Gambling on a Casino

Let the advertising begin ...

So my friends at the Springfield Sunday Republican have already benefited by the (gold) rush to place a gambling casino somewhere in Western Massachusetts, as evidenced by today's full page, multi- color, full press run ad prominently placed -- usually at a 20% premium placement charge -- on page three.

My guess is around $15,000 ... or pocket change compared to the non-refundable $400,000 MGM recently paid the state in order to be a player.

Thus, even if MGM does get the coveted license and Peter Picknelly does not buy the newspaper's land for many, many millions of dollars, The Republican will still benefit by a resort casino in downtown Springfield via advertising revenue.

Providing of course MGM lavishly continues to put their advertising dollars into print as opposed to the Internet, radio, TV, direct mail, billboards, etc.  Hey, maybe they will hire the homeless to hand out leaflets. 

Of course you also have to also factor in the print ad revenue lost from local mom-and-pops driven out of business by the gambling Juggernaut.  Bowling anyone?

The Republican, 1860 Main Street, Springfield

And then there was one

The Republican 1860 Main Street, Springfield

The Republican, Massachusetts' 4th largest newspaper, took a giant leap into the Digital Age by shedding the bricks and mortar ties that bound them to that long ago era when daily newspapers were the ultimate gatekeepers, synthesizing a river of information into a tidy dose of daily news that arrived on your doorstep with an early morning thud.

As of October 1st The Republican has shuttered satellite news office bureaus in Chicopee, Greenfield, Holyoke, Northampton, Palmer and Westfield. Their battleship of a building in Springfield, which houses their seven story, high-speed color press remains firmly afloat however.

Today information comes in tidal waves, and anyone can tap into it directly via the Internet.All a reporter needs is a laptop, camera, cell phone and Wi-Fi connection. The town of Amherst is even kind enough to provide free Wi-Fi in the downtown.

Downtown Wi-Fi emitters

Whether news is gathered in an office cubical over a rotary phone and tapped into a story via a Smith Corona typewriter, or captured on a flip video camera, edited on a MacBook Air and posted directly to YouTube, it's still flesh and blood reporters that ask questions, record results and package them for, potentially, a world wide audience.

And that I hope, will never change.

Rogue Elephant in the Room

So I'm a tad disappointed with my print friends at the Gazette and Springfield Republican for not mentioning in their front page articles covering UMass President Robert Caret's on campus press conference yesterday that he plans to get tough with rowdy student behavior we have already seen too much off this month.

Ch 22 TV used the term "strongly discipline offenders" but since they did not put quotation marks around it I have to assume that is the impression Caret gave the reporter,Jackie Bruno, in response to her question. Maybe since it was Ms. Bruno asking the question the print folks--who tend to dislike TV journalism--chose to ignore it.

The Mass Daily Collegian also mentioned it in passing but opted to highlight Caret's other Pollyanna idea of addressing the problem, what I consider the "oatmeal cookie' approach: Student ambassadors living in the impacted neighborhoods to facilitate two way conversations.

But all bricks-and-mortar reporters highlighted Caret's wish to move from top 50 public university nationwide to top 25 in "research". If that ambitious goal is to be met, he needs to recognize the inverse relationship between top research institution and top party school: One excludes the other!

With the twitch of a finger

So you know you're getting old when a vivid memory exceeds the reach of the online union news archives, which only reach back to 1988. Twenty five years ago I was in the middle of a UMass journalism course--'News Reporting and Writing'--taught by a Springfield Union News reporter, who would get the assignment to cover the local news event of the decade.

I'm not sure if it was just the stunning nature of the tragedy or her writing skills sketching the funeral scene; but the front page feature brought tears to my eyes as I'm sure it did many, many readers back in the days when newspapers were as widely read as Facebook is today.

Two young Springfield police officers--Alain Beauregard and Michael Schiavina--pull over a vehicle on a rather routine stop and approach it, like cops are trained to do, from both sides. The 18 year old driver Eduardo “Crazy Eddie” Ortiz, 18, cut them both down with a 357 magnum handgun.

The violent deaths of two officers simply doing their jobs set off an emotional groundswell I had not seen since November 22, 1963. The somber funeral procession along streets they had previously protected, flanked by thousands of brother and sister officers was something to see, but certainly the kind of thing you hope never to see again.

The Springfield Republican reports (25 years later)

Yes, this is America

So I can’t even remember the last time I disagreed with my friends at the Springfield Republican, but today they kind of blew it with an editorial on Ray Luc Levasseur’s censored Umass appearance.

On the one hand they “were ready to defend his right to speak at UMass. This is America, after all.” But on the other hand they’re “glad that Levasseur, a convicted terrorist, won’t be able to lead a three-ring circus that would mock freedom of speech.”

Say what? How is simply exercising your American right (yes even someone on Parole has rights) under the First Amendment making a mockery of free speech? And who is responsible for the “three-ring circus”?

The Boston Herald and conservative talk radio whipped up the masses in a classic yellow journalism campaign that would have made William Randolph Hearst proud.

I do not condone violence to achieve change (and apparently neither does Lavasseur anymore); as President Lincoln so succinctly stated: “The ballot is stronger than the bullet”. As flight 93 headed towards Washington DC on a suicide mission the passengers took a vote before attempting to retake the plane.

To advocate freedom of speech but applaud its denial strikes me as hypocritical.
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This from The Boston Globe:
Not everyone who suffered in the Freedom Front’s wake agrees with stifling Levasseur’s voice. Edmund Narine, who lost a leg in the 1976 courthouse bombing, said despite a desire to protest a Levasseur appearance, free speech trumps his anger.

Levasseur “should be prosecuted again, and if I have to return and testify again, I would,’’ he said yesterday in a phone interview from Kampala, Uganda, where he is visiting family. “At the same time if he wants to talk about it, and I don’t know what he’s going to tell the kids, but I think he should be given the opportunity to speak.’’

“I think the public can learn from someone who’s carried out these sorts of heinous acts,’’ said Narine, 72, who is a writer in Mission Hill. “It’s important for us to hear why they did it, what motivated them. . . . It’s good for all of us to hear that, especially professionals, because it might help them to take preventive action in the future.’’

Levasseur said he was humbled by Narine’s support.

“I think that’s a tremendous thing for him to do. And I appreciate it given what he’s been through,’’ said Levasseur, noting that he never intended to hurt innocent civilians.
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The Springfield Republican Speaks

Worcester Telegram & Gazette Columnist gets it right

UMass President Jack Wilson (before the Body Snatchers got him)

Even the Umass Daily Collegian gets it!