Lowell Sun: 2006 by the Numbers
Last Sunday the Lowell Sun’s Column gave out its year-end gifts to the local politicians in Greater Lowell. In that same holiday spirit, we decided to help out the Sun in their year-end evaluation and provide a 2006 “statistical analysis.” Unfortunately, we were too busy to do an accurate count, but we think our numbers are in the ball park. 
Number of times LiL linked to the Sun’s web site (we do this to help the Sun’s hit count): 88
Number of editorials criticizing the Lowell Public School system including the Administration, School Committee, teachers and of course, the union: 30
Number of insightful, analytical and provocative articles about City politics authored by Chris Scott or Mike LaFleur published this year: 25
Number of insightful, analytical and provocative articles about City politics authored by Chris Scott or Mike LaFleur which never saw the light of day: 24
Number of people a day who stop downloading the Sun’s web site because it takes too long: 53
Number of articles with a distinct Sun agenda that was obvious to its readers: 18
Number of years since their file-pictures of local politicians have been updated: 11
Number of times publisher Mark O’Neill’s name was mentioned in a “news” story: 8
Number of references to horse racing in commentary by editor Jim Campanini: 12
Number of governor and lieutenant governor candidates endorsed by the Sun who won their race: 0
December 30th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Hey, how about the number of powderpuff stories about local politicians in the paper’s pocket? How about the number of times “the usual crowd” like Chemaly, Kazanzian etc. get “honored” in the paper and then have the Sun put the arm on them when it comes time to buy ads “honoring” another favored pol? How many times did Wallace bust Marty Meehan’s chops for being a cheapskate this year? How many times did they print Kevin Murphy’s picture with that “deer-in-the-headlights” look? How many times did Kendall Wallace say that he admires people who place their names on a ballot, and then have an underling knock their jocks off in the Sunday column? Kendall, how many times must I say I love you before you finally understand?
January 1st, 2007 at 9:11 pm
In todays Sun, there was a great editorial, loosely speaking to the points above. No one media source is perfect, even LiL.
Between LiL, the Sun, WCAP and the UML radio station, local information does get out there. Each source works very nicely to compliment one another (though not by deliberate design).
Furthermore, there is a very large segment of the regional population that does not subscribe to any of the media sources noted above.
One could say that that any media source has an obvious slant.
My co-bloggers will disagree with me on the following..there is a slim to none chance that any article/story is not going to have a slant, because the story is written by humans. Each writer has their own perception as to how they might view life.
For as many folks that disagree/agree with what the Sun writes, there are just as many folks that disagree/agree with LiL, WCAP, UML or any other information source available to the public.
The fact is, each is integral in educating the public on policy and goings on.
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
WCAP and Sunrise both get (steal) their “local” stories directly from the Sun, so how is that different than watching the new UPN38 newscast at 9:30 or the CBS4 newscast at 11? Or the new CW56 newscast at 10 or the Channel 7 newscast at 11? Same source, same GIGO