When neighborhood residents complain about media coverage of their area, the criticisms sometimes mirror the constant whining of partisan political bloggers and activists. It’s not that the articles are biased, it’s that they aren’t written exactly how the residents or bloggers want the articles written.
That is not completely the case in Mattapan, where we have some valid analysis, and a less than adequate response from the region’s paper of record. This morning, WBUR reported on criticism from a local bishop, who pleaded for “more balanced” reporting about inner city residents after the slaying of four people and the severe wounding of a fifth, the worst Boston massacre in five years.
Jennifer Peter, the Boston Globe’s local news editor, pushed back, telling WBUR, “I disagree with the assessment that we parachute into Mattapan or other city neighborhoods only when there’s a sensational crime… In Mattapan we’ve covered the new library there extensively. We did a story about concerns of local citizens about the very screechy wheels of the local trolleys. We’ve written about the farmers market there.”
OK, fine. But the screechy wheels of the Mattapan Line trolley have been a problem for the residents of the Ashmont neighborhood, which is in Dorchester.
Perhaps more egregious is the fact that Mattapan had a five-way race for state representative this year – brought on by current state Rep. Willie Mae Allen choosing not to run for re-election – and it received little coverage in the Globe.
The heavily Democratic district includes parts of Mattapan, Dorchester, Hyde Park, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain.
There was the newspaper’s endorsement of Russell Holmes, who would go on to win 36 percent of the vote and faces no opponents in the Nov. 2 generational election. There was also the post-election write-up. Unless we’re missing something on the Globe’s website, that was it.
Contrast that with the coverage in the Dorchester Reporter and Mattapan Reporter, which has been around since 2003; the Jamaica Plain Gazette; and other local news outlets. We covered the Primary Night results, a forum, and a few scuffles here and there. The Reporter broke the news that Rep. Allen was retiring.
Now, we get it: Not every newspaper reader/news consumer has a passion for politics. That is evident by the ever-dwindling press corps up on Beacon Hill and elsewhere in the U.S.; by how often the Globe was regularly getting scooped by the State House News Service, an independent subscriber-based wire service that could only get better if it was delivered intravenously; and poll after poll showing the staggering political ignorance of voters and the public at large. (U.S. Sen. John Kerry caught a lot of flack for telling that last truth.)
And newspaper coverage is easy to criticize, whether you’re a partisan blogger, neighborhood resident, or a reporter watching with some trepidation as the industry attempts to find its financial footing on what looks like a precipice. But in the end, at least in Mattapan, it shouldn’t be about “positive” coverage or “negative” coverage. It should be about getting more coverage, period.
