That’s a page on the Oneonta-area The Daily Star’s website today. Take the survey. I did:
If it’s free, absolutely. I appreciate the online edition because I don’t have to pay for the paper. I haven’t purchased a copy of this third-rate rag in 7 years, but out of necessity [and lack of alternatives] I do have to glance at it occasionally.
If I had to pay? No – not interested at all.
There ya go.
When The Daily Star gets serious about its editors and staff, I’ll get serious about its paper.
And, to relate TDS to this site, their coverage of education issues is sparse, ill-informed, and uncritical. I hoped that the internet would bring a massive shakeup to this bird-cage liner and necessitate its reform. Not yet, it seems.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Robert Pondiscio 06.03.08 at 8:25 am
Aw c’mon Matthew, cut the paper a little slack. Just hearing its name invokes strong and fond memories of living an working in Oneonta, where I was the news director of WDOS-AM for a time. Every morning I would go through the Star hoping I didn’t get beaten on any major stories.
Small town journalism is like minor league baseball. You get better at your craft and you move up. So the Star might never be the Times, but in this day and age, the fact that a city of Oneonta’s size can support a daily is nothing short of miraculous. I hope it lines bird cages for years to come.
Matthew K. Tabor 06.04.08 at 4:13 pm
Robert,
I’m also surprised that the Star is still as strong as it is. It’s a rotten time for small-market papers, especially dailies, and I don’t envy anyone who works on the business end.
Having said that, editor Sam Pollak is a substandard thinker who, despite winning many awards from other substandard thinkers, routinely pens pieces that show demonstrable contempt for the majority of residents in this area. Maybe I’m just missing his points – after all, I’m just another uneducated, ignorant rube in need of Pollak’s enlightenment.
Hopefully one day I’ll get to remind Pollak of how rudely he treated me at a job fair. The nice thing is that it’s been a wonderful example to cite for others who want to know about the good, the bad and the ugly in early post-collegiate job searches. It was such an impressive display of contempt that it competes with the worst boorish, snobbish academics from the Ivy League to Hollywood for the title of “Worst Job-Related Moment Ever.” That’s an awfully high hurdle, and Pollak worked hard to clear it.
The part about Pollak’s inept punditry and unwarranted high-handedness isn’t what bothers me, though. Star reporters are held to a very low professional standard. That’s alright, too – I go elsewhere for serious news – but it’s a problem when their mistakes and lack of scruples affect the people, families and communities they cover.
Dotting i’s and crossing t’s can have a remarkable effect on maintaining the dignity of a story’s subjects, and some of the folks at the Star would do well to realize that.
On a more positive note, WDOS! Awesome. I’d listen to the classic country mornings more often if I could pick up a radio station where I live.
Robert Pondiscio 06.09.08 at 11:04 am
My all-time worst job fair moment: At a New York City teaching job fair, where a hostile, indifferent and wholly self-satisfied principal (ooops, sorry. The DEAN) sneered at me with contempt and said “What makes you think you have anything at all to teach my children?”
“Oh, I dunno. Your single-digit 4th grade reading test scores?”
I didn’t say that. But I’ll go to my grave wishing I had.
Matthew K. Tabor 06.09.08 at 5:54 pm
Robert,
Ha! Sounds like you could’ve helped that school with reading scores *and* humility/hubris.
Oh, the memories, the memories! So many stories are coming back now.
Like the time when I flew 3,000 miles to have a woman tell me that she thought my resume couldn’t possibly be real.
Or the times – and there have been many – when genteel cityfolk have taken it upon themselves to worry about how such a small-town hick might survive in the Big City. I think I like this objection the least and find it the rudest.