Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Ron Brochu: No Holds Barred

I'm still not sure how our paths first crossed, but it was our writing vocations for sure. What I do recall was a that Ron Brochu was a journalist serious about his craft. Over the years we have routinely met for lunch to compare notes on the writing life.

I'd like to imagine that all writers are like me, they respect anyone who writes and keeps writing even when it all feels so futile at times. Are we filling the world with too many words? Well, there are stories that still need to be told. And many that bear repeating to a new audience.

The original title for this blog entry was going to be "Journalism in the Internet Age and Other Adventures" because Ron has been in a perfect position to see the Internet's raw power as it has run roughshod of the newspaper industry. Take a minute and listen up.

ennyman: Can you briefly outline your career path as a writer?
RB: It began at Denfeld High School and continued at UMD, where I became business manager, then entertainment editor and editor in chief at the campus newspaper.

I lived in Minneapolis after graduation, freelancing for the Southside Newspaper, then in 1978 took a trade magazine editing job at The former Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. During that time, I also freelanced for the Milwaukee Sentinel, Hermantown Star and Duluth Budgeteer. Using those bylines, I landed a part time reporting/photography job at the Superior Evening Telegram in 1984, where I eventually covered government and was assistant managing editor. Wayne Nelson recruited me to BusinessNorth in 1995, where I worked as managing editor but also learned pagination, graphics and a host of business software skills. Two years later, I moved to the Budgeteer News, where Murphy McGinnis Media moved us to a twice weekly, with dreams of becoming a daily. It became clear we lacked the resources to make that move, so I joined the competition when the Duluth News Tribune opened a Superior bureau in 1999. Worked there as a business writer for about two years, then moved to Duluth, where I covered education for a year before becoming city editor in charge of business, labor, health and environment reporters.

In 2005, the DNT sent me to the Telegram, which Knight Ridder had purchased two years earlier. My mission was to retrain and coach the newsroom staff until a permanent editor could be hired. I soon became that editor and remained in Superior until July 2008, when I was canned for exercising my right to free speech in a private e-mail to my bosses.

ennyman: Getting published is not that challenging for any determined writer producing sufficiently professional work. Getting paid for one’s writing seems a little more problematic. Why is this? Is it a supply and demand issue or something else?
RB: I think it’s more of a problem in Duluth than elsewhere. Compensation here is very low, likely because there are too many publications and they’re all strapped for cash.

As an HBJ editor, I was paying $250-$400 for trade magazine feature articles in 1978, and the Milwaukee Sentinel was paying me about $75 for features. At the same time, the Budgeteer was paying me $10 for each city council story. It hasn’t improved much since then. Last year, I was paying Telegram contributors anywhere from nothing to $50 for weekly columns – whatever they’d take. Contributors to the annual marketing supplement were getting up to $100 for feature stories, which still isn’t much.

ennyman: This (the overall economy) is just a very weak market. How has the publishing scene changed since the advent of the Internet?
RB: Print news publications have lost considerable advertising revenue. They’ve reacted by cutting staff and content, hurting their circulation revenue. Although many have developed a Web presence, few have developed innovative new products that generate sales comparable to advertising revenue. Newcomers have outsmarted print publishers on every front. A few examples include eBay, Craig’s List and Amazon.com. By having customers input orders, these web marketers have drastically reduced the cost of sales. Print publications, particularly newspapers, are strangled by high overhead.

Until they shed expensive labor and equipment costs, print will continue to struggle. The inexpensive Internet model is both a blessing and a curse. Although costs are virtually nonexistent, any idiot can launch a web page and pass off nonsense as truth. It’s extremely difficult to differentiate legitimate Internet journalism from rants and opinion.

ennyman: Sixties writers like Truman Capote and Tom Wolfe used fictional techniques to write about non-fiction themes. I remember a quote by Wolfe that the novel was dead due to reader interest in “reality” and “news.” He later wrote novels like Bonfire of the Vanities, and today bestseller novels continue to rake in millions. Do you think fiction will ever become obsolete?
RB: No. Even though truth can be stranger than fiction, it doesn’t flow as well. A good writer can always weave bits and pieces of truth into fiction that’s far more interesting. That’s not to say novels won’t go electronic, but they’ll definitely continue to exist.

