Charles Richardson & the problems with the Telegraph, Pt 85

{I had originally turned this in for publication in the Aug 28th issue of the paper, but decided there was something better for that slot. At the same time, I want to say what I want to say here, so dig it. - Chris}

File under “I’m not saying, I’m just saying…”

When one of my friends heard The Telegraph’s Charles Richardson was doing a radio show with Kenny B—"to cover news, sports and weather"—he joked, “Guess there’s going to be a lot of wire reports.” The next day, I stumbled on someone’s advance commentary on a then-upcoming Richardson commentary about how someone is spreading rumors that Barack Obama isn’t an American citizen.

It reminded me how it often feels that Richardson only reads the news wire reports, that he might be missing some of the issues at home.

His column runs twice a week, and he still thinks he should comment on a rumor so ridiculous it shouldn’t warrant response? Is there anyone who previously believed Obama wasn’t an American citizen that does now because of Charles Richardson? Understand, I’m not trying to start a fight here, I’m just pointing out some of the reasons—besides the boogeyman Internet—why their circulation is drying up while we continue to grow. (Granted when you’re small, it’s easier to grow, but still…)

These are the most recent topics the Telegraph’s “news columnist” focused on over the past month and a half: his upcoming radio show; countering Walter Williams’s take on the housing market dive; how he isn’t voting for Obama just because they’re both black so don’t send slanderous emails; parental involvement with their school-aged children; how we have more city council members than Tucson, Arizona, where he was born (a point six paragraphs into the editorial); the unfortunate passing of Tom Hamlen (known as “the Mayor of Health Place”); how it’s a bad idea to buy things with rebate because they’re complicated; and how jacked up our “antiquated primary system” is (which I agree with whole-heartedly).

With the exception of his calling out bad parents, the primary and maybe the memorial to Hamlen, nothing he wrote deserved the soapbox that Macon’s daily paper provides. It was all blog material, if even that. Note some of the issues that’ve come up locally over the past month and a half: the battle over missing Federal grant money; a proposal to add a penny to the Hotel/Motel tax for the local Halls of Fame; controversy with the Macon/Bibb County Police and Fire pension fund; the city not raising the property tax for four consecutive years but the Bibb BOE considering it; the city’s struggle to get adequate assistance with tornado relief, among other issues.

During the initial wave of attention paid to the massage parlor issue

The Telegraph recently ran an editorial penned by someone at the Columbus paper, which is also owned by McClatchy. To borrow a line from Richardson: are they doing something right or wrong? Your guess.