Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Value of Competition


If for no other reason, the Times is valuable because it represents competition in the diminishing number of enterprises engaged in the news. Too often in the news, competition is no more than duplication, but once in awhile, something comes of it.

I'm talking about the pirate story. Four Americans sailing on a private yacht were seized and later killed, along with a couple of pirates. The U.S. Navy was following the boat, and in the end, more than a dozen pirates were nabbed.

By mid-afternoon, the Times had a fleet of reporters out and they found out lots about the victims, a group of evangelical Christians who were spending their retirement sailing and handing out Bibles. Meanwhile, the wire service Reuters also showed initiative by telephoning the pirate leader, who vowed to avenge his men. The Times story was a bit murky and rambling at 1,500 words. The Reuters story much tighter and clearer. Put them both together and then edit it down, and that's news reporting.

Four Americans Held on Hijacked Yacht Are Killed

The value of competition is evident in two other mega stories: The Times's Mideast pieces were terrific, and it was nice to have the variety, to add to the Times's coverage info from the wires. Collectively the stories are making some important points clear: the importance of tribal loyalties in Libya and the religious divide in Bahrain.

Chaos Grows in Libya; Defiant Qaddafi Vows to Fight On

In Bahrain, Protesters’ Calls for Unity Belie Divisions

The payoff from competition shows up in the Wisconsin story, too. The Times has a neat piece on members of other unions who are divided on the state employees' fight -- not to mention the later story on the right-wing Koch brothers.

Union Bonds in Wisconsin Begin to Fray

Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute

In both cases, the wires had stuff that either the Times didn't know about or dropped for one reason or another. We, the reading public, are lucky now, because we have all this available. I can see what CNN got, and the BBC, and Reuters in the space of a few minutes. They all have informative extras in both these stories. But this situation won't last, will it? It's sad.

And lastly, on its home turf, the Times did an excellent job on the story about the health industry's ties to a close adviser of Gov. Cuomo. I don't know how many states still have newspapers with the resources or the taste for this sort of thing, but it's important. This is how money is made in politics and how policy is perverted. And although the stories are not often exciting, no one else will ever do them, or do them well.

Cuomo Adviser Takes Pay From Health Industry


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