Marty Trillhaase of the Idaho Falls Post Register recently said Larry Craig was one of the biggest embarrassments of the year. Shame on you Marty. You used to work for the Idaho Statesman and inside sources at the Statesman said you nearly had a nervous breakdown working for those editors back in the 1990s.
What Marty knew then many of us know now. The Statesman is a dishonest embarrassment to the news community. For these and many other reasons Working Press Too (wp2) is happy to share the following that we have gathered from many former Statesman reporters and current reporters that are not happy with the current publisher or executive editor.
So with that in mind let’s look at the top ten reasons the Idaho Statesman is Idaho’s biggest embarrassment of 2007.
Number 10: Sloppy journalism. The Statesman can’t even match headlines
with their stories. Toward the end of 2007, the fed lowered the interest
rate and the Statesman ran a front page story, top of the fold with a
headline that said the fed raised the interest rate. Then in the first
paragraph the Statesman says the fed lowered the interest rate. This kind
of thing happens way too often at the Statesman. Our inside sources say
they are laying people off and not replacing them leaving everyone else to
do more with less.
Number 9: Lack of transparency at the Statesman. The editors constantly
bully local companies like Micron, Republicans and others for lack of
openness. Pot-kettle. The Statesman is constantly hiding things from
readers and advertisers. Wp2 will be listing many of those things in the
coming weeks and months.
Number 8: Ripping off McClatchy stockholders. No newspaper group in the
country has nose-dived more and faster than McClatchy has in the last two
years. They’ve lost 80% of their value according to stock reports and a
recent story in the Wall Street Journal called “Read All About It.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119888825411356705.html?mod=yahoo_hs
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119888825411356705.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yah
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Number 7: Horrible circulation. In 1987 the Statesman circulation was
55,000 and today, 20 years later they claim circulation at about 65,000.
The bad news for the Statesman is that the population of Ada County has
nearly doubled since then. The Statesman is losing ground faster than
Europe did to Hitler.
Number 6: Hiding behind the 1st Amendment. The Statesman abuses the 1st
Amendment on a regular basis to destroy the lives of good people like Larry
Craig. They tried to do the same to Roy Eiguren, but failed miserably. Now
that they can’t find anything on Craig, they are just making things up and
presenting them as fact.
Number 5: Justifying horrible reporting. Never has wp2 seen more excuses
written by an executive editor to justify a story that’s been written by
charlatans like Dan Popkey. Every time he writes a story to destroy
someone, she has a little sidebar explaining why they had to take a cheap
shot at someone. We doubt very seriously that Popkey could sustain the same
scrutiny he has put others through.
Number 4: Cradle robbing. When are Statesman managers going to put an end
Popkey’s hitting on the young girls in the newsroom, less than half his age?
Many young women who used to work for the Statesman said it happens all the
time and the publisher and executive editor turn a blind eye for their
favorite pet, Popkey.
Number 3: Inflating circulation figures. All year long the Statesman has
been trying to give away free papers and people won’t even take them for
free. Wp2 has seen them doing their giveaways at football games, in Fred
Meyer, Albertson and they even have a kiosk in the mall. On top of adding
these figures to their circulation, they also give extra copies to
businesses in the Treasure Valley and claim that as additional circulation.
Maybe the SEC should give them a closer look. Inflating or falsifying
circulation figures with a publicly traded company is a no-no.
Number 2: Ignoring stories that would hurt democrats. During the Boise
mayor’s campaign, the Statesman ignored the fact that Jade Riley, a key
staffer in the Bieter administration, was let off on a DUI by some clever
legal work. Bieter’s attorney asked for a change of venue from Boise to
Garden City where the prosecutor is Frank Walker, Bieter’s former law
partner and good friend. Walker let Riley go with a withheld judgment in
spite of the fact that this was his second DUI. The running joke in
democrat circles is that they don’t need their own newsletter, they have the
Statesman.
Number 1: Constant badgering of Senator Craig. Even though the Statesman
has no facts to support their claims, they continue to attack Senator Craig.
Our sources at the Statesman tell us that Popkey and the management have
proof that many of their claims are false, but they refuse to reveal these
facts.
Wp2 will be revealing more in 2008.
January 5, 2008 at 6:34 pm |
Isn’t it interesting that the state’s largest employer, Micron, and the state’s senior Senator, Larry Craig, have both made the decision not to talk to ANYONE from the Idaho Statesman? If it was just one of these, we could chalk it up to a conflict of personalities or something isolated. Larry Craig and Micron aren’t even covered by the same reporters. Ken Dey and Joe Estrella have the business beat, and Dan Popkey, Greg Hahn and a few others cover politics and government. So the fact that Craig and Micron both reached the conclusion that they were better off WITHOUT coverage from the state’s largest paper speaks volumes. They must have figured no coverage was better than inaccurate or misleading coverage. This shows Craig’s and Micron’s boycotts aren’t just based on one-on-one differences with reporters, but with the way the entire paper covers the news.
Statesman readers really ought to question why this is, and wonder what it is they’re missing in every story.
January 6, 2008 at 3:42 pm |
[...] new blog has been launched raising explosive allegations against the Idaho Statesman. At this point, I have to consider the stories rumors and innuendo. [...]
