Nissan dealer Ed Hyder, drives up. And this was verbatim from the late Dan Thomas to me, and it went like this:
Becky Hyder: Hey Joe, I heard your boy bought a new car (she was yelling this as the Mayor was up on the roof of the Pontiac dealership)
Joe Trogdon:(mumbles, stammers something unintelligible)
Becky Hyder: Well Joe, so much for that "Buy at Home" shit huh?
Seriously, "Home and Heart" will be much like urinating in a dark suit. It'll give 'em a warm feeling for a little bit, but nobody is really gonna notice.
Chuckle. Sounds right.
I adore Ed Hyder. And we all miss his Mrs.
I'm still following the thread (courtesy of my 007's in Asheboro) on Ray's column.
And continuing on your theme, it's very clear that the people in Asheboro want more from their newspaper than to have bought-&-paid-for someone pee on their shoes and them them it's raining.
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