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Question of the day

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Illinois

* I’m in the process of creating another one of those automated news feeds for the right-hand side of the page. This one will be for press releases.

So far, I’ve collected RSS feeds for the governor and the legislative caucuses (except for the House Democrats, which have no press releases, of course). But I started wondering last night if maybe I should include press releases for interest groups as well.

* The Question: Would you like to see interest group press releases included in our new news feed? If so, which ones would you suggest? If not, why not?

…Adding… The automated press release newsfeed is now up and running with the RSS feeds I have so far. I’ll add to it as we go along.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 7:38 am

Comments

No. Just seems like an invitation to flood capfax with a bunch of ‘FYI’ streams. I see no upside for it, unless you are charging them for it, and making some money.

Comment by How Ironic Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 8:06 am
Don’t newspapers already re-type press releases and put them in their “Breaking News” sections? Stick with the Constitutionals and Legislature, in my humble opinion.

Comment by Dirty Red Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 8:17 am
No if there’s no way to screen out legislation one pagers, which will lead to everyone spamming it up.

Comment by Mark Buerhle Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 8:25 am
To me, special interest groups don’t release “news”, just their slant on subjects that they were created for. I don’t think they should be included in an area dedicated to news releases. Maybe make a separate column slot for special interests if you want to do even more work

Comment by Roadiepig Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 8:27 am
OK w/”paid political ads”. Don’t need the clutter of a thousand interest groups vying for our attention with their talking points. If it’s newsworthy enough, it will probably get covered on the left hand side of the page.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 8:28 am
How about a separate feed for interest group press releases? (And I don’t think the above idea of treating such a feed as an ad is at all unreasonable. You do an incredible amount of work to earn our eyeballs, they shouldn’t get access to that for nuttin’.)

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 8:34 am
Your right sidebar is already so long that it kinda screws up the formatting of your pages. I wouldn’t add anything to it until you rethink the formatting of the entire page.

You may want to consider a permalink at the top of your current design that goes to another page where Press Releases and some of the other items on your current sidebar reside.

These comments are purely given with a gimlet eye towards formatting. As far as content, I for one would like to see as many press releases as you compile, no matter the source. Many of the commenters rightly point out that all press releases (INCLUDING those from the government) provide a slanted view of an issue. I would rather read that slanted view myself, instead of having the slanted view further slanted by the media and commenters. I can judge for myself…

Comment by Cincinnatus Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 8:41 am
I would scroll past the interest-group releases. Not what I come here to read.

That aside, Rich, where would you draw the line at refusing to run a group’s releases? The potential volume seems vast.

Comment by Boone Logan Square Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 8:53 am
You would be overwhelmed with them, if all were accepted. Let me suggest accepting some, under the heading “Selected news releases.” That would let readers avoid the fluff, but would provide information for something of substance.

Comment by Name/Nickname/Anon Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:00 am
no, it is overkill. Plus, if you do that, everyone would want their own interest focused upon. People would tire of you only focusing on my interests while ignoring theirs.

Comment by Wumpus Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:16 am
http://goo.gl/Nmksj
That sums up my feelings on the subject.

Comment by Solomon Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:18 am
The only flaw is that the interest groups might be exposed to the public as bunch of whiners, but then they could skip sending Capt Fax releases.

BTW your crude attack on House Democrats seems misplaced. Just last week Speaker Madigan issued a press release last week detailing the forwarding thinking plan to comply with federal and state laws on redistricting. Perhaps you were snoozing at release time.

It was very well received,widely reported and seemed to provide a sense of comfort to all concerned that remap will once again be a fair, balanced and heart warming process for all Illinoisans

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:24 am
as the lone voice in the wilderness I would be interested in seeing interest group press releases. I would consider adding them in, and then remove it if its unwanted. The bigger interest grp press releases give peaks into insider infromation being ciruclated to them, and how they may be directing lobbying groups.

Of course the releases are based, but that does not mean the information is not useable or beneficial. as for groups I owuld suggest the bigger groups tied to education, Health and human services, NRA, pro-life and pro-choice.

Comment by ghost Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:30 am
===Your right sidebar is already so long that it kinda screws up the formatting of your pages.===

Actually, at the moment, the right column is just as long as the left column with the posts - and that’s with the new newsfeed.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:32 am
“It was very well received,widely reported and seemed to provide a sense of comfort to all concerned that remap will once again be a fair, balanced and heart warming process for all Illinoisans”

Sarcasm is really hard to determine on the internet…

Comment by Solomon Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:32 am
Yes. It would shine a light on the current practices of many smaller media outlets of running the press releases as a news article, and not an op-ed type of article.

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:33 am
===Actually, at the moment, the right column is just as long as the left column with the posts - and that’s with the new newsfeed. ===
My screen must be formatted different from yours. The right column is still a lot longer than the left.

On topic, I would suggest a separate newsfeed for the interest groups and not mix it in with the new one you just created.

Comment by Been There Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:45 am
The real issue here is the cap fax bias of putting “news” feeds on the right, but our oppinions on the left!!!

Comment by ghost Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:49 am
I’m indifferent on that, but I do think Dan Proft might as well have his own twitter feed so we can all benefit more easily from his uninterupted stream of consciousness on what ever thought comes into his head on any subject.

Dan Rutherford should have his own too, so he can have his name appearing on the twitter feed but then you click on and it says messages protected. Ego or news Dan. Try to make a decision.

Comment by just sayin' Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:50 am
===The right column is still a lot longer than the left.===

Yeah, if you’re commenting in an individual post. Not if you go to the main page, where it actually matters.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 9:54 am
====but I do think Dan Proft might as well have his own twitter feed===

Proft has been removed while his feed is reviewed.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 10:03 am
The Atlantic…The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan.

Comment by Southern IL Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 10:42 am
Any and all. As a researcher all data is good data.

Comment by Dirt Digger Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 10:42 am
no way, unless they pay!

Comment by Spring Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 10:44 am
“Proft has been removed while his feed is reviewed.”

Oh no, what will we do if we can’t see his NCAA play by play and American Idol handicapping on CapFax? lol

Comment by just sayin' Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 10:45 am
Rich, Keep this up, Il Leader may rise like the Phoenix!

Comment by Wumpus Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 11:08 am
Oh please don’t dump Dan
Just like Leroy Lemke and Mr. and Mrs Roger Keet, he is an ispiration to all that tie their own shoes that they will never be poor.
Anyone notice President Obama started his march to the second inauguration today.

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 11:32 am
Would the new feed replace the Sox feed? If so, I’m all for it.

Otherwise, you should limit interest group feeds to subscribers only, meaning it couldn’t be just any group sending out a press release. There must be one or two small groups out there who don’t yet subscribe. This would help you achieve total dominance, 100% market share in Illinois.

Aim high my friend.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 11:40 am
===Would the new feed replace the Sox feed?===

Oh, yeah, that’ll happen.

After I’m dead and safely buried, you can ask my successor to delate that one. But not until then.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 11:42 am
I’d like a subset of information sometimes contained in press releases; namely, the positions taken by various interest groups on specific legislation. I’d prefer that info be listed on a bill’s ilga.gov status page but short of that, if there’s a market, I say charge ‘em and post ‘em.

Comment by Indeedy Monday, Apr 4, 11 @ 7:40 pm