Fred2Blue

In Dec., 2005, then Fredericksburg-based and award-winning reporter for the Washington Post (WAPO), Michelle Boorstein, announced locally that she would be returning to the paper’s offices in D.C. to cover the religion beat.

For her, it was a well-deserved promotion, but for readers in the Fredericksburg area, it was a disaster.

During that same month, the WAPO – citing declining ad sales – also announced that Michelle’s Fredericksburg beat would not be filled by another reporter.

There would no longer be a WAPO Fredericksburg bureau.

And with that, we said ‘so long to Sunday Metro Section features such as Michelle’s well-written and interesting story on Stafford School Board Member Robert Belman’s private third-party-funded attempt to trash a long standing School Board policy – naming schools after Stafford’s historical figures and place names - and in turn call the county’s newest facility Ronald Reagan High School.

That particular story was crafted so well, and in such a balanced manner, that many readers (liberal, centrist, and conservative) took action, showing up at the school board meeting to address Belman’s proposed deviation in the school naming policy.

Due to the outpouring of public commentary, in great part the result of concerned citizens reading Michelle’s excellent article, the Stafford County School Board voted to uphold its standards and named the new high school after its general location in the County: Mountain View.

When practiced as it should be practiced, news reporting informs and engages the public. It gets people talking and exchanging ideas. And quite often, it encourages camps on opposite sides of an otherwise intractable issue to work towards compromise.

But when WAPO closed its bureau here, we said bye, bye to anything that resembled quality local reporting.  For the past two years, our community has suffered. And now, the only (major) newspaper reporting on the region is the wretched Free Lance-Star (FL-S).

For those in the Greater Fredericksburg, Virginia area that either live underground, or that get their news primarily from local TV broadcast channels, let me tell you about your hometown paper:  it is awful.

The FL-S is a Republican rag that derides the “Democrat (sic.) Party”, its principles, and its candidates. Its general disinterest in covering topics – or any one with a progressive, or even a moderate, point-of-view – is so far-reaching that often, blatant editorialism (e.g., a story that described Northern Virginia transplants to Southern Stafford County shopping at the White Oak Giant Food as “Yankee locusts”) leeches onto the news pages.

‘Wanna sell more copies of the FL-S? Just run a front-page headline with the word ILLEGALS in it. Such is common fare.

To paraphrase that famous old saying, a (Republican) politician of import would have to be caught in bed with a live boy or a dead woman, to receive anything resembling investigative coverage in the FL-S.

But, I digress.

Early in 2007, the publisher of the FL-S announced gleefully that the paper would undergo a major renovation; an extreme makeover with easier-to-read headlines, more color photography, more callouts, and shorter stories, all in a narrower “broad-sheet” that is easier to hold open and takes less time to read.

Frankly, to many the new FL-S looks like a copycat of USA Today, or for those that have fond sense memories of elementary school, The Weekly Reader. The new (narrower) format is best-described by one venerable “been here” as – and I’m scrubbing some foul language – 50 lbs. of equine (biomass) in a 40 lb. bag.

But, give the publisher his props: (it) shur is purdy.

Purdy, yes, but examine the new and improved editorial pages which now allow less space for letters to the editor (Fredericksburg’s in-print version of London’s “Speakers’ Corner”). In short order, it became clear to many that the FL-S would emphasize more of its editorials and op-eds from mostly right-wing syndicated columnists (e.g., Michelle “Scorched Earth” Malkin), and less of its letters from readers.

Big mistake.

Recently, the FL-S editorial board commented on its array of syndicated columnists. Their conclusion? Fair and balanced.  Geez, where have we heard that one, before?

And now, the news (pages): Yechhhhh!

While there is some news and features reporting (but not much) that I consistently appreciate and enjoy – Edie Gross, you rock! - “incuriosity” seems to be a striking quality of some of the FL-S’s local government reporters.  Often, facts are reported incorrectly, comments are taken out of context, key points are missed or ignored.

JOURNALISM 101: Who?, what?, where?, when?, why?, and how?

Given all that, it is understandable how the following could (and did) happen: A FL-S reporter, standing in the Stafford County Board of Supervisors chambers within ear shot of one Supervisor and the County Sheriff joking about erecting a concentration camp atop the Stafford landfill (to hold illegal immigrants), does not report this offensive and outrageous exchange between two of Stafford’s elected officials.  Had former FL-S reporter now Richmond Times-Dispatch correspondent Kiran Krishnamurthy – who was present at the scene – not reported the above-mentioned joking, none of us would ever know that it had in fact happened.

Mr. Krishamurthy did his job. The FL-S and its reporter on the scene? (They) did not do theirs.

And now, for something completely different:  the crack team of FL-S photo editors. Ayeyayeyaye!

In publishing a biographical story about the well-known (to the FL-S) State Senate candidate Albert Pollard, the brilliant minds in photography (mistakenly) dropped in (this) file photo of scraggly-looking convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

The paper claimed an “oopsy”.

To me, that’s just more gross incompetence.

This new blog, Fred2Blue, aims to be an outpost for Fredericksburg-area progressives, disgusted with the FL-S’s lack of coverage of topics we care about.  We will aim to provide interesting commentary that the FL-S won’t provide, and news that (some of its reporters and editors) are just too lazy, or dare we suggest…too incompetent, to cover.

If we’re not outraged, by the FL-S’s right-wing filtering of local news and commentary, then we’re not paying attention.

Ladies and germs, (this thing) is a work-in-progress.  We hope that as time goes by, Fred2Blue gets better and better.

We hope to inform. And we don’t mind at all if, occasionally, we make you laugh so hard that milk shoots out your nose.

Don’t worry. The folks at the FL-S and the right-wing loonies they nearly-exclusively cover, are big boys and girls.  We think that they can handle the literary RPGs we might throw their way.

(INCOMING!!!!!!)

Dan Smolen
Fred2Blue Co-Founder