CAR25 is now BelleTV

BUMP.  Racine Community Media (http://racinecommunitymedia.tumblr.com/) has an interesting commentary on this subject from one of CAR25's former staff:. 

"Former Racine  Employee RIPS Racine Journal Times Via Commentary"

"This commentary was sent in to us by a former employee of The City Of Racine, in regards to an article written about CAR25/BelleTV, by the Racine Journal Times. Here’s a link to the story, and also his submitted commentary, enjoy!
 
"http://journaltimes.com/news/local/contractor-embarking-on-ambitious-re-branding-of-city-s-cable/article_959e9c32-ed44-11e2-9d7a-0019bb2963f4.html

"I’m a long time consumer of the Racine Journal Times, and fully understand the challenges of a small paper asked to do more with less. Unfortunately, I have to complain today about your article discussing the re-branding of Racine’s cable access channel. 
 
"Your story is incredibly one-sided. Although you make the minor effort of getting two different people to quote, they work for the same company (Skies Fall) and represent almost identical viewpoints. There’s no quote from any of the old CAR 25 staff, members of the community, or aldermen. You don’t even present a view point outside of the narrative Belle TV has given you. This is not journalism. It’s weak, P.R. style writing. You owe the citizens of Racine better than that.

"For example, I worked at CAR 25 for almost three years prior to the outsourcing of the channel. Our spending power was never $106,000 as you suggest in your story. We were always told to stay under an operating budget of $80,000, with the other $26,000 in a separate account that our manager was never able to freely spend. Because of that, we never got the kind of upgrades to equipment or staff hours that we needed. It’d be nice to hear that side of the story, rather than have it be ignored.

"I have worked professionally as a videographer for four years, and can critique a variety of things Belle TV has struggled with. They consistently shoot interviews with a window in the background, leading to a ton of issues with their lighting. They often frame interview subjects poorly, without any natural 'looking space;. The camera shots are often shaky, and aren’t white balanced. Interview questions are incredibly soft and repetitive. I could go on with other legitimate critiques. It’s astounding that you published this article without talking to anyone who could give expert evaluation and criticism to some of Belle TV’s work.
 
"I was a print and broadcast journalism major at UW-Milwaukee. It takes more than just reporting what someone tells you to craft a strong story. You need to objectively capture every detail you can about any story, in a way that lets a reader decide for themselves what to think and believe. Question what people tell you. Investigate the numbers, dig a little deeper and expose people’s lies or half-truths. It’s incredibly frustrating to read your stories, and know that some of the information is simply wrong.

"Thanks for reading my thoughts,

"Justin Wheeler

"After thought to my letter to the Journal Times (Or an overly simplistic look at why newspapers don’t work like they used to, and what we can do about it):
 
"I’ve lived in Racine for the entirety of my existence. Though it’s fairly common place and acceptable to criticize some of the qualities of our local newspaper, the Racine Journal Times suffers from a much larger problem that is destroying journalism in our country.
 
"That’s the shrinking of the 'News Hole', the amount of space in a newspaper after the advertisements and fluff pieces have been situated.  At the core of the news hole is the investigative, inquisitive, journalism that our democracy thrives on. 
 
"But that kind of writing is extremely expensive and time consuming.  I don’t need to highlight the financial struggles the newspaper industry has found itself in. But the reason newspapers don’t make money like they used to might surprise you. It’s not as much about subscription rates going down. It’s more about how little newspapers can charge for online advertisements, in comparison to color print ads in the actual paper. 
 
"Obviously, the Journal Times was a little slow in developing online subscription charges, and once they did, even more people left to consume news elsewhere. 
 
"So here we are, newspapers around the country face a reality of operating on sometimes less than 1/4^th of their staff sizes in the early 1990’s. Instead of having three or four government reporters, small papers have maybe one journalist to write multiple stories every day. Instead of having the time to question the quotes and information, newspaper journalists are in a race to stay relevant, pushing their stories out quickly. 
 
"To fill space, papers use more 'Associated Press' stories, which lack the local context and personality of our individual cities. More, cheap, stories dominate our papers. Instead of a month long investigation into crime rates in the inner city, we get stories about natural stress relief tips and the benefits of frozen yogurt. Recently, the Racine Journal Times began publishing old stories from their archives. While interesting, this is a substitute for new stories they can’t produce.
 
"We who consume the news must be aware of this.  We must be ever more resourceful in finding real journalism. It’s still out there.  What you see on MSNBC and Fox News isn’t journalism. It too, functions as cheap(er) filler for real news. We could pay hundreds of journalists to produce enough real news for a 24 hour news cycle. Or we could pay 4 or 5 idiots to debate immigration policy for an hour a day. Which one saves more money? 
 
"So, read more blogs, and talk with more people that share different opinions than you. Let the open market competition of ideas reveal a more accurate truth. Still read the newspaper, because they still do a lot of things very well. Just keep in mind, more with less doesn’t work in the field of journalism. And we the people are paying for it.

"Questions or Comments? 
 
"Follow Justin on Twitter @The1Life2Live4
 
"Or Facebook: Justin Wheeler
 
"Or Email: wheele27@uwm.edu"

http://racinecommunitymedia.tumblr.com/post/55713077850/former-racine-employee-rips-racine-journal-times-via


Thank you, Journal Times and lying John, for fucking over our community.  We have to get rid of Dickert.  We also have to get rid of management at the JT which poisons the population with Dickert's lies on a daily basis.   They are enemies of Racine and should be treated as such.  They're not even from Racine.  Lee Enterprises sends in their carpetbaggers to pump all the money that they can out of a community.  They don't give a damn about Racine or you or me.  The Journal Times constantly berates others for doing exactly what it does.  Hypocrites and deceivers. Get the lying liars out of our city!     


Originally published on July 15, 2013 at 8:48 PM:

 
CAR25 is kaput.  It's replacement, BelleTV, promises to be a mouthpiece for Dickert and his pals.

I thought that these cable stations were given to communities so that residents could produce their own TV programs.  CAR was Cable Access Racine.  It doesn't look like that is going to happen with BelleTV.  They want to sell ad time instead.

Dickert already controls the Journal Times.  Now he controls what we see and hear on our cable access channel.  Soon an ordinance will be in place giving Dickert complete control over who says what during the public comment portion of Common Council meetings.

What's next?  Loyalty oaths?

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BelleTV home page: http://belletv.tv/

JournalTimes.com BelleTV story: http://journaltimes.com/news/local/contractor-embarking-on-ambitious-re-branding-of-city-s-cable/article_959e9c32-ed44-11e2-9d7a-0019bb2963f4.html

Racine 4th of July Parade, 2013: http://vimeo.com/69958466