AJC bans the word "SPRAWL" (Oliver: section 8, how much)

[koko339]

Originally Posted by BringBackCobain

I read CL mostly to get development news that you could never hear from the AJC. They also have good articles about ITP-related issues like crime and gentrification - a good example being the story they did on the Boulevard Apartments.

However, they are so far left, almost to the point of absurdity. Its not really the communist political views they push that annoy me as much as the radical social agenda. It would be nice if I didn't have to see a picture of some drag queen playing softball or an article complaining about the lack of transgender bathrooms every time I went to their website.

As for sprawl, I don't see why using that term would bother someone living in the suburbs. If it wasn't for sprawl they wouldn't be enjoying their suburban lifestyle. Seems pretty ridiculous to ban its use altogether.

1st - I highly doubt either of those come up regularly on their site.
2nd: Drag queens and transgender people are a reality in Atlanta (and many urbanized areas). If you can't handle that stick with the AJC.

[Iconographer]

What a hoot. Now let's prevail upon TPTB at C-D to ban it, along with the odious 'diversity' and 'density'.

[MathmanMathman]

Ha! CL should talk. I liked CL because it was outrageous and blunt although finding substance in its sea of ads was a challenge. Really, if you removed everything except hard news reporting it would probably fill 3 pages if that much. But CL has pared down drastically as well. Even its stories are much shorter. It used to a thick publication but now it is looking more like Access Atlanta or Sunday Paper.The comics have always been left leaning but they seemed to have made a hard left turn and the size and quality of the comic lettering make them almost unreadable.

Naturally a conservative paper, but I like the ABC (Atlanta Business Chronicle). A lot of no nonsense talk about Atlanta's econonmy and projects. But it is very pro-business. And I like to use terms like "liberal" and "left" instead of "progressive" and "forward-thinking". For me, using those latter terms is about as bad as the AJC not using the word "sprawl".

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

... reporters are now forbidden from using the word "sprawl" and other terms that seem to cast judgment on the suburban way of life. The paper has even appointed a "bias editor" to ferret out even the unwitting inclusion of a turn of phrase that might cause offense to Northside readers.

Truly pathetic. The abject surrender of a once proud marque.

Trust me, fellows. You're not going to sell any more papers by groveling.

[Lakewooder]

In Dallas, The Morning News has been bashing the city schools for years (despite the fact that the majority are ranked 'exemplary' or 'recognized') and they barely cover the city school sports teams. I am convinced this is to validate suburban mentalities and is part of a grand marketing plan. Now we have some proof of same in Atlanta.

[SW30303]

Which paper do you think will be online entirely with no print edition first ? CL or the AJC, or both.

It doesn't matter the politics of a paper, all of them will get out of the printing business one day. For most of us paying attention, it's been pretty clear a while, that is the direction (online editions only) we are heading to with print media, even beyond newspapers and magazines.

The writer of that article ("'Burbs or bust" by Scott Henry) obviously sees things mostly emotionally with a political lens. Arguing about the AJC being left-wing in its content is a very old contrite argument for many people who have been in Atlanta a while. This guy thinks the paper is leaning more conservative, whatever, in my opinion, it is a red herring issue for the most part.

Newspapers are a dying industry and have been a long time due to growth in Internet usage for news sources. Cox Enterprises cut costs where there are money losers, and the AJC has been a money loser for a long time now.

[MathmanMathman]

What's funny is the latest CL is a parody issue of the AJC entitled The Dunwoody Journal-Constitution. it picks up after Saporta's piece about the AJC's decline and how it is turning its back on the ITP crowd. But it's clear from its shrinking size and format changes that the CL is declining as well and their criticism of the AJC is probably to win over their disenchanted readers.

Newspapers took off because of movable type and affordable paper, i.e. technological improvements. Now technology and our demand for immediate information might kill off newspapers. Cities used to have multiple papers, then radio and later television reduced newspaper publishers to a few and gradually just one. I think television news is next because I want information when I want it and its nice to be able to talk back to the events of the day rather than having the news media as the gatekeepers to information. Journalists are still needed as full-time experts but there will be communal knowledge in the mix as each of us contribute a small part to the greater knowledge base.

You can see some of that now as the AJC has set up blogs on various topics. I'm not crazy about the linear structure and how the threads are eventually buried by the latest topics but the AJC is morphing to on-line only. Their greater challenge is to bring in revenue from it. Maybe it will be a youtube approach. Want to read a story? Ok, but first watch this short commercial.

[spotch]

The saddest part of all of this is that the AJC will continue to go right and purge left-of-center content, and blood-red Georgia will continue to think that it's a daily version of the Communist Manifesto and trash it up and down, swearing to never support it. But at the end of the day georgia will have one more conservative voice screaming about taxes and immigration and other conservative buzzwords. I'm so glad that conservatives have found a way to ruin another thing Georgia had going for it.


THANX GUYZ!

[AcidSnake]

The AJC's agonizing journey to appease the working & middle class conservatives I think, is but a small reflection of the southern strategy's penultimate conclusion. On a more broader philosophical note however, I feel that our state & country are steadily regressing to the days of Oliver Twist.

Most of our manufacturing capability has been sent overseas, unionism has slowly eroded away & with it a working man's ability to challenge bad working conditions, and many of the hard-fought social programs that we now enjoy are in danger of being legislated away if this so-called pro-corporatist Deficit-commssion has its way. We Americans are essentially killing our own middle class as a result.

This is the reform that the Tea-Party & Tea-bagger movement was/is trying to achieve?

It is so hard to believe that there are working men & women who are in the same economically precarious position that I am in, but is somehow guided by this specious logic that if they defend Corporations and the wealthy to their deaths that everything will be just fine and dandy. How did these folks come to think in such a way?

Lord help us. Lord help us all...

Originally Posted by spotch

The saddest part of all of this is that the AJC will continue to go right and purge left-of-center content, and blood-red Georgia will continue to think that it's a daily version of the Communist Manifesto and trash it up and down, swearing to never support it. But at the end of the day georgia will have one more conservative voice screaming about taxes and immigration and other conservative buzzwords. I'm so glad that conservatives have found a way to ruin another thing Georgia had going for it.


THANX GUYZ!

[spotch]

It is so hard to believe that there are working men & women who are in the same economically precarious position that I am in, but is somehow guided by this specious logic that if they defend Corporations and the wealthy to their deaths that everything will be just fine and dandy. How did these folks come to think in such a way?

Lord help us. Lord help us all...

Indeed