13 thoughts on “Brad Rollins’ blog: A new front in the news war”

1. My first instinct is to mourn the loss of a news outlet (SMLN). Not only was it a daily stop for me on the web, I firmly believe that there is strong benefit to the public from being able to glean their news from multiple sources. I am, however, more than willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the Mercury on this point for now.

   What I can not, however, bring myself to give you a pass on is your willingness to publish tripe like the latest “column” from Lamar Hankins. His antics were bad enough when he was just railing against the Republican Party or conservative principles in general, but his latest piece of work (about 9/11) crosses virtually every line there is for a news outlet hoping to establish itself as legitimate and/or be taken seriously. I would sooner expect to see such work on MoveOn or the like than a news outlet. Take all the shots you want at the Record, but I guarantee you won’t see junk like that over there.

   Another piece like that and I’ll be deleting this paricular bookmark from my web browser – and that would be a shame in so many ways.

2. I am inclined to agree, not because his stuff is offensive (I never read it), but because it has nothing to do with San Marcos specifically.

   As far as I can tell, his stuff is just on here to attract traffic from outside of San Marcos (way outside), to get some better numbers to show advertisers. Whatever the reason for having his stuff, it is difficult to reconcile 99% of his columns with the stated goal “to change the way San Marcos communicates with itself, to provide a news source as dynamic and engaging as the city itself.”

3. I agree wholeheartedly. I used to visit the Mercury regularly but got to where I despised Hankins stuff to the point where I stopped and only visited SMLN. Now I don’t have the option. Sure, I don’t have to read his drivel, but when it is 1/5 of the latest news, that is too much. It is NOT news in any way. It is a screwed up thinking editorial. If you want to leave it, at least bury it in the back yard where it belongs.

4. I rarely agree with Lamar but he is very thoughtful. If you want to get inside the mind of the liberal he’s probably more fruitful even than Jim Hightower or Molly Ivins. I’ll never know what he hopes to accomplish advancing the atheist agenda since a world full of the idiots we seem to be producing, without at least a little fear of God, is truly a dismal prospect.

   I’m hoping that the old maxim that two can live as cheap as one prove true and, with reduced overhead, the quality on the one remaining site is superior to what we had. Best of luck to Brad and all the crew. I’ll still check in every day and hope for new stories and reasons to bust balls on the other posters.

5. As someone who spent time beside you as well as across the table from you in those news wars, I have to say, “Congratulations!”

   It has been one wild and crazy ride and hints of the fun that is yet to come!

6. Hankins aside, there is hope that the merger will provide some benefits to online news readers in this area too.

   For example, I would hope that the newly minted/merged Mercury would take a more even approach to its coverage of the business climate in San Marcos than SMLN did. There was a painfully evident bias in SMLN’s coverage, with “downtown development issues” taking a clear center stage….and that’s to say nothing of the coverage given to the Texas Music Theater compared to other venues around town. At times, you would have thought that nothing else was happening in San Marcos other than a concert….

7. Dano,

   Did you even read Hankin’s column on 9-11? He makes some very legitimate points. Yes, it has nothing specifically to do with San Marcos, but in another sense…do we not have service men and women who live in our community, and who deal with the effects of fighting the wars that occurred because of 9-11? Do we not make choices at the polls that deal with our collective responses to evil?

   You don’t have to agree with the man, but you carry more weight when you respond with your own measured arguments, rather than dismiss him as trying to advance an atheistic agenda. What ever that means.

   Having said this, back to the original article: I’ll miss SMLN, and hope we’ll still get multiple viewpoints on the local news.

8. Excuse me, Dano, I attributed the atheistic agenda comment to you , and it wasn’t one that you made. My apologies.

9. Thank you all for the ideas.

   Lamar’s views are his own although I can’t say I always, or even very often, agree with them. I do appreciate his intellectual honesty. By this I don’t mean that I think he speaks self-evident truths but I think he is consistent in how he applies his worldview to the world. (Ted, numbers we provide to advertisers and prospective advertisers typically include the “San Marcos IP” address numbers to help determine how many readers are local readers.)

   Along these lines, I have made real, sustained efforts over the years to recruit conservative columnists but haven’t been able to do it. For that matter, I’m interested in signing up columnists of all persuasions — most of all pragmatism. If you’re willing to take a shot at it, please let me know.

   Dano, business coverage is going to be one of our forte so I think you’ll find much to like in that area.

   I appreciate all the well wishers and those willing to join this community and help improve it.

10. I suggest Ted Marchut contribute a regular column on San Marcos public schools (SMCISD) – he seems to have a real passion for the topic and it always draws a lot of participation in the comments.

11. Right on Ted! I like to say pompous stuff about other people’s stuff especially when it’s stuff I’ve never bothered to read.

    I also try not to think about stuff outside the 78666 zip code…who has the time? Just more stuff to clutter the brain…

12. I’d love to do something like that, covering our school board meetings, programs at school districts like ours, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have enough knowledge to fill a regular column, without investing a lot of time (which the subject deserves), and I’m doing an internship this semester, which takes me from working 50 hours per week, to 65.

13. Wow Morris, thanks.

    All I said was that it is difficult to reconcile his column, with the stated goal of providing better coverage of San Marcos news. Not sure what is pompous about that.