The quote came from another journalist replying to me when I mentioned T-P 24th JDC beat reporter Paul Purpura in conversation today. Paul was one of the people chopped at the T-P. I had heard the various news bureaus took particularly nasty hits, a fact which Kevin Allman at Gambit confirmed. Because we focus on Jefferson Parish, we’ve featured Paul’s work a good bit on these pages.
I mention all this because Paul was never mentioned in any of the other media coverage aside from that Gambit story above and he certainly was not spotlighted in the national media as were some of his more colorful co-workers that brought bottles of booze and tissues to work yesterday. In respects though, what Paul did is more compelling to me, because he was evidently chopped in the morning and instead of going home went back to his beat filing this story on a child molestation trial in the 24th JDC. How does a company replace such dedication? You don’t folks.
Paul we’re all proud of ya.
sop
With the way the staff was treated yesterday, its amazing that the TP was able to publish an edition today; yet alone, a damn fine one at that. The TP has/had a great crew of journalists. Lets hope that someone steps up to the plate and publishes a daily in Nawlins.
Maybe like a phoenix from the ashes come a news organization that for a change let it’s journalists write unfettered and unleashed. What New Orleans area residents are craving for are investigative writers that are allowed to put it on the line for the truth, not to be held back or be tainted by any external political policies.
Let me let you in on a little secret. Newspeople may draw a paycheck from their bosses, but that’s not really who they see themselves as working for. And yes, doing the job under personal duress is seen as a badge of honor.
Okay, so here’s the deal. Paul is a REALLY good reporter and here’s why. None of his stories were slanted. He is as apolitical as a reporter could be. I once heard a fairly “high ranking” person in JP refer to him as a “fucking liberal.” I’ve read articles he has written and thought, “What a right-winger.”
The guy will land on his feet because he is a middle class Metry boy, and that’s how we roll.
A source with knowledge of the operations of JP government indictated to me the judiciary classes in Gretna are delighted at the prospect of no longer have a beat reporter assigned there.
I suspect Paul Connick is also delighted.
sop
Appreciate you Paul for your JP investigations and please continue to be a commenter at the SlabbedNation and share any information you want to get out before the public uncensored.
Sop, I agree, the JP politico power brokers are dancing in the streets and back alleys of GretnaMentality as we post.
The JP beat is wide open Lockem. 4 TeeVee stations, one major paper and something like 40 blogs examine every square inch of NOLA politics etc while roundly ignoring the second largest parish in the state that forms the larest part of the entire metro area (and where the most of the schemes are hatched). Frankly it has an Alice in Wonderland like quality.
I know where there is low cost venture financing available and am seriously considering making a much larger step into the media landscape covering the places everyone else is ignoring.
sop
The cost of silence that no one has calculated in here is the fact that the Times Picayune files FOIA requests and filed lawsuits to force the production of government documents. The FOIA and lawsuits are either going to be dramatically cut back or they are going to be terminated completely because the Newhouses no longer factor those things in for budgetary reasons. Taylor Swift’s pregnancy, Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt rumors, and other nonsense now take precedence because they generate more web traffic.
The State of Louisiana, City of New Orleans, and other governments need to terminate their public information contracts with the Times Picayune and find another company who has a daily online/print presence.
SOP,
There is no doubt that you would be a welcomed huge success in the eyes of the public as you already are. However you would also need some serious body guards and attorneys because the politicos would bring every resource they have availible and then some to shut you up including their influence over the LA. DOJ.
To “SOP”: Notwithstanding Amoss’ glitzy video on “nola.com” the other day, and his front page (how ironic) article of this morning about how “Great Journalism is not Bound by the Medium”, I still believe we are being spoken to “ELLIPTICALLY”, and without real “COMMUNICATION”. What do Amoss and his bosses, the Newhouses, think we are, a bunch of SLAVES who can’t read above the 4th Grade Level, if that (Yaas! Ah be’s gots ma diplom from McDonough 32)? So here’s my question: Does anyone know how much the subscription price of the 3-day print paper will be this Fall, compared to the 7-day cost today? Right now, I’m paying $227.40 for 12 months, although that includes delivery (ie. a “paper thrower”, although this Gentleman is GREAT, delivering in rain, wind, sleet and snow, not to mention taking his life in his hands to make delivery during the during the early morning hours here in the CESSPOOL). Once the “rest of the paper” goes DIGITAL, will we be charges a subscription fee for “nola.com”, a service that we have been granted free access to FOR YEARS? Also, will “nola.com” become CONTAMINATED with advertisenments, which we will encounter randomly, or as a result of “strategic placement” on the Web-Site, advertisements that I wouldn’t access in a million years if advertisements had their own place on the Web-Site, which would require an affirmative act on my part to access, ie. clicking on, which I would NEVER do? So I guess what I am asking is: Forget all of the platitudes about “great journalism” and tell me in plain English how Amoss and his “handlers”, the Newhouse Family, plan to FUCK WITH the reading public, going forward. Ashton O’Dwyer.
I REALLY need to understand how “The Newhouse Family” plans to make their money (ie. how they’re really going to FUCK with us) going forward. After my Comment of this morning, a friend of mine told me, “They’re not going to start charging for access to ‘nola.com’; they’re just going to INCREASE advertising rates for the three (3) day ‘hard copy’ paper which we will see in the Fall.” That may happen, but it doesn’t seem entirely viable to me to ask one Group of users, ie. Advertisers, to bear the entire cost of the paper’s going digital. So increasing the cost of subscription services (ie. same price for delivery 3 times per week, which you formerly paid for delivery 7 times per week, maybe more). And then again, the Newhouse Family may be in a selling mode. I just don’t know, but wish someone “in the know” would let me know. There must be a “better” answer to my admittedly obtuse questions than I have been able to come up with. Ashton O’Dwyer.