Back when Honolulu had competing daily newspapers and television stations, stories bubbled up through what I call the news food chain, eventually getting delivered to the public through the mainstream media.
Reporters for the daily media, at the top of the food chain, pored over sources lower down the food chain for breaking stories and emerging issues. Niche publications like Pacific Business News, magazines like Hawaii Business, newsletters like Environment Hawaii, and blogs like this one, provide a steady source of items to feed the hungry reporter, eventually appearing in the daily news.
So I’m puzzled by the absence of any mainstream folo of two issues reported here recently.
UH West Oahu Chancellor Gene Awakuni was in the news a lot this week after he announced plans to retire at the end of this school year.
But I found only one backhanded mention of the charge by the State Ethics Commission that he violated the state ethics over a period of years by failing to fully disclose numerous financial interests as required by law, as I reported on Tuesday (“UH West Oahu Chancellor admits ethics violation“).
So far, the only other mention of Awakuni’s ethics problem was an aside in a Star-Advertiser editorial yesterday.
Awakuni said this week that some of the concerns had been answered by the time the new campus opened some months after the site visit, and that he expects WASC will be satisfied with progress at the next visit set for 2014.
Beyond that, there have been concerns that construction change orders drove the $170 million project about $14 million over budget, and reports that Awakuni faced an inquiry from the state Ethics Commission about his financial disclosure records.
Awakuni has acknowledged the overruns. But the ethics angle, he said, was no longer an issue. He said he had been alerted that the commission found his required disclosure forms lacking in key required information but supplied the data and considered the problem resolved.
Apart from that, the silence has been deafening.
Then there were the guilty pleas entered by two defendants in a Maui fraud case tied to members of a Hawaiian sovereignty group which were reported here two weeks ago (“Two sovereignty activists plead guilty to fraud and conspiracy in Maui bond scam“).
The original indictments were widely reported due to the high visibility of the defendants, with stories in the Star-Advertiser, Maui News, Hawaii News Now, KHON, and elsewhere.
But the admission by two defendants that their whole debt relief scheme was a scam has so far not been reported elsewhere. I’ve searched the Star-Advertiser archives, as well as Google and Bing, and failed to turn up anything.
I’m puzzled.
News in Hawaii even with two competing papers was barely bird cage lining worthy. And old joke was that if you were actually involved in something and then read a news report on it you could swear it was a different event being reported on. Important points, information, people and organizations were omitted on purpose by the local establishment rags so the coverage would not assist people in getting involved or offend the plantation masters. Now msm all over is a dismissible joke and people are getting it. Thank goodness for the emergence of nu-media and rss. Otherwise our brains might implode from the vacuum. The question is, when will advertisers start getting it and stop paying a premium for ad space that is not really worth that much? They would get much better bang supporting local bloggers with integrity or underwriting Civil Beat like an NPR model of sponsorship. So down with the corporate propaganda rags and up with independent quality journalism!
Ian, what are your thoughts on this statement? I find it hard to believe. The two late local news dailies seemed to me to be fairly good local newspapers. For what they were, they seemed pretty good.
I recently glimpsed an article in the Star Advertiser that its publisher is going to be honored at a fundraiser by the March of Dimes. As the sole publisher in this town, he now has a very high status in the community. But I wonder if the elite who now try to curry favor with him really respect him. The previous publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser might have incurred a certain distaste among the current local elite for his personal ties with and justifications for the old white elite in Hawaii, but there might have also been a grudging respect. But the current publisher is basically a mercenary. The local attitude might be, “Well, we have to deal with this guy…” Try to imagine what Cayetano or Abercrombie think of him! One can win wealth or status, but respect, admiration and loyalty are something else.
On the other hand, if I was in the shoes of this publisher, I might just do the same as he does. Downsize the journalism, inflate the cheap fluff, and go along with the advertisers’ positions in the stories and editorials. After all, this “newspaper” might not even exist in a generation. In today’s world, you make your money when you can and while you can. Realistically, what choice does he have? For all of his evisceration of the real news, he might be a good guy who has no real choice.
This is exactly why I asked whether press releases were issued by the state ethics commission. When there is an ethics violation that is resolved at the county level, a press release is sent out. It appears that is not the case (currently) at the state. And if no press releases are being sent out, then why would Les Kondo even make the statement that public shame is the commission’s biggest stick. It doesn’t make sense.
One thing I did notice, however, is that it seems quite a lot of reporters, at least from the SA, have been wined & dined by Jim Donovan. Does this affect their reporting with respect to other UH issues, e.g., Gene Awakuni?
And as far as the wining & dining goes, I think it’s important to consider the level of gift giving compared to the lifestyle of the receiver. For example, for someone who is struggling to make ends meet or someone even on the higher side of middle class, a dinner at Alan Wong’s or other high-end meals & drinks can be a really big deal. For any reporters who fall into that category, are they able to maintain their independence?
Another quotation re: journalism seems sort of appropriate concerning your observation on the lack of coverage of the Maui fraud scheme admissions.
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Journalism Quotes
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In any event, the proper question isn’t what a journalist thinks is relevant but what his or her audience thinks is relevant. Denying people information they would find useful because you think they shouldn’t find it useful is censorship, not journalism.
Micheal Kinsley
Unfortunately, as we have seen recently, the news audience in a place like Hawaii is not primarily interested in news, but in football.
Maybe some but not all. In my house the sports section is first choice when looking for something to wrap the fish guts because it is a foregone conclusion that no one is going to read it.
At our house, it’s Midweek that gets the doggie-poop honors once the food ads are pulled out.