By JIM BROOKS
The Nelson County Gazette
With the May primary election just two weeks away, I knew Monday that the locally televised debates would be coming this week. Unfortunately, unless you are a newspaper subscriber or a cable viewer, you would never know it.
In what can probably be termed a case of “media myopia,” Standard Communications promoted its televised candidate debates in all its products but one – its Web site.
You would think that an important service as this would be front-and-center on its web site. Perhaps I’m the one who is near-sighted, but I was unable to find any link to information about the debate schedule. I looked … and looked … and looked again.
My wife happened to pick up the Sunday edition of the newspaper, and there’s a full-color ad on page A12. But for those folks who do not subscribe or watch the cable channel, there was no way for them to learn of the debate schedule.
The newspaper site has some of its display ads that can be viewed online; unfortunately, the debate schedule — called a “house ad” in advertising terms — was not one of them. Why the debate schedule wasn’t posted prominently on its web site is a mystery to me. Even the cable channel’s web site fails to list the debate schedule.
For my own reference — and for the benefit of the readers of The Nelson County Gazette — the debate schedule is now posted on the top of the home page. While I’m not in the business of promoting competitors, in this instance it is the voters of Nelson County who are the losers.The debates offer some of the only opportunities they may have to actually see the candidates for whom they’ll be voting in two weeks.
MEET & GREET THE CANDIDATES. If you can’t see the debates, you still have a chance to come out and meet the candidates. Come out to the J. Dan Talbott Amphitheatre on Saturday, May 8 from 1-5 pm for the WBRT political picnic and meet & greet. All the candidates for local office are invited. There will be great barbecue food available at the amphitheatre from Down Home Barbecue, and plenty of time to meet the candidates for office. See you there!
-30-
