Bill Castanier set off a media whirlwind with his post on Pure Michigan’s Right To Work ad
On Tuesday, co-publisher Bill Castanier picked up his copy of the Wall Street Journal and spotted a Pure Michigan ad. But instead of a paean to Michigan’s natural beauty, this ad talked about the wonders of our new Right To Work law.
What an outrage. But instead of just stewing, citizen journalist Bill grabbed his camera and took a picture of the ad and posted the brief article you see here. Little did he know he was setting off a media feeding frenzy.
The first news organizations to pick up the story were the Detroit Free Press and MLive.
In her column on Wednesday, community engagement editor Jewel Gopwani at the Freep was gracious enough to give a tip of the hat to Bill, with a link to his article. Melissa Anders of MLive also included a link back to Bill’s original piece in her article on this controversial issue.
From there, the story went viral, especially after the Huffington Post picked it up. Even the Tennessean, another newspaper in the Freep’s Gannett chain, prominently picked up a lengthy article by Free Press writer Kathleen Gray.
Progressive organizations and bloggers also spread the story: Progress Michigan, Eclectablog and Michigan Liberal. The CBS affiliate in Detroit referenced Progress Michigan as the source for its coverage.
Facebook and Twitter added to the conversation, and the story has new legs today now that Michael Finney, director of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation that spent $114,000 for the ad, is quoted defending the decision in a follow-up article by Melissa Anders in MLive.
So what’s my point?
First, of course, Bill deserves his props for understanding the importance of what he was seeing. Plenty of other reporters no doubt scanned the Wall Street Journal that day, but Bill was the one to see how wrong it was for the MEDC to politicize its Pure Michigan campaign by tying it to this controversial issue.
However, the larger point is that this incident shows how citizen journalists play an essential role in setting the agenda and filling the gaps in covering state and local news. As news organizations struggle to cover more news with fewer staffers, some stories risk falling through the cracks unless citizen volunteers make the effort to help.
Bottom line is that this important issue might never have been raised as part of the public dialogue if Bill hadn’t taken the initiative and the time to produce the original post. The days when reporters showed up at the office and read through a stack of newspapers while sipping their coffee are long gone. Indeed, some news organizations asked permission to use Bill’s photo because they could not find a paper copy of WSJ since their only access today is online.
There is something peculiarly American about this new symbiotic relationship between citizen journalists and working press professionals. A visiting reporter from Japan told me how difficult it is for non-professionals in her country to gain access to information, since only professionals from traditional news organizations can acquire the press credentials required. In the United States, the Open Meeting and Freedom of Information acts give private citizens, not just the paid press, the right to public information.
In the United States, we value the importance of providing people the information they need to make wise decisions about how we will be governed. It’s nice to think that Bill had the chance to contribute to that lofty ideal.