ennyman: I spent a half hour trying to hook up my new HDTV box to a television set last night, and failed. Isn’t this move to digital television the craziest thing yet? Anything you’d like to add to what you have already written? What kind of feedback did you get to your story in the Reader?
RB: For whatever reason, I don’t get much feedback to my Reader stories. The advantages of digital are overblown, in my opinion, at least for audio. I’m not a fan of unintelligible phone conversations, answering machines, MP3 recordings. We’re saving spectrum by cutting quality, then using the excess spectrum to broadcast more dumb sitcoms and even dumber reality shows. To me, the net gain is less than zero.

ennyman: As a former newspaper editor, what are the most shocking things you have seen that no one is talking about today?
RB: Governmental incompetence and waste top my personal list. Most of today’s reporters simply cover meetings and don’t take risks. For instance, they don’t dig into the early retirement benefit costs for police officers and firefighters. They haven’t revealed that Gary Doty has free lifetime medical benefits, even though they’re aware of it. They don’t write about the source of campaign contributions to Rep. Jim Oberstar or Rep. Dave Obey, and links between contributors and votes. In essence, they’re afraid to tackle beloved people and institutions. They’re as phony and incompetent as those they write about.

BE SURE TO CHECK IN ON RON’S STRAIGHT TALKIN’ BLOGSPOT, AND BOOKMARK IT FOR PERIODIC REVIEW.

6 comments:

LEWagner said...

It's nice to meet you, Ron.
I don't know if you remember me, but I used to write somewhat country-hickish, but pretty-much-on-focus Letters to the Editor, to the papers you used to work for.
I'm Richard Allen Garston, come back from the dead.
I never finish anything. ;>)
One thing about being a ne'er-do-well, is that I don't have to write formally, don't have to wear a shirt or tie, can eat Cheetos while I'm keyboarding and, CAN WRITE IN ALL CAPS, IF I WANT TO! IT'S A FREE COUNTRY!!!
I checked out your blog, and will be checking it out again, and commenting (unless you censor, that is).

Ed Newman said...

Hello Richard... I am looking forward to hearing the rest of your story.

Yes, Ron is a good guy and I am sure you will enjoy his thoughtful columns/blog entries.

e.

LEWagner said...

I read some, and enjoyed reading. I went out of town, today, to visit my former neighbor kid who broke his leg. It's only about 40 miles each way, but a long ride on a motorbike. I felt beat when I got back. Now I have to teach tonight.

LEWagner said...

Sorry -- I got some kind of weird cold and fever that's been going around, and spent most of my time in between teaching, in bed, the past couple of days. I did want to comment on Ron's take on the local Duluth media, however:

>>>>>>>>In essence, they’re afraid to tackle beloved people and institutions. They’re as phony and incompetent as those they write about.

There was time, after time, after time, while I lived in the Duluth area, that the DNT ignored or deliberately skewed important information in their reporting.
You might have read a lot about Windchill the horse in the DNT ...

But how about a weird religious cult in Lake County, where a baby was born, then died from lack of any medical care? And neither the birth nor the death were registered, until after the information got out on its own? The family just buried the kid in the woods, there, and clammed up about it. Did you read about that? Where the cult leader publicly proclaimed that he didn't allow Barbie dolls in the house, "because the boys might undress them and pretend they were mommy or big sister"?
Where the family's own children and teen-aged foster girls were not allowed to go anywhere, or to have any unsupervised conversation with anyone? Where even private letter-writing was forbidden, unless the cult leader read the letters first?
The DNT WAS informed of all of this -- by me, in fact.
What did they do? They printed an article praising the cult leader, on the front page with big pictures, no less, on Easter Sunday, in 1986.
The cult leader did most of the talking, and his dependents were interviewed only in his presence. Naturally, they all said they never, EVER wanted to leave their daddy. The way the DNT reported it, you could almost see Jesus smiling in Heaven.
The DNT never addressed the facts of the unreported birth and death, at all, nor the privacy issues -- nor did they ever do a follow-up article, after all the children actually did leave that place.

A 17-year-old girl was being drugged against her will at a "treatment center" for adults in Carlton County, and was also sexually molested by a female counselor there. She'd been court-ordered there, by a Duluth judge.
Another court-ordered patient hung herself over a stairway in that "treatment center". Her body was discovered by the 17-year-old, who informed the staff. The staff forbade her to talk about it to anyone.
The DNT was informed of this -- by me, in fact.
What did they do? A week or two later, they printed a Sunday feature article bragging up the efficacy of the Woodland Hills Treatment Center, and the gratefulness of the people being "treated" there. (The Woodland Hill patients were interviewed in front of Staff, of course, so no doubt they WERE all happy and grateful. They wouldn't want to get reported to the judge as being "non-cooperative", would they?)
The DNT made no mention of the issue of involuntary drugging, (which is very common in all these centers, as it is court-ordered by Duluth judges, meaning, it's a mandatory part of the program).
Nor did the DNT mention what actually went on in that other "treatment center" in Carlton County, at all. I did later hear they'd lost their license, but nothing was reported about any of it.
Not newsworthy, I guess. Print the fiction, instead.

