Lake Avenue Follies

Amidst the black hole of a newspaper that some circles call The Saratogian, one intrepid reader recently issued a challenge: say something about what the paper actually does right; perhaps a commentary on its strengths, not necessarily its weaknesses.

Well, listing the endearing qualities of The Saratogian is probably akin to listing the endearing qualities of the city Police Department’s parking Nazi. Sure, there are a few if you think hard; real hard. But it’s pretty difficult to think of them while that mustached bastard is fiddling around with your windshield wipers one minute to the hour after he chalked your tire.

But for argument sake, let’s reflect a bit about the positives. Given its self-imposed size, there actually is a decent amount of paper for the buck, albeit mostly advertisements and wire copy. Through this morass, there lay a few pearls, often among the convoluted and untamed thoughts of rookie reporters.

Take for instance, this report about Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco swearing off ketchup for the 2004 Presidential Election; the seemingly innocuous article gained noteriety throughout the state as it put a face on the ridiculous nature of American politics. While the writer certainly buries the most hilarious segment of the event, the article does take a snap shot of an event all other newspapers felt above covering. Mind you, this is not good journalism; rather it’s stumbling into stories. In this case, the stumble didn’t make it until two thirds of the way through the story.

Outside of the otherwise abysmal news department, there are a few more bright spots to be garnered from this darkness. Since the departure of the recalcitrant Clark Bell, the photography department has produced quality work. Also, the sports desk is both comprehensive in its coverage and generally well versed in its writing; in fact, some of the wittier of the paper's writers have bore their fruits in the sports section. To a lesser extent, the features department also produces some legible copy. Although it appears as though features is on the outs with the paper, as recently one of the longtime columnists ended up doing news, only to jump ship for The Glens Falls Post Star.

Yet with this grain of sugar on the table, let’s pull up the salt truck. When careless mistakes of both style, grammar and worst of all, fact make it to press each day, it’s difficult to have much sympathy for the so-called “tight budgeted” eds on Lake Avenue. At times, it almost seems as though they’re trying to see how low they can bring the paper’s quality before it starts losing subscribers.

Take for instance, the travesty some called Wednesday’s paper. First, there was the story about “Firefighter Hickey” and his daring rescue of a man in the badly swollen Kaydeross. The reporter uses the term “firefighter” no less than 16 times throughout his article, which neglects to even list the victim’s name until halfway into the fourth graph. Then again, when a writer refers to the rescuers as “firefighter Hickey” and “firefighter Russo” on second, third and fourth reference, style obviously isn’t much of a concern.

Then there’s this gem from the City Council brawl Tuesday, a convoluted piece that tries to convey the havoc commonplace at their bi-monthly meetings. In a dizzying account of this bickering, the reporter makes reference to no less than three events that occurred outside the meeting without once bothering to clarify these issues for the reader. It appears as though the reporter considers the city’s populace savvy enough that explanation is not warranted; nor is one about the Fourth of July fireworks display in congress park being cancelled. Suffice to say, news of an event that drew more than 15,000 people last year reached the front page in papers of higher circulation.

Following this, there was the one-source wonder aptly titled “the psychology of tragedy,” namely because the article itself was tragically reported. Aside from the stylistic errors in the lead –reporting is meant to be objective and therefore should not be written in the subjective voice –the prattle brings nothing new to the table, other than a local psychologist’s opinion of a mass murderer he never had any interaction with.

But any criticism for the aforementioned reporter would also need to be attributed to Barbara Lombardo, the paper’s managing editor, after she slapped her by-line on a strikingly similar article the next day. One-source writing is great for announcements and obituaries, but that’s about it. And when you’re trying to “localize” a tragedy such as the Virginia Tech rampage, the only way to write a piece worth the ink it’s printed with is to contact as many sources as possible. Not for Lombardo, however. When there’s laundry to be cleaned and nails to be done, there’s no time to bother with something pesky like getting a second source.

And the list goes on and on at infinitum; the same horse dung every day, every month, and every year. Some regard this bastard child of journalism and think its deserving of apathy, even apologetic pity in some cases; layoff, they don't have the budget, or they don't have the staff, or people just leave once they get experience.

Well, at the end of this sentence, there’s a dot. See it? That’s the world's smallest violin and it’s playing a solemn tune for these apologists. These are excuses used to condone the lack of leadership over at The Saratogian and the daily mistakes that dribble into its paltry daily content. These are basic journalistic precepts that even a drunken sot of an editor should be able to pluck out after a quart of rye and without an ounce of effort. And when they are plucked out, reporters should be made aware of their misdeeds so they’re not repeated –this is called training the inexperienced.

Moreover, there seems to be an attitude among some, who feel this publication doesn’t deserve the flogging it sometimes gets. However, this is the same attitude that seems to be working its way in the public education system, where the duplicity of punishment and reward has reverted largely to reward and only reward. True, if only bad qualities are brought to light, then who’s to know what is good. In the case of The Saratogian, however, there really isn’t much good to be noted. And what little there is hasn’t changed much over the years.