05/26/08 Checks And Balances - A Greenwich Broadcator's Blog Is Watching The Bloggers Who Are Watching The Mainstream News Media (Updated)

Greenwich Board of Ed Investigated for Racism; Bloggers Collective Heads Explode

by Ron Adams Sprorts Director At WGCH

This should be a fun one to watch. The Greenwich Time has the story here, while even The Journal News (via the AP) jumped on the bandwagon with a story...

...So I'll just sit back and watch as this develops; once again leaving the hand-wringing and mud-slinging to the folks at Greenwich Gossip, Greenwich Roundup, and the other blogs from the "wealthy town."

Personally I always like it when they call Greenwich "tony." Sounds more aristocratic to me. While here in Carmel, or other non-Greenwich places, I just watch people roll their eyes at the mention of the town that I spend a great deal of time in.

Y'all just don't know....

Comment From Greenwich Roundup:

Dear Rob at Exit 55.

The proof is in the pudding.

It is what it is. The children at Hamilton Avenue either had a computer lab like the other Greenwich school children or they didn't have a computer lab like the other Greenwich school children.

Unfortunately, it might take a Federal Judge to get the powers that be to fairly share resources with the members of Greenwich Society that live on the west side of town.

Riverside and Old Greenwich don't have these complaints.

signed,

Brian originally from the "show me state" now a
Western Greenwich Resident

Or as Harry "Give Em Hell" Truman might have said, "If Betty and the failed Greenwich Board of Education can't stand the heat maybe they should get the hell out of the kitchen."

PS:

Rob, I am a big fan of the local sports coverage that you provide to Greenwich, you are truly practising the lost art of in depth and insightful local sports coverage. I am never upset when your excellent broadcasts pre-empt Sam Romeo's show or goes into national broadcast of Craig Crossman's Computer America.

Rob you are passionate about fully utilizing the resources of WGCH to bring Greenwich residents the best sports coverage possible. However, the news department doesn't seem to have that same fire in their belly.

The folks in the news room, while very nice and hard-working, should stop reading Greenwich Time news clips and calling the same 20 town officials over and over. They need to get out on the street like you do. They need to discover that their are thousands of other voices in Greenwich.

While the news team does a good job on election nights, and provides a valuable public service with a weekly radio interviews with the folks at Greenwich Hospital and with First Selectman Peter Tesei, there are many more people and stories in town.

The WGCH news team needs to show up at some Town meetings instead of reporting about them third hand.

The WGCH news team needs to start holding very well paid school and town officials accountable to the single family home-owners of Greenwich.

WGCH news crew needs to start filling some Freedom Of Information requests and start breaking some news stories instead of reporting everything through the prism of the Greenwich Time.

News 12 is often in the field breaking news stories in Greenwich.

Most times I feel that the talents of the WGCH news team are wasted, because they play it a little too safe in the studio. It is clear that their is talent in the news crew, but it is greatly under utilized.

When was the last time that WGCH did an investigative report?

Has WGCH ever done an investigative report?

This is one of the many reasons Bill Clark at Greenwich Gossip refers to WGCH as the "World's Greatest Communication Hoax".

If WGCH wanted to they could limit sports reporting to the studio and you could read Greenwich Time sports reports over the air. You could even provide a valuable public service by having an in studio sports interview show, but things just would not be the same.

Their would not be that spark in the air. That sence of excitement that you bring out on the field at a live event.

That's why the management of WGCH needs to let the reporters go out in the field and break some stories for a change. The WGCH news department needs that same spark that the sports department has.

Rob it is nice to see that the you and the folks at WGCH enjoy Greenwich's Most Influential News Website, but I knew this already because WGCH shows up in my web stats almost every day except Saturday and Sunday.

