Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

The Wild One Bypasses the Mainstream Media

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by

James A. Bacon
in

I continue to be fascinated by the e-mail missives sent out by Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder as he bypasses the Mainstream Media to take his case to the public. His weekly “Visions” newsletter contains data that often gets filtered out in space-constrained news stories, as well as video sound bites that the televisions don’t have time to run. The merits of his arguments aside, the newsletter is one of the more sophisticated uses of digital media that I’ve seen employed in Virginia government. More savvy, even, than the communications coming out of the Governor’s office.

Today’s edition is a good example. The Wild One takes after his nemesis, the Richmond School Board, for failing to provide handicapped access at city schools. Local news media had recently profiled a disabled child who cannot attend Fox Elementary School, the school nearest to his home, because money earmarked for design work to provide for an elevator had been spent for other unnamed projects.

Since 1992, the year the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, according to the newsletter, the city has provided the school system with $125 million in Capital Improvement Plan funding. A 2005 study put the cost of making ADA improvements for city schools at $18,354,500. But the school board had set aside no money in either fiscal 2007 or 2008 for ADA.

The minute-long video clip is vintage Wilder: “If the people of the city of Richmond are satisfied with the waste and the inefficiency in the school system, after I have pointed out and shown what is needed to be done … if they’re satisfied with the school board, then I’m satisfied too.”

As Mainstream Media continue to retrench, is this is the future of political communications? Electronic newsletters, embedded with video clips …. filtered through blogs?

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  1. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    As Mainstream Media continue to retrench, is this is the future of political communications? Electronic newsletters, embedded with video clips …. filtered through blogs?

    Absolutely.

    This is an interesting and relevant story –
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2251982,00.html

    Blogs provide transparency and un-filtered completeness, along with the efficiency of sourcing said stories.

  2. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Interesting story. Here’s a good quote: “Where once journalists were active gatherers of news, now they have generally become mere passive processors of unchecked, second-hand material, much of it contrived by PR to serve some political or commercial interest. Not journalists, but churnalists.”

    Churnalists… I like that.

  3. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    I want to point out just how dysfunctional, and I think corrupt the relationship is in Virginia between BOS/City Councils and SOME (not all) elected school boards.

    If a county/city department submitted a budget that contained mandated ADA improvements and the BOS short-funded that budget by the amount of the requested ADA money, then they could be held accountable as the ones who did CHOSE to not fund.

    But what would happen, if the BOS/City Council funded the request and then it was spent on something else?

    Well.. for one thing – the Department Head would be fired – probably on the spot if not sooner.

    But what happens when an Elected School Board does essentially the same thing and then, on top of that, goes “public” accusing the BOS/City Council of not funding ADA improvements and THEN on top of that the MM sound-bites the cutline “ADA Improvements not funded”?

    What some (not all) elected school boards do across Va is if the BOS/City Council does not “fully fund” ALL of their budget then they defund something that has a constituency and then publicize it to tar the BOS.

    This is why I support Elected School Boards being able to set the tax rate.

    Only THEN will it be crystal clear to the majority of the public that many schools essentially refuse to prioritize funding and instead want more and more regardless of the impact that it might have on the tax rate.

    And if the BOS refuses, then the big publicity club is brought out to bludgeon the BOS into submission.

    I’m sure there is another side to this so I’d welcome opposite viewpoints… to the one I’ve stated.

    perhaps a bigger question is.. why do we have this kind of governance arrangement in the first place for schools only?

    Why not do roads this way.. have an elected Road Commission and if they don’t get all of their money.., they hold up construction on a road that will get the BOS in trouble?

    Grump!

  4. Paul Hammond Avatar
    Paul Hammond

    I have been making the case to abolish the Richmond City School district entirely. Why reinvent the wheel when we have two award winning school systems next door? This would eliminate the education penalty paid by families who want to live in Richmond and help unite the metro area around a common interest, our children. The Dillon Rule makes this nearly impossible, but that’s a subject of another blog.

    Abolish the Richmond Public School System

    Abolish the RPS Part 2

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