Today’s Message of the Day is a Hobby Lobby newspaper ad. It ran in both newspapers we subscribe to, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Hobby Lobby wears its Christian leanings on its sleeve, so to speak.
Listen to the music in the stores and it’s inspirational.
And on Easter and Christmas in years in which the company has sufficient money, full page ads run in newspapers.
Here’s this Easter’s ad:
Hobby Lobby's 2012 Easter ad.
The name identification building side of Sandy Salgado's newspaper insert.
With 1,500 paid subscriptions in McHenry County, District 3 McHenry County Board member Sandra Salgado has put a insert into the Walworth County newspaper.
The back of the newspaper insert tells of how Sandra Salgado voted against the tax hike, initiated the pay freeze for county officials, plus the committees where she serves and her higher education.
Zane Seipler
Keith Nygren
As most McHenry County Blog readers know, former and future (my prediction) McHenry County Deputy Sheriff Zane Seipler is seeking appointment of a Special Prosecutor from Judge Thomas Meyer to probe whether Sheriff Keith Nygren used county taxes to further his campaign.
Judge Meyer seemed uninterested in the big exhibit of supposed wrongdoing which Seipler attorney Blake Horwitz brought to court.
Meyer mentioned that he was aware of what the Sheriff and McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler had told the Northwest Herald.
Click to enlarge.
When one of the attorneys brought up subpoenas which Seipler attorney Horwitz had served on the Sheriff’s Department, Judge Meyer quashed them.
As he ruled that the subpoenas could not be enforced, Judge Meyer said that it was not the responsibility of Siepler’s attorney to make the criminal case against Nygren, that that would be the task of the Special Prosecutor, if one were named.
Judge Meyer said his decision about naming a Special Prosecutor would be made based solely upon whether McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi was unavailable or had a conflict of interest, two conditions containing in the statute which states when a Special Prosecutor can be named.
Nevertheless, I was curious as to what information the subpoenas requested that the Judge apparently had no interest in reviewing. So I filed a Freedom of Information request.
The subpoenas are dated September 19, 2011, with a return date of October 6th.
The first is for Undersheriff Andy Zinke. It asks for “Any and all documents in your possession or control which contain a seven pointed star as an emblem and/or symbol of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department within the document. Petitioner is not requesting documents which are the subject matter of law enforcement privilege.”
The second, dated September 19th, is to John Trotter.
It requests, “Any and all documents in your possession or control which concern the placement of a seven pointed star on any wall(s) within the Sheriff’s Department and onto any any official vehicles, motorcycles, trailers, snowmobiles, golf carts of the department (see rider).”
The rider explains that financial records are being sought, including “receipts, financial transactions, payment to a contractor, subcontractor for work performed concerning the placement of the seven pointed star.”
= = = = =
A couple of thoughts occurred while writing this piece.
I have watched Judge Meyer for many hours, starting with the Northwest Herald’s case against me.
Many times while waiting for that case and two cases involving Zane Seipler (the FOP arbitration administrative review case and the Special Prosecutor case), I have arrived early and seen his deliberate style and well-reasoned judgements.
I can’t believe he would be influenced by misleading information in a newspaper indicating that the price of a Special Prosecutor would have to be as egregious as the amount billed by Tonigan and McQueen.
Indeed, McHenry County already has a $30,000 per year arrangement with the Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, which has gone unmentioned in the Northwest Herald, to the best of my knowledge, but about which I reported in August. County Board Chairman Ken Koehler signs the resolution each year. The contract includes trial assistance, such as, acting as a Special Prosecutor for no extra cost, except for incidentals like copying and other miscellaneous costs.
Nor do I believe Judge Meyer could be influenced by the Northwest Herald’s editorial urging him to drop the request for a Special Prosecutor based on the fiasco that resulted from Tonigan’s failed efforts any more than he considered the influence of the county’s dominant newspaper in its case against me.
