My Thoughts on Lexington Avenue
Lexington Ave. and College St. Photo by Derek Olson, via asheville-nc-photography.com
This is a Letter to the Editor style post in response to two articles in the Mountain Xpress. The first was published in the print edition December 5: No easy answers: Lexington Avenue’s uncertain future by David Forbes. The second was published online December 12: Merchants protest Dec. 5 Lexington Avenue story by Caitlin Byrd.
I used to work in the production department for a daily, independently owned and published newspaper. We frequently heard the kinds of concerns expressed in Ms. Byard’s article and we had to tread carefully. I listened carefully to the in-house editorial discussions about what to do when advertisers expressed concerns about publicity they perceived as negative.
First and foremost, a newspaper has to be honest to its readers, otherwise readers will feel cheated and look elsewhere, which ultimately hurts the newspaper’s bottom line and diminishes the sense of community that a quality newspaper provides. A reader who is less likely to trust the editorial content is also less likely to trust the advertisements in such a newspaper. For an extreme example: Ask yourself how much you trust the advertisements in the tabloids in the checkout line. About as much as their exposé story of ‘Bat Boy’? A newspaper with integrity is a better place for consumers to make choices about where to spend their dollars. Pulling advertising because of a ‘negative’ story hurts the advertiser and the consumer more than than the newspaper.
Can an article on increased crime lead to less crime in the future? Because of the respect that the XPress has in our community and it’s continued ability to start constructive dialog (such as this one), I think so. A negative story can increase and maintain the integrity of a newspaper, leading to positive change for the entire community. The Xpress has that legitimacy because it doesn’t look the other way when confronted with an uglier face of reality than we would all like to see. I put a high value on that.
From my Files: Eight Articles
I was going through my Downloads folder the other day and doing some sorting and throwing out of old torrents and what not, and noticed a several articles that I had read in the past year. Just PDFs that I had downloaded and read. Some of them were sources I used for classes at UNCA, some were just points along my personal learning journey. I think they were pretty interesting and eclectic, and had good memories of reading them. So I’m sharing them, with a brief description. I’ve put them in alphabetical order. PDFs will open in a new window.
- Ambient Temperature and Violent Crime: Tests of the Linear and Curvilinear Hypotheses
- Do changes in temperature correlate to crime rates? If so, what is that relationship? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Published 1984, Vol. 46, No. 1, 91–97. 6 pages. 775 kb.
- Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing
- Aldrin, Collins and Armstrong discuss the entire Apollo 11 mission, from suiting up to moon landing, returning to Earth and comments on the nuts and bolts of how everything worked from the viewpoint of the men who had to make it work. National Aeronautics and Space Agency, July 31st 1969. 156 pages. 1.2 mb.
- Handgun Wounding and Effectiveness
- There is a lot of misinformation about what makes a gun deadly, and what exactly the effects of a bulletin on the human body are. Here is a frighteningly well-researched study by the FBI on just that. Bonus: “FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT DISSEMINATION ONLY.” US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Published July 14, 1989. 16 pages. 203 kb.
- Hydrofracking: The Need for Responsible Gas Drilling Regulation and the Role of Natural Gas
- Looks at the problems of hydrofracking, and assesses what could be done to make it safe way to access energy. More articles from the publisher, an independent energy thinktank, are available here. I don’t smell petro-dollars here, but as always, reader discretion is advised. Energy Vision. 2011. 14 pages. 720 kb.
- McMahon-Hussein Correspondence: Comments and a Reply
- Why does the state of Israel exist? What established the borders? Who was involved in those decisions and how did that make them? McMahon-Hussein is a big piece of that story. Arnold Toynbee addresses these questions from an academic, not a political viewpoint. Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1970), pp. 185–201. 18 pages. 518 kb.
- Road to Riches
- Where does wealth come from? Over thousands of years, the standard of living of humans has crawled slowly forward, until about 250 years ago in Western Europe. Why? Given Mitt Romney’s recent comments about the economic advantages of Israeli culture. The Economist, Dec 23rd 1999. 8 pages. 228 kb.
- Power Notes: Slide Presentations Reconsidered
- Most PowerPoint presentation are awful. But it can be used with purpose and serve to enlighten rather than bore and distract your audience. IIID International Institute for Information Design Swinburne University of Technology. 2011. 67 pages. 7.2 mb.
- A Steampunk’s Guide to the Apocalypse
- A fun and stylish look at how the technology of the past could help you survive the disaster of the future. Steampunk Magazine. October 2007. 31 pages. 7.9 mb.