January 6, 2008 at 6:26 pm |
The day that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was “exposed” for taking huge contributions from convicted felon, Norman Hsu, this paper did something remarkable.
They “just happened” to break the Larry Craig story. A story that they held onto for four months. Lo and behold Hillary’s story disappeared and was buried by the Craig scandal.
Coincidence or Clintonista manipulation of the news?
tsk. tsk. Statesman.
January 7, 2008 at 7:12 pm |
Finally, someone to shed a little light on the daily rag!
Everyone on the inside of the mayoral race knew that the Jade Reilly DUI was a political bombshell, (and that includes The BPD union, and MADD among others) But you have to hand it to Bieter. He got that thing so buried, I thought it would die of old age and disregard.
the Statesman reporter that wasn assigned to the race, looked me in the eye and said” not a story”!
Yea, Right! An incumbent mayor has his ex law partner represent his chief of staff on a 2nd. DUI charge, gets a change of venue to Garden City (and don’t forget the relationship between the GC prosecutor and the mayor) and then gets a withheld judgement. Unheard of with a 2nd. conviction! You could haul a Beluga whale to the steps of city hall, leave it there for two weeks in the middle of August, and it wouldn’t stink as much as this little episode does!
And to the editer of the Statesman, next time you hear a knock on your door? Don’t answer it. It will be Satan coming for your soul!
January 8, 2008 at 8:17 pm |
Just a comment in defense of McClatchy… their International Coverage (http://www.mcclatchydc.com) is pretty excellent, including reporter blogs. I used to work for some of those editors and they are the best in the business these days… worth a read…
January 8, 2008 at 9:18 pm |
I saw this letter to the editor in the Post Register:
Received Dec. 24, cleared Dec. 26
Sen. Larry Craig, thank you for all the work on behalf of Medicare recipients. Your understanding of the consequences of a 10.1 percent cut in reimbursement to physicians in 2008 has assured stable access at least until June of 2008. Hopefully you and your colleagues can work to solve the flawed calculation that brings this issue to the forefront each Jan. 1.
Unfortunately, Marty Trillhaase (Dec. 23) does not appreciate your great work on issues affecting citizens in this state. He seems to perseverate over a few minutes of your private life rather than the many years of faithful service.
Thanks again from the medical community and the Medicare population that will be needing care in 2008. (Word count: 117)
PAUL BROOKE, MD
past president of Idaho Falls Medical Society
Idaho Falls
January 8, 2008 at 10:08 pm |
Hey Chuck you are correct about Micron not talking to the Statesman. I think a point that needs to be made that is just as important as yours is that Micron dropped their ADVERTISING from the Statesman as well.
That means that Idaho’s largest employer does not even trust the State’s “largest paper” with their advertising dollars either.
That has to be one of the many financial hits that has driven the Statesman into the hole that they find themselves in. I am sure it was million’s of bucks they lost.
January 9, 2008 at 10:17 pm |
On Sept 3, 2007 I sent an opinion piece to the Statesman in defense of my long time friend Larry Craig. It was 493 words, less than the 600 required for an opinion piece. The following day I recieved an email back from Peggy Calhoun the assistant editor that my piece was to long and could not be printed. They obviously did not want any support pieces in their paper. Thankfully the Idaho Press Tribune did. I am glad for this blog to let people know about the Statesman and thier witch hunt for the Senator.
January 10, 2008 at 3:21 pm |
I know that when this was pointed out it was also dropped quickly, but the relationship between the Statesman and Mayor Bieter is the Gallatin Group. This “group” was/is the Statesmans private PR firm and was/is Mayor Bieters firm as well. Interestingly enough, Mark Johnson (not KTVB M. Johnson) and Cecil Andrus, the 2 biggest Idaho Dems, are the force behind the Gallatin group. Things that make you go hummm. I was raised here and have lived here my whole life, the Statesman used to be a decent and fair paper, but I have watched it be turned into a joke by people like Popkey and the liberal editors. They hate Republicans, think they are better than everyone else (see Popkeys excuses and blaming for his own arrest several years ago), they hate the cops and they couldn’t find Mtn. Home or anywhere outside Ada/Canyon area with a map!
January 12, 2008 at 10:57 am |
Very interesting!
January 13, 2008 at 12:28 am |
Are you people wacko’s down there in S.E. Idaho?
Hard to believe your still supporting Craig.
If it wasn’t reporting like Pokey does we would never hear of these things.
As far as Micron! Get a life! They will pull out on us and leave us holding the bag! Their CEO made a bunch of money and to hell with Idaho!
January 15, 2008 at 1:35 pm |
After putting up with McClatchy’s flagship newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, for 25 years I can tell you that you haven’t seen anything yet. The McClatchy’s long ago abandoned journalistic principles in favor of promoting their own social/progressive world view. Their papers don’t present the world as it is, they show you the world as they would like it to be. I’m sure they see the Statesman as an opportunity to reshape the Idaho local yokels into a more California-acceptable mindset. The real journalists will leave the paper, if they haven’t already, and the only people who will be left are those who feel they know better than you what you should think, and will write their stories accordingly.
February 10, 2008 at 4:55 pm |
To Robert:
you are right. If it weren’t for Popkey reporting, you wouldn’t ever hear of these things…BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT TRUE!!! It’s all inuendos and half truths coming from the Stateman.