Let The Spin Begin
Globalization
That's it, Greenville is the victim of globalization. The paper said it, the Chamber said it and the Mayor said it. It must be true!
Auto Industry Gone Bad
Another excuse. They can't sell their product to the American automobile manufacturers, because the industry is suffering. Huh? So you take a $3 or $4 million hit and the expense to move your equipment back to a high labor cost area to meet a reduced demand? Looks like the turnip truck has a few less passengers.
Textron won't make or break Greenville
No ma'am, it's already broke. Nice try though. Keep on doing the same things and expect different results. That's called "dumbassitude"
The local spin machine is working overtime to put a positive spin on the announcement and at the same time play the victim. Sheer lunacy, sheer bullshit. No doubt globalization (spin word for outsourcing to cheap foreign labor markets) has an impact on the industrial base and Greenville has to compete on several levels for manufacturing plants. As noted earlier, when it has to compete, Greenville is at a severe disadvantage. No doubt the American automobile industry is in a recession (of their own making). It's not the cost of labor and benefits that's the problem though. It's their product stinks. If Detroit built automobiles that Americans wanted, it could probably sell more. Ya think? While American models are declining, foreign made models are growing. I wonder why that is?
I am disgusted at the victim posture in the DDT. Pure pandering at its worst. If the editors exist just to sell ads, then the day will soon come that there will be no ads to sell. It is time to play the blame game and it's time to put the blame where it belongs. It belongs on the government at city hall, the Chamber, the Industrial Foundation, and the Black and White communities in Greenville. I guess that's just about everybody. The only thing Greenville is a victim of is poor leadership. The spin doctors will tell you otherwise.
And the sheeple said "Amen"
posted by Red Dog @ 8:19 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Red Dog,
The local media is really suffering to bring home the advertising revenue. WXVT is sucking wind with low morale and negative cashflow right now. The newspaper constantly tries new ways to increase revenue and a shrinking circulation base. Maybe people will advertise if they "champion" the sunny side. You know, they tried this route after Donald Adderton was philosophically slaughtered behind closed doors in meetings between Emmerich and newspaper brass and leading Washington County Democrats, or "Real Democrats" as they call themselves, following the Confederate Flag debate. And, to think there was a raging debate about the confederate flag....
Maybe those freebie Wednesday papers you see piled up in various places are actually chalked up as "sold" copies to increase readership.
WABG may be performing somewhat better than recent years, but they're not the gold mine reflective of "#1 rated" stations -or so they tout themselves. They flat ignore political stories unflattering to certain people and make it quite obvious. Tsk. Tsk.
The economy is not struggling. It's been reduced to retail sector jobs where everyone works 35 hours a week with no benefits or retirement under a "hand to mouth" personal financial policy.
Give it a few years and the existing industries can literally extort financial incentives from Washington County. They already offer veiled threats when they need a little ad valorem help.
Nothing will change except hardworking people will run out of jobs, then run out of town. Then you'll see a city of clerks and stockboys, low rent tamale stands, liquor stores, check cashing businesses, and anything other pseudo-industry that keeps the poor where they are while allowing what's essentially slumlords to be feted as great local leaders and businesspeople.
Meanwhile, advertising is the first thing cut by struggling businesses, so media must become creative in order to survive the perpetual withering on the vine. It's not their fault that they deal with the Devil in hopes it pays off. My wonder is which of the media outlets will financially crumble into irrevelance first...to basicly carry the minimum personnel to stay open yet offer NOTHING of substance (hold your comments) because doing so would close the doors.
TCM
Thanks for your insight and I think you are spot on. It is the economics of advertising that keeps the media in check. I wonder how Hodding Carter, Sr. was able to pull it off? Maybe he just did it the old fashion way, he earned it.
Local TV news is a joke and I have to admit that I stopped watching it two years ago. Those "on the scene" reports of new police cars in Rosedale, or wherever, were just too exciting for my blood pressure.
The city leader slum lords control everything and I guess the PC thing to do is to suck up and not be too controversial.
Not being in the business and surely not pretending to be a journalist, I'm sure there are a lot of things I don't know. I just think that if you write an editorial or an op-ed piece you owe it to yourself to say how you feel. You owe it to your readers. You can't please everyone.
I can believe there was a raging debate about the confederate flag. The calendar around here is stuck on 1861. A severe case of the Ground Hog Day Syndrome.
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