Deal stirs questions about objective Newsday coverage

A day after Cablevision Systems Corp. chief executive James Dolan announced his company would acquire Newsday for $650 million, questions began percolating on blogs and elsewhere about the newspaper's coverage.

[Hugh G Rection]

Dolan somehow turns everything he owns, at least to me, into a toilet. Doesn't matter if it a cable company, a building, a sports franshise, or a newspaper.

Newsday will eventually be good for nothing but lining the bottom of one's parrakeet cage.

[Paul R Nelson]

Hugh G Rection wrote:

Dolan somehow turns everything he owns, at least to me, into a toilet. Doesn't matter if it a cable company, a building, a sports franshise, or a newspaper.
Newsday will eventually be good for nothing but lining the bottom of one's parrakeet cage.

You forget the Whiz.
Apparently, PC Richards, Best Buy, and Circuit City BEAT them out of business.

[Whatever]

dolans or no dolans, where is newsday's competition on LI? doesn't matter who owns newsday -- the paper turns a profit every year because their is no advertising competition for a major daily on long island

if u have a business on LI and u want to advertise a full-page ad in a major daily on long island - then tell me, who u gonna call (Ghostbusters?)

[a nightmare is coming]

ask the reporters that cover the knicks how the garden treats them. ask the employees of cablevision what it's like to work for the dolans. as soon as they take over, the nightmare begins.

[Go FIOS or satellite TV]

In a few years, it just will not matter, because the dolans will destroy the newspaper. They destroy everything they touch that is not a monopoly. This is why they are so afraid of FIOS, because if FIOS is available everywhere, they will lose their monopoly and their cash cow will go belly up.

[tommy boy]

now maybe we'll get some fair and balanced political news the lack of in the past is what is responsible for nesday's financial problems. People don't want to read negative stuff about us every day. It's also amusing that you are now concerned. You should have thought about that years ago. My advice is to clean house and make a fresh start !

[Robert]

Newsday and objectivity - oxyMORON.

[Eric]

What a joke that people are starting to raise concerns about the unbiased reporting of Cablevision versus Verizon matters. How about the obvious left-leaning agenda that gets forced upon us on a daily basis already? I don't hear anyone raising concerns about that outside of these forums!

[wow]

"Cablevision chairman Charles F. Dolan said his company was committed to "maintaining Newsday's journalistic integrity."

Integrity [and to a lesser extent, objectivity] have been missing from Newsday for quite a while now. Odds are slim of them making a re-appearance anytime soon.

[Objective News]

is like a "perfect vacuum." Neither exists in reality. Newspapers reflect the ideology of the owners who always have their own point of view and express it in editorials and the way news items are selected for publication.

[James E]

Since when has Newsday coverage of anything been objective? Let's give someone else a chance...couldn't hoit.

[fritz katz]

Many subtle yet important stories got broad coverage they deserved only because an editor at Newsday or a producer at Channel 12 heard his counterpart was looking into it. Motivation to jockey for a scoop or display quality in reporting versus the competition will be totally absent now. AND Newsday was slow to objecively investigate theor own circulation and advertising fraud but instead spent the first phase of that saga publishing denials and excuses from [subsequently "retired" not FIRED] complicit and guilty managers before yielding to the inevitable and belatedly but thoroughly reporting the truth once it was established by government investigators. That is NOT what one calls "getting out in front of a story". And considering the massacre err layoff of the best (having highest integrity and skill) reporters a few years back for cost savings, which is more likely? The Dolans scouring the nation for the most driven and creative talent or another massacre to "reduce duplication between news bureaus"? As with everything on corrupt cesspool Long Island, the downhill slide of standards for quality and ethics serving the public accelerates in support of fattening the wallets of the already rich.

[Mr Sulu]

fritz katz wrote:

AND Newsday was slow to objecively investigate theor own circulation and advertising fraud but instead spent the first phase of that saga publishing denials and excuses from [subsequently "retired" not FIRED] complicit and guilty managers before yielding to the inevitable and belatedly but thoroughly reporting the truth once it was established by government investigators. That is NOT what one calls "getting out in front of a story".

how about the former Newsday publisher who is in jail for child p0rn?

[lee]

Paul R Nelson wrote:

<quoted text>
You forget the Whiz.
Apparently, PC Richards, Best Buy, and Circuit City BEAT them out of business.

i believe circuit city filed for bankruptcy this yr...

[treciama]

"...reminding readers when necessary of the paper's ownership -- is the key, said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst with the Poynter Institute"

How naive and stupid!!

The real issue is where resources will be concentrated and which issues are even covered....as well as the many ways in which a covered story can be subtly or invisibly skewed.

It's really pathetic that Edmonds thinks the white noise of boiler plate disclosures has any effect on anyone-- really worked in mortgages and insurance policies, don't 'ya think!!

What a dumb comment!

[Alice in Wonderland]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if every news outlet, papers, tv, radio, etc. was independently owned ? Too bad!

[Former Vollie]

Seriously, they're obejective now??

[Former Vollie]

a nightmare is coming wrote:

ask the reporters that cover the knicks how the garden treats them. ask the employees of cablevision what it's like to work for the dolans. as soon as they take over, the nightmare begins.

Yeah? They get cable -- TV, phone, Internet -- for FREE. And all the extras, too.

[Former Vollie]

Not the reporters, the employees of Cablevision.

[Brian]

Newsday offers objective coverage? who knew.