Old Media Takes The Day

In today's media, the old folks, the dinosaurs, the geezers, otherwise know as the print media are looked upon as having one foot in the grave. 

Well, hold up on that print-media obituary, it's premature.

As the Fort Wayne City Clerk's office implodes under allegations of 1950's-style political shenanigans, it was not the TV stations, nor the kiddie bloggers, nor the kids in the WOWO news room that checked the facts and wrote detailed and compelling stories to bring this political scandal to light. It was journalists at the city's two newspapers who got their hands dirty and pulled this scandal, kicking and screaming, into the harsh light of day.

Kudos to the News Sentinel's Kevin Leininger and the Journal Gazette's Dave Gong for good, old-fashioned reporting. Kudos also to the leadership of both papers for choosing not to protect an entrenched political leader and her powerful and well-connected allies any longer. The fact that this story even appeared in the JG is an indication that this is a serious situation.

The Maven also finds no surprise that the TV stations waited until after the weekend to devote airtime to the story. Even the annoying "15 Finds Out" guy on WANE missed this one. The only reason WOWO had the story over the weekend can be attributed to WOWO's lean to the political right, and seized an opportunity to portray a democrat in a bad light. 

It will be interesting to see where this scandal goes and how deep into local government it takes us. The Maven is no pundit, but does believe that Leininger and Gong, and their respective newspapers, will be the conduit for new information, with the TV stations picking up the crumbs along the way.