ADN MIA in JNU

State Senator Kim Elton has a newsletter. In Friday's edition, he pegged the dismal coverage of the present legislative session being given by the Anchorage Daily News, which seems to rely more and more on cutting and pasting reports emanating from outside the McClatchy stable:

MIA--The state's largest newspaper is often missing in action as the legislature quickly settles into the process of spending and saving billions of general fund dollars. The Anchorage Daily News isn't fulltime on-the-ground in the Capitol during the session, which means they're not matching the stories filed by other reporters from other news outlets (broadcast and print) who have reporters in the capital day-after-day. These other reporters gain a better understanding of the nuances of personalities, policies, and politics that ultimately shape the budgets and the laws that guide our collective future. Guess the opinion page editorialists are depending more and more on NBC-TV news, ABC-TV news, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner'sJuneau Empire stories from the capitol, the AP filed stories, or public radio's APRN to help craft their editorials about state policies now being shaped by the legislature and the governor. The Anchorage Daily News staff adds a tagline "Bottom Line" to the end of their editorials that summarizes the points they are trying to make. I'll borrow their approach. Bottom Line: The state's largest newspaper needs to have boots (and ears) on the ground in the Capitol like the other, smaller purveyors of state news.

hat tip - Robert Dillon