What I don’t understand is the Judge’s apparent lack of interest in evidence of the Sheriff’s alleged use of his office for political purposes. Does he believe the allegations and exhibites themselves are serious enough to consider appointing a Special Prosecutors?
We’ll probably never know. As my son tells me when I try to understand his thought processes:
“It’s my mind.”
Hobby Lobby has a tradition of publishing newspaper ads on Easter Sunday. The store is closed every Sunday.
Hobby Lobby is an unabashed Christian store.
Christian songs are played on the craft store’s PA system.
On Easter it publishes full-page Christian ads. You see this year’s above.
The message was
HE DIED
WE LIVE
Click on the image and you probably can read the small print.
Romans 5:8-9 is quoted:
But God demonstrates His love toward us
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, having been justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Jim Zoes posted the following thoughtful comment on my story “Those Pesky Bloggers.”
This is old news, in fact.
Back in 1993 and 1994, some were waking up to the fact that the Internet paradigm was changing everything.
Before blogs and chat rooms, and before the World Wide Web was dominant, there was USENET (short for users network). USENET was a distributed processing architecture of servers around the world.
A person could compose an article, post it in his ISP’s USENET server, which would automatically distribute it every other USENET server in the world.
Generally, within 24 hours, the ideas presented were available to any who bothered to look. In 1993 and 1994, there was email and USENET.
It is how debate took place.
Debate and discussion were facilitated by USENET, grouped by category.
But even back then, the world changed.
I participated in a discussion about traditional news papers and TV news, with the editors of TIME Magazine.
They could not see the coming tsunami of information flow, even when it was right in front of them.
My discussion was picked up by an author and republished in a book.
What follows is an excerpt of my contribution to that book, “The Effect of the Net on the Professional News Media: The Usenet News Collective – The Man-Computer News Symbiosis,” by Michael Hauben, http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/CS/net-and-newsmedia.txt
“This writer believes that you (the traditional press) face the same challenge that the monks in the monastery faced when Gutenberg started printing Bibles.”
[Zoes, Jim (1994, July 22). "Re: TIME Cover Story: pipeline to editors" in USENET Newsgroup: alt.internet.media-coverage]
“Your top-down model of journalism allows traditional media to control the debate, and even if you provide opportunity for opposing views, the editor
*always* had the last word. In the new paradigm, not only do you not necessarily have the last word, you no longer even control the flow of the debate.”“The growth and acceptance of email, coupled with discussion groups (Usenet) and mail lists provide for a “market place of ideas” hitherto not possible since perhaps the days of the classic Athenians.”
The reason is that the Internet is a 2-way communication channel.
Newsapers and TV news is 1 directional only.
This 2-way channel effectively ended the “gatekeeper” function of the reporters and editors, by allowing anyone to be a “news disseminator.”
And the result of its effect on the “market place of ideas” is staggering:
First of all, the traditional method of distributing information was immediately obsoleted.
Couple in a search engine that would provide the links to web pages that would contain information sought, and you had a methodology for myriad groups of people to discuss ideas, or comment on the world.
Now, Cal’s blog requires registration to upload comments.
And Cal retains complete control of the content – after all, it’s his blog.
However, unlike the traditional news outlets, the computer on my desk (or in my smart phone) is also a content distributor.
If I choose (or if Cal decides that he doesn’t want me commenting on his blog), I can start my own blog.
I could call it “The Other McHenry County Blog” or even “Cal’s all wet, here’s the truth blog”
Just about every news paper in America and every television network has bowed to the inevitable and included some form of “comment section,” even the Northwest Herald (though they disabled theirs for a 2 week period).
The possibility that an individual’s ideas could be read – and influence the opinions of millions of others – quickly became a major headache for the major dailies and TV networks. It was quickly noticed. For example:
“Consider this: My $1000 PC is now a personal broadcasting station that reaches more people than the CBS affiliate in Washington D.C. I can get more local viewers with a single e-mail posting to the Internet than Sally Jessy Raphael can get in a single sweeps month … (Hey Washington Post! POOF! You’re a newsletter!)”
