January 23, 2013
Government as Reporters' Parachute
During the handful of interactions I had with Connie Grosch at the State House, last session, she was friendly and very helpful. Moreover, she did her job taking photographs for the Providence Journal well.
So, I was sorry to see her name added to the list of personnel cuts that the paper has made in recent years, and I'm glad that she's landed on her feet. But the way she's done so worries me.
Grosch has taken a job (perhaps "has been offered and accepted a job" would be better put) as Congressman David Cicilline's press secretary. At Governor Lincoln Chafee's State of the State address, her former media colleagues highlighted her attendance in that capacity.
In the past year, I've also had a few introductory lunches with folks in the Rhode Island media, and a number of them have declined my offer to pick up the bill for their sandwiches. For some, it's apparently company policy. As a matter of risking the credibility of reportage, how a couple of slices of bread with meat between them compares with, say, Providence Journal reporters' largely undisclosed membership in the RI AFL-CIO, I'm not sure.
How it compares with a politician's saving a late-career journalist from unemployment, I'm a little more confident. ...
Continue reading on the Ocean State Current...
Talk about convenient relationships....
//legalinsurrection.com/2013/01/like-i-told-you-in-rhode-island-unions-are-the-state/
Posted by: Mike at January 23, 2013 8:43 AMIt's well known in the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and SEC that high-ranking officials who play nice with the banking industry are essentially guaranteed high-six-figure to seven-figure jobs after their stint in Washington is finished. I don't think anyone is deluded enough to believe that the job offers derive from the hard skills those individuals offer; usually they're hired as a lobbyist or some type of spokesman for the industry. It's important for people to understand that corruption isn't a matter of legality versus illegality - it's whether institutions are fulfilling their proper roles and serving those whom they are supposed to serve.
Posted by: Dan at January 23, 2013 8:53 AMIt is an open secret that the media and politicians are symbiotic. The politicians are the source of the news that the mediarites need. If the media doesn't play nice, they don't get "access".
If the politicians don't play nice, the media can "tell the truth", or speculate.
Posted by: Warrington Faust at January 23, 2013 1:04 PMHmm, that's weird. Are you telling me there are no more so-called journalists anymore. Just Democrats with bylines. All working together to make government survive and thrive.
Never forget the liberal mantra JK. We're all in this together, except you, you're a dick.
I saw the "mocking". Doherty called it a "bowling team", to which Cicilline claimed they'd never been bowling. So I looked it up and sure enough, right on the page of the Congresswoman who organized that bi-partisan group was her mentioning how the group had a bowling night.
Interesting yet again that Cicilline has difficulty with honesty in saying they'd never been bowling. Sure, maybe Doherty was poking fun at the group but there's nothing wrong with explaining that Cicilline saw bowling as just yet another activity where the two sides could have some fun together. Instead, he went straight to what he knows best. Lie.
Posted by: Patrick at January 24, 2013 10:55 AMSome people are just pathological liars. David Cicillini. Bob Plain. Even when caught red handed publishing lies, they just lie more to pave over the old lies and never admit fault. A rolling stone gathers no moss in a far-left, apathetic state like Rhode Island. If you truly believe the ends justify the means in making the world a more "progressive" place, it's easy to crank out the whoppers and look yourself in the mirror each night. There are always high-priced spin doctors like Tom Sgouros for sale to publish gushing defenses of you in the local papers if you really get yourself in deep.
Posted by: Dan at January 24, 2013 12:38 PMDave,
"Hmm, that's weird. Are you telling me there are no more so-called journalists anymore. Just Democrats with bylines. All working together to make government survive and thrive."
It has been reported many times, and is certainly no secret, that more than 80% of mediarites are registered Democrats. It would be unrealitic to think that there is not some seepage of personal opinions. "Journalists"? We need "reporters".
Posted by: Warrington Faust at January 24, 2013 1:31 PM