Joseph McQuaid comments 09-29-06
EXCERPT of comments by Joseph McQuaid, president of the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader and its parent Loeb School of Journalism, during a panel at the Media Giraffe Project summit, Democracy and Independence: Sharing News & Information in a Connected World, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on June 29, 2006, during the panel discussion Can Ownership Make a Difference.
I think there is another problem here that hasn’t been touched upon and that is the lack of appetite on the part of the American public for what it is that we do, whether it is online or in print and that is covering government. Civics is not taught in American schools anymore, there is very little participation in American government at the local level – school boards, planning boards, town elections, people don’t vote – they’re doing three jobs at a time to give their kids a better quality of life only they never get to see the kids. And what we do, investigative journalism, the other person was right, every reporter is an investigator, but what we’ve long done to keep government honest, the people don’t have time or an interest in caring. So we’ve really got to find ways to be more creative in how we go about it. The gentleman, Mr. Bass, what he said about New Haven, I don’t like his shots at the Loebs, but it’s true that in Manchester, N.H., there’s no local media but us, really. The radio is all Clear Channel, they rip and read the Associated Press copy – which is us – and they do it for free. So we have a lot of problems to get around and the FCC, I don’t think it’s a good idea to let the TV and the radio and the newspaper and the Internet all be owned by the same people.”
Joseph McQuaid Phone : 603-668-4321
jmcquaid@unionleader.com