[Paul McCloskey, Forward to "The Internet for Dummies," IDG Books Worldwide,
Inc., San Mateo, CA, 1993]Up until the personal computer with an Internet connection, it was economically infeasonable to try to “go around the gatekeeper.”
Now, the gatekeeper has been steamrollered.
The leftstream media (ironically using the Internet to coordinated their message – like the “JournoLst” email list) still does not “get it.”
Witness how quickly Dan Rather got taken down when he published forged documents purporting to claim that President Bush was AWOL in the Air National Guard. In less the 12 hours, the fraud was detected. Within 24 hours, the mechanism on how it was done was determined – and explained to the world. And in 48 hours, Rather’s long career in broadcast journalism was destroyed.
The leftstream media succeeded in fooling most of America into voting for Obama, but has been flat out unable to keep independent voters in line, as the November 2010 election proved.
Why?
Because other “higher quality” (in terms of spin) news was available elsewhere.
There was talk radio, which is the Rightstream media for all practical purposes.
But more importantly, there were independent news sites – not just news for the right, but newspapers from around the world,
You would be surprised at how much news about America is found in FOREIGN online newspapers.
A photo found on McHenry County Blog taken by a Friend of McHenry County Blog. Click to enlarge.
News that our media “spikes” – such as the nasty signs being carried by pro-union supporters in Madison recently.
But the pictures of the left equating Walker with Hitler could be seen on other media that was not in journalism lockstep in trying to make the protesters look like angels.
Did the national news organizations report the death threats against Republicans in Wisconsin?
Nope.
But the Journal Sentinel in Milwaukee did, as did the local county/city papers in the state.
And you could bypass the “gate” that the Leftstream media by simply reading the local papers online, like the LaCrosse Tribune, which detailed the threats and vandalism against their Republican state Senator.
Katy Couric gave the impression that all was sweetness and light in Madison.
That it was a peaceful demonstration of solidarity, with little if any mention of the vandalism damage to the capitol building OR the death threats against the Republicans.
Storming a state capitol building is a scary thing to see. The screaming, the profanity, the pushing and shoving, is a violent act.
So very little from the Networks and CNN.
But the Journal Sentinel had it. The independent bloggers and pundits had it. Everybody with a camera phone even had it on video, which was quickly uploaded to YouTube.
The Leftstream media thought they controlled the flow of information – that they were still the “Holy GateKeepers.”
They were wrong, and their empire has collapsed into the dust.
And I think that this is a good thing for our Republic.
I wrote a piece which Google eliminated along with the rest of my stories form 2005 to about 2007 about how democracy needs to have more than one news source. Even had a source,Robert Dahl’s book “On Democracy,” another of whose books (“Who Governs”) I read at Oberlin College in Aaron Wildavski’s government class.
Here is Dahl’s take on the need for alternative news sources:
p97
“WHY DOES DEMOCRACY REQUIRE THE AVAILABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE AND INDEPENDENT SOURCES OF INFORMATION?
“Like freedom of expression, the availability of alternative and relatively independent sources of information is required by several of the basic democratic criteria Consider the need for enlightened understanding. How can citizens acquire the information they need in order to understand the issues if the government controls all the important sources of information?
“Or, for that matter, if any single group enjoys a monopoly in providing information? Citizens must have access, then, to alternative sources of information that are not under the control of the government or dominated by any other group or point of view.
“Or think about effective participation and influencing the public agenda. How could citizens participate effectively in political life if all the information they could acquire was provided by a single source, say the government, or, for that matter, a single party, faction, or interest?”
My hope is that McHenry County Blog helps provide that.
Newspaper reporters and bloggers use the same machines, but sometimes they don't see the same things. Jay Rosen in "Press Think" wrote in 2009, "...journalists maintain order by either keeping the deviant out of the news entirely or identifying it within the news frame as unacceptable, radical, or just plain impossible."
Peoria Pundit keeps watch on his local media’s decline, not the mention to decline of what he calls “dead tree” media.
