On My Mind
Executive editor — issues and opinionsWatching the Sun Go Down
I read with interest the comments to the Baltimore Sun’s article on the Jewish Times suspending principal payments on a city loan.
Why was the Jewish Times singled out? The Jewish Times, after all, is just one part of Alter Communications, a diverse media group including Style Magazine, Chesapeake Life Magazine and an array of custom publishing magazines.
Being Jewish had nothing to do with the request we made of the city. Yet based on the comments I read on the Sunpapers website, it seems to some to have everything to do with it.
Great reporting job there.
Of the intellectually charged comments I loved the best was the one asking where was the Jewish community in keeping libraries, pools and Police Athletic League Centers open in the city? Excuse me. Open your eyes. Read the names on some of the buildings around the city, names like Meyerhoff and Weinberg. Check the left hand margins on the letter head of organizations within this city. The stake in this city from Jewish community members can’t be questioned except by those with an agenda of hate. This week’s Jewish Times cover story is an interview with the Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld. Guess what? He’s isn’t Jewish. But he’s working with a public safety group, made up largely of Jewish citizens, who are hoping to assist him in the saving of the financially strapped mounted police unit. The one comment about the city having funds for bankrupt newspapers and movie theaters, but not for police and firefighters comes to mind. Well, we’re not bankrupt. And we’re hoping that funds can be raised for the police department.
How could any publication not know that when there is a question of economy and the need for someone to blame, just dial up the Jewish community. It’s not hard to stir up the hate that’s out there. It’s lazy and it’s easy. That’s why I wonder why it wasn’t Alter Communications that was reported on, it was the Jewish Times. Good reporters get good information. Doing it on the cheap, results in thin information. The question should have been asked, why is the Jewish newspaper based not in the center of its circulation, but instead in the city?
Nowhere, however, do I read any story or comment anywhere asking why the Baltimore Jewish Times would locate itself for decades at 2104 North Charles Street, leave for Owings Mills for one year and then return to the city. It would have been easier to stay in Owings Mills on 90 Painters Mill Road. We certainly wouldn’t have had to pay the price of moving expenses to relocate twice.
Every day, our employees would spend money at local restaurants like Tony’s or Trees, Cleo’s or the Golden Temple. We’d walk up to the Safeway and purchase groceries. We’d make use of the advertising studios that used to call that part of Charles Street home. We’d get our cars repaired or buy tires from the businesses along Howard Street. We’d walk to Memorial Stadium or restaurants in Charles Village. When Camden Yards opened, we’d sometimes walk there. We walk to the central branch of the library. We could have just as easily found a nice, comfortable home in Pikesville in the center of our readership, but we didn’t. And we didn’t because the company for generations has made a commitment to the City of Baltimore. We believe in Baltimore. The Jewish Times pumped its share of tax money into the community. We employ people in the city.
We literally left the city for one year. It costs tens of thousands of dollars to move a company. We did it twice. We were the first occupant of the building we moved into. And guess what? We’re out there again spending lunch money, taking long walks to Mt. Vernon Place, and sometimes walking to the Mitchell Court House when we serve on city juries. We take the Light Rail, and we pay rent in the city. Because we believe this is where we belong.
Didn’t read that anywhere today.
When almost all of the businesses we knew left or went out of business, we stayed. It wasn’t until our employees had to worry about a serious increase in area crime, that it came time to leave.
Of course we’re struggling. Who isn’t struggling? Yet our readers look to the JT for their news of their community. It is “their” Jewish Times. They remind us of that, be it in positive or negative ways.
So, are we paying back the City?
Yes. But we give back to this city every single day in every single way.
We report news of the city from the inside out, not as observers from the outside looking in.
Oh, and that need to get a quote from the Poynter Institute saying, “the problem is that if you are in debt to a powerful organization, you may be inclined to not cover them. You may not ask the tough questions.”
I can’t even dignify that a reporter would get a quote like that without even checking the issues we’ve been covering here. It makes me think that the comments I hear more and more about our lone daily newspaper, are unfortunately not biased, but are true.
Are we struggling financially? Who doesn’t have to re-invent to survive.
We’re better for it.
But “City gives Jewish Times financial break”
Give me a break.
Come on, you guys can do better than that.
At least I thought you could.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/29/09 at 03:01 PM | Comments (1)