This piece is not so much an indictment of the local Rochester, New York commercial media reportage as it is of those whom I believe to exert a considerable amount of undue influence over our local newspapers and news stations. I do realize this particular market is on the smaller side. Yet it often seems to serve as a stepping-stone for those with actual talent. With that in mind, I feel that anyone who demonstrates a measure of competence and has a 'presence' about them is usually destined to remain here for only a short period of time, eventually moving on to larger, more lucrative pastures.
For those reporters who either decide to stay in Rochester or who simply do not have other, more enticing prospects, they are charged with, like it or not, covering a rather insulated, parochial municipality. Things just don't change around here too quickly. At least in some respects, it appears to me that we, generally speaking, are still clinging to the glory days of the 1960s and 1970s, when the major corporations that are headquartered here – Eastman Kodak, Bausch & Lomb – were making money hand over fist and jobs of all kinds were aplenty.
According to a 1974 article published by Rudolph Kingslake, how many people outside of Rochester knew that those two Fortune 500 companies, among several others, were originally based here? And that Xerox was founded here as well but in more modern times has called Norwalk, Connecticut its official home. Xerox still does have a large local presence, however, currently employing about 5,500 people, in addition to at least that many number of retirees.
Nevertheless, in due course, the bottom fell out on the economy here, with tens of thousands of jobs, particularly in manufacturing, fleeing the area – or just simply evaporating. In Bausch's case, they were acquired in 2007 by the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, as a means to stave off imminent insolvency. In my estimation, Kodak appears to be well on its way to experiencing a similar fate, based on a recent report that it will be borrowing $200 million to 'add to it's coffers,' according to Democrat & Chronicle columnist Matthew Daneman. This report came on the heels of another, issued by the same writer, indicating that a major Kodak shareholder is urging the company bring aboard corporate turnaround experts or sell the business.
A Failure to Launch
Equally disappointing to me is how little genuine alacrity and collaboration is applied in order to comprehensively resurrect a once proud town. There have been a number of city and regional improvement projects – Renaissance Square, for example – fail, or not even get off the ground, as a result of, in my opinion, a lack of consensus building by local leadership, and pervasive community inertia. In large part, it appears that Rochesterians have been lulled into a false sense of security by local commercial media. Instead of taking various entities to task, by viewing their activities and motives through a more critical lens, assorted media outlets have, per my observations, enabled the many self-serving enterprises that wish to see the status quo maintained.
Rochester's leading print publication, the Democrat & Chronicle, has for many years been the distributor of overtly partisan editorials and storylines that are, more often than not, designed to assuage the local elite who are so habitually determined to protect their own myopic agendas. Case in point, here is a February 2011 op-ed piece that exhorts local supporters of Rochester City Schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard to speak up and be heard. The D&C is not the only newspaper in town. The City Newspaper, a smaller and slightly less inhibited publication, has its moments of clarity and conviction, e.g. this December 2010 article by Tim Louis Macaluso. But with the D&C's large corporate backing - it's owned by the Gannett Company, whose origins are also in Rochester - it stands to reason it will survive at least a few other recessions and other storms.
Duplication and Saturation
The television newscasts are not any more impartial and comprehensive in my view. The ABC affiliate, 13WHAM, partners with the Democrat & Chronicle on a variety of news stories, thereby, to some degree, homogenizing the local press coverage. Further standardizing the local media landscape is the conglomeration of CBS affiliate WROC Channel 8 and WUHF Fox Rochester. These two stations actually share the same studio, sets, websites and even the newscasters themselves, including news anchor Kevin Doran and meteorologist Scott Hetsko. They do stagger the airtimes and add an anchor - Maureen Maguire - for the 6:00 broadcast.
For a smaller market like Rochester, I believe we are bombarded with newscasts. There are four local network affiliates plus one that is carried by Time Warner Cable, which is owned by The Time Warner Inc., the global media and entertainment juggernaut. Each of our television networks has for some time now been owned by corporate behemoths, including ABC, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. Each local station conducts several different nightly newscasts, essentially disseminating the same stories on each telecast.
Circling the Wagons
What alerted me that the Rochester area may be in serious trouble, and which is the crux of this particular piece, is when the Democrat & Chronicle and other local outlets began running what I call a seemingly ceaseless string of 'feel good' pieces on the alleged benefits of living in such a family – and wallet-friendly city like Rochester. For instance, the D&C, beginning about seven years ago, launched a series of articles espousing the myriad alluring attributes of living in Rochester, and why a number of different families have relocated to this area.
What our local media have failed to deliver on for many years now is a sense of reality and objectivity. When national publications like Kiplinger's routinely tout our relatively short and easy commutes to work, or abundance of affordable housing, the local media is quick to point these factors out, conveniently omitting the various reasons as to why these certain attributes are evident in this city. It stands to reason that such things are characteristic of Rochester due in large part to the fact that so many people have fled, not only this region but New York State altogether.
Our tax levies and rates are the highest, per capita, in the United States. Furthermore, the Rochester City School District, per a scathing report released by the New York State Education Department, deemed only 5% of RCSD graduates to be prepared for college coursework or a particular vocation immediately upon graduation. These issues didn't just present themselves overnight. Yet, for the most part, the local press has failed to impart more substantial viewpoints, choosing instead to appear, in my opinion, more like an extension of the local chamber of commerce.
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