Recently he pointed readers to a talk by Jay Rosen, who writes “Press Talk, Ghost of Democracy in the Media Machine.”
I realize most readers won’t be interested, but those newspaper reporters who dip in might find Rosen’s perspective illuminating.
Most interesting to me was the Lincoln Stephens view of journalism, which, presumably, is old hat to those who attended journalism school (my master’s degree at the University of Michigan was in Public Administration, while my major at Oberlin College was economics).
He was into, hold on now, advocacy journalism.
“I am not a scientist. I am a journalist.
“I did not gather with indifference all the facts and arrange them patiently for permanent preservation and laboratory analysis.
“I did not want to preserve, I wanted to destroy the facts.
“My purpose was [to] see if the shameful facts, spread out in all their shame, would not burn through our civic shamelessness and set fire to American pride.
“That was the journalism of it.
“I wanted to move and to convince.”
If only reporters in the Leftstream media would be as forthright with their readers/watchers.
Rosen points to five sources of stress for journalists:
“Journalists today are under stress. The stress has five sources. Bloggers put all five right into the face of professional journalism.
If you are intrigued at the “look down the nose” approach of too many newspaper types who have no chance of having enough reporters to cover stories that they wish they could run, you might want to read the entire, long speech.
From “The Hill” article entitled,
“The Hill’s 2010 Midterm Poll: Media has gotten more partisan, likely voters say”:
“That half of voters essentially think journalists are not doing their jobs as impartial observers, I think, is a significant finding,” (Brookings Institution scholar Darrell) West said.
The Aurora Beacon-News was the first to complain about a bill that would eliminate some legal advertising.
Now, the Bloomington Pantagraph has taken up the drumbeat.
In response, Rich Miller at his Capitol Fax Blog floated an idea that should shivers of terror down the backs of newspaper owners and managers. Talking about special interests complaining about their government funding being cut, Miller writes:
And the newspapers aren’t being much of a help, either. Balance that budget, state and locals, but don’t eat into our gravy train…
At a time when public officials should be championing greater openness in government, a bill is pending in Springfield that would do away with requirements that Illinois fire protection districts print public notices in general circulation newspapers.
Instead, appropriation and penalty ordinances could be posted on a Web site.
The state ought to just open a website for all public notices in Illinois and charge everyone a fraction of what newspapers do. But that would eat too much into their cash flow, so it’ll never happen.
One reader commented on the Pantagraph editorial like this:
Chadwick Snow said on: April 7, 2010, 8:20 am
No, this has nothing to do with newspaper interest in advertising revenue generated through public notices.
I think a portion of the Pantagraph’s position is driven precisely by that motive.
Circulation of newspapers continue to decline. Public notices are extremely expensive. Advertisers are continually seeking other marketing strategies and pulling their resources from newspapers.
Why shouldn’t government institutions also use more creative means to communicate with the public.
Web-based notices, billboards and public service announcements are just a few alternative strategies.
Would the newspaper publishing industry be as enthused about public notices within their publications if they were required to devote free space to government or not-for-profit agencies – similar to FCC requirements – to publish their notices?
I doubt it.
The Northwest Herald obviously is in a cost cutting mode.
Now, new competition has arrived for its weekend “Neighbors” section. That section is pretty much organization press releases and submitted photos.
TribLocal's Paula Dudley, Lawerence Synett and Katie Cousino at the McHenry Chamber of Commerce's Business Expo last Saturday.
The new competitor in town is something called “TribLocal.” It is a local content insert that the Chicago Tribune is rolling out throughout the suburbs. Like the NW Herald’s “Neighbors,” it also has press releases and photos organizations submit, but, in addition, there is a web site with more. Local stories not covered in the NW Herald also appear. Here’s the link to stories of interest to Crystal Lakers, for instance.
I met the TribLocal folks at the Business Expo in McHenry last Saturday, having missed their October 1st introduction party.
You can tell the NW Herald has noticed because it has begun putting its Sun City insert in the weekend Neighbors Section.
