The state’s largest newspaper announced it was celebrating “Local News Day” by taking down its paywall.
Oops.
The paywall remained in place Thursday morning – “Local News Day” – amid the paper’s trying to show what a great job it does.
Stefanie Manning, the paper’s CEO, wrote a column Thursday announcing that “today, we’re celebrating something we care deeply about: local news.”
To show readers how much she cares about local news, Manning not only screwed up the paywall.
She also forgot to acknowledge that while she’s allegedly overseeing the state’s biggest news staff she’s also flipping eggs.
Manning owns Miss Portland Diner at the same time she’s touting her “local news” chops.
“If you want to see what local journalism looks like in action, just look at the stories we’re telling every day,” she told readers.
(Manning didn’t mention that the paper ran three stories on Easter bunnies in one week. Three.)
Strangely she also didn’t mention that the newspaper recently touted her own diner as among the best places to eat in Maine – without disclosing that she owns it.
Manning was proud, however, that Maine’s newspaper of record ran a story on “how a late-season snowstorm affects vulnerable neighbors.”
Among the newspaper’s “accomplishments” she boasted that her staff is “celebrating moments that bring our communities together.”
Now that’s what you call hard-hitting journalism, people.
While celebrating Easter bunnies ad infinitum and secretly promoting its own CEO’s diner it is:
√ Not trying to figure out why the Democrat gubernatorial administration in charge of your tax money is illegally using the state’s emergency account as a slush fund to send out checks to buy your vote.
√ Not digging into why the state’s healthcare system for the poor is paralyzed by multi-million dollar fraud.
√ Not analyzing why so-called “new Americans” AKA illegal aliens are receiving welfare benefits before long-time Maine residents.
√ Not asking Gov. Janet Mills about the alleged connections between her family and illegal Chinese farms right here in Maine.
Yep, what a way to celebrate Local News Day.
Better yet, the celebration was organized by the scandal-plagued Maine Community Foundation, which emailed editors earlier this year to gear up for “Local News Day.”
“If you are planning something, reach out to Lisa DeSisto at [email protected] so Press Forward Maine can share and promote your plans statewide – and make sure Maine shows up in a big way.”
That would be the Lisa DeSisto who resigned as CEO of the state’s largest newspaper, the aforementioned Portland Press Herald, six months after it was bought by The National Trust for Local News.
DeSisto transitioned from a dying daily newspaper to become “senior advisor” to the same Maine Community Foundation mired in a scandal over fundraising for victims of Lewiston’s recent mass shooting.
But why let a little scandal ruin Local News Day?
And God forbid the Local News Day celebration interrupts Manning while she’s behind the counter at her breakfast diner taking orders while up the street her newspaper is dying on the vine.
Need proof?
To celebrate Local News Day check out the Facebook stats for the state’s largest daily versus the upstart Maine Wire.
✓ Maine Wire 160,000
✓ Portland Press Herald 93,000
Who is the light-in-his-loafers looking thing with its hands on the shoulders of what looks to be George Soros?
BDN was “free” today as well.
Gardiner, It’s George Sonos’s son Alex.