Governor Abercrombie released the list of donors to his inauguration events earlier this week.
The Star-Advertiser’s online edition gave it only cursory coverage in a story attributed to “staff”, and failed to provide readers with the full list of donors.
Compare that to the more thorough sifting through the list by Civil Beat, which did provide the full list, although with the ability to download the list intentionally disabled.
So the Star-Advertiser was just lazy. Civil Beat with much better reporting but ultimately less than user friendly.
KITV, Hawaii News Now, and Hawaii Reporter all made the full donor list available in a form that can be captured by readers. Anything less should really be unacceptable.
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Ian, your comments about Civil Beats actions are really are unacceptable. Civil Beat does not have advertisers thankfully which may influence content. However KITV, Star-Advertiser, Hawaii News Now, and Hawaiian Reporters do depend on advertisers as an income source. Civil Beat is an exciting concept with a talented staff, that I am glad to pay to read.
I was not criticizing Civil Beat’s cost, which is another issue entirely, but rather their decision to cripple their data, which prevents readers from mucking around with it. It’s as if you bought a newspaper, but couldn’t cut out clippings to file, couldn’t add notations in the printed copy, etc. It’s utility is greatly diminished, in my view, and that’s a shame. Especially with things like this list, which didn’t cost anything to obtain and is in the public domain anyway. It makes Civil Beat’s restrictions look silly.
Yes, and you have to pay to read Civil Beat, whereas you can read the SA online and elsewhere for free.
It’s getting a little tiresome hearing from a Civil Beat reporter’s relative (self-edited to avoid outing someone directly) about how great CB is. It is a fine online publication, for what it is. Surely someone else can take on that duty.
And as a former SA assistant editor, I can assure you that NO advertiser ever influenced how I or my supervisor carried out our duties. I suppose the next accusation will have something to do with the worldwide conspiracy to cover up the “truth” of Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Sheesh.
Excuse me … I meant to say, former Star-Bulletin assistant editor, sh*tcanned two days before the SA launched (and after putting in untold hours of unpaid overtime for weeks, getting the “new product” ready, thankyewverymuch!).
But I’m not bitter! 🙂
Thank you for your interest in the Star-Advertiser. We posted a list of inaugural donors who gave more than $2,500 in Political Radar, our politics and government blog, on Wednesday afternoon within an hour after it was released.
http://blogs.starbulletin.com/inpolitics/party-people/
“Thank you for your interest in the Star-Advertiser.” Who wrote that, Frank Bridgewater? It’s got his mealy-mouthed, corporate blandness all over it.
Hawai’i Free Press also linked to the full list, but I am glad that you ignored them. We must crush the Free Press.
HFP isn’t on my regular reading list. Sorry.
Good. I am glad to see you ignoring this story. It must be kept under wraps:
Pay-for-Play Contractor top donor to Abercrombie Inaugural
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/main/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3762/PayforPlay-Contractor-top-donor-to-Abercrombie-Inaugural.aspx
Remember, ignorance is bs!
All this petty sniping misses the most interesting aspect of this news cycle.
The only one to do any actual REPORTING following the list’s release was Hawaii Reporter, which interviewed a major (and quite controversial) donor and provided some context.
Now THAT is a sign of the times.
The rest just rattled off some names and quoted from a news release or two, at best. Civil Beat erroneously referred to the controversial donor as a “law firm,” and that error remains uncorrected.
The only word that really describes the SA coverage is “empty.” This would have been a bombshell not long ago.
@Ian — Just wanted to give you a heads up that Civil Beat’s PDF has been available for all to download since early this morning. Thanks for pointing us to it.
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/02/17/9061-usual-suspects-gave-big-bucks-for-abercrombie-inauguration/
http://www.slideshare.net/civilbeat/inaugural-ball-donations
Thanks also for highlighting the value my colleagues RJ and Chad added on this story. They — and the folks at Hawaii Reporter, who also did solid work — helped add context to the widely available six-page list of names and numbers.
Michael, R.J.,,and Chad..a class act! Many thanks Civil Beat..you just keep getting better.
It is always good to hear from Chad’s mom for an unbiased opinion!
You should be one to talk, Mr. Walden! haha
I am really surprised that no one has commented on the UH Foundation as a donor – presumably buying dinner tickets or a table or somesuch – for a total of $12,500 toward the cause. Do donors to the UH Foundation (whose mission is to support the university’s programs) know that their money may be used to pay for regents and others to go to a political event? Doesn’t seem an appropriate use of UHF funds to me.
I would just like to say that I too am impressed with Civil Beat. While I don’t pay to read it, I have made use of the free days as well as an occasional reader. I asked Adrienne LaFrance to write a story on Richard Turbin’s illegal renting of his vacation rentals and and she investigated and printed that story as well as follow up stories on renters who break the law. The Star Advertiser refused to print my letter to the editor, and deleted my on-line comments to silence public discussion on this issue because it endorsed Turbin. I will always be suspect of anything the SA does from now on.