Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

MORE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DISINFORMATION

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

The example of MainStream Media obliviousness highlighted in our current column (“Can’t Take This – Not Another Day!”) is from the 28 December WaPo. Perhaps it should have been the January issue of Virginia Business.

The cover story is on the transportation “stalemate.” As has been pointed out concerning other Richmond New Urban Region Media, any understanding of the land use / transportation relationship seems to be beyond the institutional capacity of the current staff. The story was a regurgitation of Business As Usual.

The current issue of Virginia Business also has a “Regional Report” on Fairfax County. As we Have noted from time to time, the current borders of Fairfax County include all or part of 10 Beta Communities.

Fairfax County is not a “Region” much less a New Urban Region. It is not even a “subregion” except in the narrow sense that any territory can be called a “subregion” and so there is a Fairfax County Subregion.

A robust, consistent Vocabulary and a comprehensive Conceptual Framework is the first step to understanding human settlement patterns. This understanding is a first step in solving the mobility and access crisis as well as the affordable and accessible housing crisis.

At one point, the editorial content of Virginia Business challenged business leaders to think about the collective, long-term interests of their organizations and of the citizens of the Commonwealth instead or just repeating the chamber of commerce / Business-As-Usual line.

EMR

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

4 responses to “MORE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DISINFORMATION”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Dear Ed Rissie:

    Fairfax County now has more than 1 million residents.

    It has millions of square feet of industrial and office space.

    Tysons Corner has more square feet of office and retail space
    and hotel rooms than many major cities in the United States.

    Fairfax County is the engine that drives the economy of all
    of Northern Virginia, thus being major contributor for tax
    funds in Virginia.

    I do not think it unfair of Virginia Business to feature the
    county in a region report, despite your protests about it not
    meeting your planning definitions for a “region” or “sub-region”
    or whatever.

    Sincerely,

    Rodger Provo
    Fredericksburg

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Unfortunately, Virginia Business is a shell of its former self and has become little more than a shill for advertisers who have an unhealthy sway over editorial content. This was how the just-left publisher “reengineered” the publication and was rewarded at Mediocrity General with promotion.
    What’s more, the current editorial staff was spawned at Mediocrity General and the Times-Disgrace and can’t be expected to go much beyond the very, very basic in their coverage.
    EMR is right, but he seems to be expecting a lot out of what has become the Special Olympics of regional business journalism.

  3. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Roger:

    One of the reasons we use EMR is that a lot of people have trouble spelling our name.

    As the second commenter pointed out, I am expecing a lot from everyone. Citizens will not, however, achieve a sustainable trajectory for civilization until there is a functional vocabulary to describe human settlement patterns.

    Finally, as we point out in our current column being an economic engine is no excuse to run over citizens and their environment.

    EMR

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Dear EMR:

    The facts are that Fairfax County is what it is
    despite your pronouncement that “being an economic
    engine is no excuse to run over citizens and their
    environment……”

    I think the writings on this blog are at times very
    disfunctional and have no relationship to pratical
    realities of what we are as a state and how we might
    to do a better job of resolving our problems.

    Cheers!!!!!

    WRP

Leave a Reply

Read More