Journalism is defined as “the activity or job of collecting, writing, and editing news stories for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio.” In this new media age, you can add blogs and podcasts and other online news sources to that, as well. It is my firm belief that journalism – TRUE journalism – goes farther than that: it is a necessary element in a vibrant democracy and has the crucial role of revealing information that might otherwise be hidden and holding our elected officials and other leaders accountable for doing their jobs.
When people accuse me of being a journalist, I often brush them off saying that I don’t consider myself a journalist. But, the truth is, what we do here at Eclectablog IS journalism. We do some original reporting but we also “collect news stories” and present them to you in a digestable way, often connecting the dots between things that don’t always seem connected.
For example, we have been documenting the introduction of Emergency Managers in schools and municipalities since it began its new, more anti-democratic phase in Michigan starting in 2010. Part of that was to let people in Michigan know what was happening in their state. But along with that was an intentional sounding of the alarm to the rest of the country that the experiment with disposable democracy here in Michigan is something that the entire nation should be paying attention to.
And, sure enough, our disposable democracy model has now been exported to Atlantic City, New Jersey. With the implosion of their gaming industry, Atlantic City is massively in debt. And legislators there announced this week that they want to impose even MORE austerity on a city that has already carved over $60 million out of their annual budget. This time, bizarrely enough, it’s coming from a Democrat, New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney. Sweeney told Atlantic City, “This is a very clear statement to Atlantic City. Get your act together, knock off the B.S., and start addressing what you need to address. The state is not going to come in and bail you out anymore. You need to fix this.”
Sweeney is planning to introduce legislation that will end democracy in Atlantic City:
According to a draft of the bill, which had not been formally introduced as last night, the state Local Finance Board would be given control of “any of the functions, powers, privileges, immunities, and duties of the governing body.”
Another Democrat, Senator Jim Whelan, is against the idea saying:
“Are there things the city can do? Yeah can always tighten up and so on, but the fact of the matter is they’ve cut 60 million dollars, that’s not an insignificant amount of money,” he said.He said the city government and the board of education both have fiscal monitors, and every dime that’s spent is approved by those monitors.
“Things can be improved, but I’m not sure that there’s a magic panacea with a state takeover,” he says.
A takeover by the state,Whelan contends, would be a disaster. “Given its abysmal 30-year track record in taking over school districts, I seriously doubt the State of New Jersey will be the white knight to save Atlantic City,” he told Philly.com
Blindsided by Sweeney’s move, Atlantic City mayor Don Guardian said, “It caught us completely off guard. It was our Pearl Harbor here.”
As in Detroit, Atlantic City’s water department, the Municipal Utilities Authority, is being considered for privatization.
So, yes, we do journalism here at Eclectablog and, given the state of traditional media these days, we are providing an essential clearinghouse where you can get an alternative take on the day’s news, connecting dots and holding people accountable. Our work has helped propel stories coming out of Michigan to the national stage. Emergency Managers, the Education Achievement Authority, prison privatization scandals, the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water by Snyder administration officials; these stories and more have been well-documented here and have gone national, in part because of the light we’ve shined on them.
All of this takes money because all of the regular contributors are paid for their creative work and that’s why, several times a year, we come to you to ask you to support alternative journalism as it is practiced at Eclectablog. Your financial support helps us keep the lights on and to grow so we can be even more effective.
For those groups and individuals who find what we do here at Eclectablog worthy of supporting with a direct financial contribution, there are three ways to help.
First, you can make your donation using the PayPal form at the top of the right sidebar. You can choose which level of support you wish to give us from the dropdown box or choose a different level if you wish by using the “Other amount” box. The default is $60 which is basically $1 per week after the fees are taken out, a pretty good value.
Or you can wait until the TinyPass pop-up pops up (every tenth click on the site) and donate that way. If you do that, the popups will go away as long as you have cookies enabled. Like with the Paypal form, the default amounts for annual or monthly donations can be adjusted to whatever you wish them to be. They are currently set to be around $1 per week. Again, it’s a great value.
Finally, if you would prefer to send a check, send Chris an email and he’ll give you the address. This is the most beneficial way for us because it avoids the Paypal and Tinypass fees that are taken from contributions to the site.
If you work for an organization that would like to support our efforts by placing an ad, click HERE for our ad rates and more information.
By the way, you don’t have to be an organization to run an ad. Maybe you’d like to surprise your favorite progressive with a birthday message on Eclectablog or help promote your favorite group. Again, click HERE for more info.
If you cannot afford to support us financially, there are other ways that you can still help.
For instance, please share our content on your Facebook page or other social media like Twitter, Reddit, etc. Put a “Like” on our Facebook page and click the “Invite friends” button and encourage your friends to like us, too.
Thanks so much for your continued support,
Chris, Anne, Amy, LOLGOP, Tony, Emma, John, and Judy
[CC image credit: Pietro Naj-Oleari | Flickr]
