A coda to The Weekly Dig’s articles on Somerville politics from last year

[cdevers.livejournal.com]

So, The Weekly Dig has posted a coda to their series on Somerville politics, based on a detailed rebuttal that was submitted to the newspaper by the City in December:

A Response to the City of Somerville

This is a follow-up to the articles they ran last year:

• The Somerville Files: Part 1: The Fixed Gears (DSLJ discussion)


• The Somerville Files: Part 2: Ghosts of Assembly Square (DSLJ discussion)


• The Somerville Files: Part 3: Rage Against The Machine (DSLJ discussion)


• The Somerville Files: Part 3.1: Update (DSLJ discussion)


• The Somerville Files: Part 4: The Man in the Mayor Suit (DSLJ discussion)

The more I read of DigBoston’s coverage of “sleazy” Somerville politics, the more convinced I am that if this is the best we can do for “scandal” in this town, then we seem to have solved all our real problems and are working down the list of nitpicking hayseed non-news trivialities.

Dig’s entire agenda seems to be “everybody seems to love this town, let’s expose the underbelly & take ’em down a few pegs”, so they had three reporters work at it for a year and came up with a series of stunning exposés on… zoning board meeting notes.

Are there any “real” news organizations left that can take a crack at this and let us know if there’s an actual story here? (Preferably, not in a series of long, bitchy articles spread over months and saying …not very much?) Once again, the Dig doesn’t seem to be qualified for the task.

[Hi! I don’t normally use LiveJournal — this is the first time I’ve logged in in forever — but Ron encouraged me to cross-post this here from Facebook…]

Comments

[ron_newman]

For those of you new to the topic, or who just want a recap, here are links to last year's DSLJ posts about the Dig series:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 3.1 "Update" | Part 4

[beinneighe.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'm going to get around to reading the complaints and responses, but the first few paragraphs of Dig's response weren't very empathy-inducing. Snarky snark snark in response to a perfectly civil email from the city and then arguing that the fact that the city replied at all is proof of its wastefulness?

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Ditto on this. I think I read the first Dig article with interest (because of the "hype") and it was so eye-rollingly banal I think I just jumped to the DSLJ discussions to hear others summary/take and even that got boring. My takeaway was that Somerville does in fact have politics, and they are doing a better job than most small cities in the world. (Not saying Somerville doesn't have a ton of issues, just that I think the current city government is at least a net positive for its future.)

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

That's so funny--you described *exactly* what I did. ZZZzzzzzzzz....

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

The reporter was was calling people mother f**** on either DSLJ or some other site awhile back. Struck me that someone that immature doesn't make for a good journalist.

[ron_newman]

It was on Twitter, which doesn't really count. See this post for the reporter's tweet, and the Somerville News column he was responding to.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Respectable journalists don't use that language in any medium, because it would make them lose credibility. Losing your cool, swearing at someone when you are challenged makes your reporting seem less objective and reliable. You win with the strength of your reporting. Morley Safer wouldn't go on twitter and and use that kind of language about someone he had interviewed on 60 Minutes, even if that person wasn't his favorite.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Yes, because journalists are bloodless robots who never have personal social media accounts.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

Does anybody know where Somerville stands with reconstruction on the Beacon st and the cycle track. I feel I haven't heard anything since the summer.

[ron_newman]

I believe work is supposed to start in the fall.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I will say that this series does to a good job of looking at the frustrations (on all sides) of getting something done in any city government. It's "against" City Hall and developers for the purposes of narrative, but that's to be expected (and to the detriment of the piece, honestly.)

Of note, this whole thing was supposed to run in the Phoenix before said newspaper got shut down. To be honest, I think Somerville only came up for a punching because frankly, the Phoenix wants to shit on "suburbs."