A case of a Duluth policeman throwing a 14-year-girl to the sidewalk at the Holiday Mall, pulling her hair, sitting on her, then giving her a ride to West Duluth and back. This terrified the girl (whose "crime" had been smoking a cigarette and then talking back), and it made her mother very angry.
Other people did the organizing, I printed fliers, and a public community meeting was held with the Duluth Police Department at City Hall regarding this matter. During that meeting, it came out that numerous petitions against this policeman had been filed at the police desk, and subsequently disappeared.
Nothing appeared in the DNT about any of this, whatsoever.
Darned funny that a Twig farmer should know about it, but the DNT didn't.

A case of the Lake Superior Drug Task Force raiding my property looking for marijuana, coming at first without a warrant. Even so, they busted into my house with guns drawn, woke everyone up at gunpoint, and marched them outside.
Then they held us in the hot sun for 4 hours, not even allowing us a drink of water.
A couple of them went to get a warrant, while the rest of them sat in air-conditioned police vehicles with the motors running, and drank ice-cold soft-drinks. (They'd sent one of their buddies in a Police vehicle to Twig Store to buy chips and soft drinks, cigarettes, etc.)
Finally, about 2 1/2 hours later, the two came back from Duluth with the warrant. Then about 8 of them searched the house and 25-acre property, while 2 of them held us, and prevented us from going to even get a drink of water. They had guns, of course.
They turned everything upside down in the house, and threatened to trample my garden (which they didn't do).
There was no marijuana. We asked Denin Bauers, who seemed to be the leader of the pack, that day, if news of this big drug-bust-that-wasn't, would be in the DNT the next day.
He replied with his characteristic smirk, "Not everything that happens in Duluth gets into the DNT."

The case of several police agencies raiding a private party on my property, and reporting to the DNT that "underaged drinking" had been going on, and that "people had been observed on ecstasy".
The DNT printed this -- and never even WONDERED why the police had made no arrests at that party that night, but had only forced everyone present to drive themselves home.
After drinking, and while on ecstasy?? Wow!! I PERSONALLY would have wondered why the police told them to drive home in that shape -- if they were really were in that shape, that is -- but then, I've never been trained as a journalist.

The case of the mother of a friend who was under the court-ordered "care" of the Human Development Center in Duluth, and was suddenly found dead in her high-rise apartment. She was in her mid-40's at the time.
Well, I ferreted out the information and proof that the woman had diabetes, and that the "expert" psychiatrist had her on Zyprexa. (Google "Zyprexa diabetes", if you're interested.)
The woman had no choice in what drugs she had to take, as she was under court order.
In fact, the same Human Development Center "expert" had her daughter on Zyprexa, as well, under the conditions of "take it, or else, because you're court-ordered to take it."
Pshaw! I didn't even bother to inform the DNT about that one. I'd already had too much experience of them burying the truth, or twisting it.
I just told as many people as I could, mostly orally, but also by posting on message boards here and there, about what was happening in Duluth.

Nor did I inform the DNT of the case about a guy named Tom Hinze, and his habits of cruising the back-roads around Floodwood, Alborn, and Brookston in the middle of the night, and the size 11 or 12 New Balance shoes I'd seen him wearing just 2-3 days before a brutal murder in Brookston, and the jacket, and the car, and his burning clothes in the trailer ....
I did inform the neighbors, who couldn't do anything, and I did inform the police, who wouldn't do anything.
The cops did get him for a DWI, however, and I saw his printout. It was his umpteenth DWI, and went into two pages. He got about 8-9 months at NERCC, then the cops turned him loose, with no probation required -- and then I just got the hell out.
I was starting to feel afraid, stewing in Duluth's juices. I felt like a frog in the proverbial slowly warming pot of water.
When I tell people here about things that go on in Duluth, with full approval of the government and the complicate media, they get kind of big-eyed over hearing it. Things are pretty clean, here, in comparison.

LEWagner said...

>>>>complicate -- wrong word, of course. I don't know how that got through. I right-clicked on the wrong word as I was looking for an adjective to say that the media have complicity .... or is it "has" complicity?
Whatever.

Ed Newman said...

I have a few such stories, but not catalogued like this. When is your book coming out?

Get well soon.
e.

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