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MORE FROM ROB ADAMS
EXIT 55
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Of Tasers and Water Balloons (Or Greenwich's Version Of "Don't Tase Me Bro")

I work in Greenwich, and I'm involved with Greenwich High School quite a bit. I like the people of Greenwich, who have been thoughtful and kind to me for over a decade now.Publish Post

Sometimes Greenwich can be quite silly (OK, quite often). Much has been made of a case last week where a GHS student was tasered on campus by a Greenwich Police Officer. In fact, there are a few other blogs that deal with Greenwich specifically, so I'll let them pontificate wihtout me adding opinions to the fire. I wasn't there.

Greenwich Roundup has been leading the charge. They describe their mission statement as:

We offer online news, multimedia, blogs and complete digest of the events and issues that effect the people of Greenwich. Our goal is to promote critical reading and evaluation of news and blog postings. We strongly encourage our readers to send feedback to reporters, webmasters and to write letters to the editor. We hope that visitors to Greenwich Roundup wiil express their views by commenting on blog posts.

In the process of their coverage, they have been bold critics of the Greenwich Time and the Greenwich Board of Ed.

Full disclosure - I saw my name on there just once, but it was part of a blog that somebody else wrote about me. Plus it was positive. So there. I have, however, seen WGCH get criticized. Whatever. Nature of the beast. I would like folks to understand that the days of 24 hour local radio are gone, but I can't go crazy. I'm just a small player in this game, as I've said before.

Criticism about WGCH has also come from Bill Clark, the humble scribe at Greenwich Gossip. Mr. Clark has own thoughts regarding the taster incident.

So read these and other blogs with regard to this story at Greenwich High School. I'm a sports reporter who fills in anchoring the news occasionally. I think I'm better served staying away from this one.

I did once host a general talk show on WGCH, and this would have been a dandy topic, but time moves on...

More Posts From Rob Adams
Excellent Blog - Exit 55

• Daddy's Not the Only Celebrity in the Family!
• Bill Murray, Baseball, and Beer (aren't the three ...
• Girardi Gets Suspended/Umpire Gets Nothing
• Great Guy, That Gary Carter (or People I Don't Wan...
• Happy Memorial Day Eve
• Hockey Hype
• More General Mets-Fan Stupidity
• A Great Music Montage and Other Airchecks
• This is Just Ridiculous
• Adios, Mike
• Crap-tastic!
• It's May...So Let's Talk FOOTBALL!!
• Bobby Murcer - in Book Form!
• Death Cab For Cutie
• On Music: Trust WFUV, Zach Braff, Stephanie, and M...
• Off the Bench (The "One of Those Moods" Edition)
• Oh. My. Freakin. God.
• Embarrassing
• Ring-a-Ding-Ding!
• Another Bobby Murcer Item
• Another Vin Scully Item
• Warm and Fuzzies
• Best. News. Today.

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UPDATE FROM EXIT 55
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I Knew I'd Get Noticed

After writing about some of the latest items of note in Greenwich, I figured that it was just a matter of time before Greenwich Roundup posted the links on their site. They not only did so, but had a few thoughts regarding WGCH. There was some criticism, and also some praise. I thank them for the kind words about me and our sports coverage. It's no secret we work hard. I've also said that covering news in Greenwich is not like it used to be.

Let me put it to you this way - it's a question of the economic realities of radio in the year 2008. WGCH has a news staff of two, and they do a fine job. Not long ago, it was at least three, with the potential to freelance (that's where I would sometimes come in).

I can't offer much more than that. We're doing our best on WGCH to keep local news, sports and talk alive in a tough time for radio.

As I wrote in response, I will post links to what's going on, and some witty remarks, but will skip the opinions for two reasons. One - I often serve as a fill-in news anchor. That doesn't always keep me from saying what's on my mind in my own blog (or off the air), but the more important reason is number two:

I don't have the facts. Case closed. So I continue to be an observer.

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For the record Greenwich Roundup has not only been very critical
of the Greenwich Time and WGCH. Greenwich's Most Influential
Website has also heavily criticized the Greenwich Citizen and the Greenwich Post.

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Please send your blog links and comments to
GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com