Ah, journalists. You gotta love them. They make up a theory, and then try to write a story that backs it up. They continue the story even when the facts in their own article prove them wrong.
Check out this story. It begins with the premise that “Massive layoffs for businesses in downtown Des Moines could mean less money for the city from parking revenues.” It then goes on to quote parkers who are finding it easier to park downtown.
However, when they quote the city, they find that the parking revenues are “UP” 6.8% and are up .8% even if you remove the rate increase put in place last year.
So, what has happened? They raised parking rates. Dailies are going for $1.50 an hour, up from $1.25. I’ll just bet that if you do a quick study, you would find that folks aren’t parking quite as long as they did before the rate hike. This means more spaces in the garage and easier parking.
In any event, the point is this: “So called journalists should research their article and then come to a conclusion based on the facts. Not just make a statement and let it stand in the face of facts in their own article.
They note “massive layoffs” but they give no numbers as to how “massive” they are. They tremble that revenues will be down when they are actually UP. They write headlines which contradict each other. The first headline says
Job Cuts Cause Parking Lot Glut
The subhead says:
Downtown Garages Less Empty These Days
This is from a TV broadcast, but don’t they have editors? Doesn’t anyone read these before they go out?
I’ll bet the writer who created this gem will scratch his or her head and wonder why the news department is losing money and they were laid off. They will blame the internet, or profit mongering moguls, or sunspots. It will never occur to them that the problem might be the crap they are spewing and calling it ‘news.”
JVH