The Northwest Herald is now giving away part of its newspaper.
It has also begun giving it away separately on news stands, as you can see above.
The introduction out of the way here is a column about local libraries:
Community Corner: Libraries still a viable resource
By Lawerence Synett, TribLocal reporter
“What is more important in a library than anything else, than everything else, is the fact that it exists.”— Illinois poet Archibald MacLeish
Residents don’t see many positives in a struggling economy. From school budget cuts to the rising unemployed, the economic downtown has left many as cold and bitter as Old Man Winter.
It's hard to find a parking space in the Crystal Lake Library parking lot. The newsletter that arrived this week commented on how the snow had diminished the number of spaces. When I visited Thursday to file a Freedom of Information request, I got the last space.
But during tough times, residents are turning to what some may have considered passé and out of touch only a few years ago—the library, a true diamond in the rough. This tough stretch for residents has forced them to rediscover the tremendous value of their local library, and once again made true those words MacLeish wrote in June 1972.
“There is an old saying that libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries,” Huntley Public Library Executive Director Patrick McDonald said, “I think that’s as true today as it ever was.”
That’s right. People today have the opportunity to use their library for more than just checking out books, music and movies. They now have money training, and saving, opportunities—Internet access, professional assistance with job searches and programs training them in today’s latest technology.
In Huntley, the library’s top four categories have increased steadily since 2007—circulation is up almost 150,000, attendance by nearly 100,000, interlibrary loans by nearly 50,000 and requests for reference help by more than 20,000.
This isn’t just happenstance at the Huntley library, it is a trend at libraries across the country—a 2009 American Library Association report found that 76 percent of Americans had visited their library in the past year, up 65 percent from the prior year.
As is the case at our schools and even the workplace, staff is being asked to do more with less. They are being asked to continue to provide residents with the best possible services available with less money, and in most cases, they are being forced to make cuts.
McDonald said, “We do our best with what we have, but we can only do so much to reduce operating costs and continue to provide the level of service needed,” and with state funding to regional library systems in jeopardy, “that funding would be a big blow to some of the services and materials many libraries are able to provide.”
Is this fair? No. But I believe libraries are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution.
Libraries continue to be the pulse of the community, a part of the educational and social fabric pushing toward a solution to the economic downturn by providing the chance for people to gain the skills necessary for a new job or the training needed to start a successful new business.
Crystal Lake Library
Crystal Lake Public Library Director Kathryn Martens said that budget issues and possible cutbacks continue to hinder the increased amount of services patrons expect from libraries, but realizes libraries are here to serve the public.
That is why libraries are so valuable to our communities, because they have one goal, to serve their patrons the way they deem necessary.
Martens also recognized that library use has been on the rise not just during a struggling economy, but also over the last 20 years.
“We are always looking for what is current, what people are asking about, what they want, what is in their lives,” she said.
Libraries are here to stay, and a valuable resource. They are a part of the solution, and we all need to recognize what’s most important, that they are here, during the good and the bad, with staff working tirelessly to provide the services we need.
*Lawerence Synett is the TribLocal community manager for Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Huntley, Crystal Lake, McHenry and Woodstock. If you would like to comment on this column, or have stories, photos or events you would like to share at triblocal.com, register online for free, e-mail Synett at lsynett@tribune.com or call 708-498-0458.
What is it that investment advisers and consumer advocates always advise?
You may remember that when my friend and I visited the Crystal Lake Expo Saturday a week ago, we found the Northwest Herald advertising and a young lady pitching a six-month subscription to the paper for $1.
Less than a penny a paper.Closer to a half a penny an issue.
I figured when we got back from Pompano Beach there would be a stack of Northwest Heralds sitting in the driveway.
But there were none.
With apologies to the Zombies,
The other three papers I subscribe to—the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Elgin Daily Courier—were in the driveway Sunday.
By the way, my wife wants readers to know that none of her money went to pay for the subscription to the Northwest Herald.
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