Gray News is a booster paper

Newspapers In Gray Wage A War Over Words
There's No Lack Of Controversy And Bitterness As The Gray News Is Challenged By The Monument. By Tom Bell April 18, 2001, Portland Press Herald

The bitterness and controversy stemmed from the Gray News and their inability to accept that they are a booster paper being challenged by a real paper. The Gray News is a booster paper, protector of the government and aggressor against the citizens. The Monument is protector of the citizens and exposer of government under the Sunshine Laws. The Gray News is uninspiring, vapid, and usually empty of news. The photo at left is of Nathan Tsukroff trying to come up with an idea.

The Gray News says “Bad news gets around town without the paper's help,” meaning they are a booster paper. Being a booster is not an isolated phenomenon.

A comment at Optimuscrime.com entitled “Canada’s Insipid Journalism Capital” caught my eye. Insipid journalism, what a great phrase. The opinion went on: “Those who live in cities bigger than Kingston might not be acquainted with the unique charms of the small-town booster paper. These papers place stories about road closures on page A1, above the fold.” Do you notice the Gray News does that? Booster.

An opinion expressed about The Oklahoman: “I can't stand the Oklahoman. It's a booster paper. Their "journalists" don't know what the word "investigate" means. They are primarily concerned with putting a pretty face on every under the table scam pulled on the taxpayers. … In many major cities, the newspaper acts as a check on the ability of politicians to get away with murder. Here it does everything possible to make us look the other way.” I liked the last line. The Gray News does that. ‘Look the other way, nothing happening here. Certainly not rising taxes, violations of the Right to Know law, Council Chair conflict of interest with Enercon. No, not violations of personnel policy, mishandling of TIF funds, errors on warrant. No, absolutely nothing to report.’

The Knight Chair in Journalism at the UNC at Chapel Hill, Philip Meyer, said: “…Yielding to pressure to be a community booster is easy and cheap. Gathering and presenting the facts that stimulate public deliberation is difficult and expensive.” The Gray News is known for taking the easy way out. And I do not think they even know how to stimulate public deliberation without making anger the central point of the discussion.

Editor Russ Smith of Baltimore’s City Paper said: “I simply don't care for shoddy, self-aggrandizing, booster journalism. As I've written in the past, Baltimore is a major city, and it's just embarrassing that its monthly magazine might as well be written by tourism officials.” The Gray News is a ‘welcome to Gray everything is perfect’ paper. It's embarrassing.

Being a booster paper is one kind of service, but the Gray News folks should realize that they are not providing a news service. As such, they should stand back and let the real newspapers do their job.