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Corporate Media? (Oh, Wait--That's Us.)
Wed., Oct. 14 2009 @ 10:11AM
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| We can't find a picture of Enclave's Mike Byrd, so instead here's a snapshot of Capt. Mike Byrd of the Morrow, Georgia Fire Department |
Intrepid Enclave blogger Mike Byrd first posted Monday some commentary questioning whether Solidus is committed to high-quality journalism, offering unsourced conjecture about how SouthComm editorial staff views their jobs and the enterprise, and rebuking without substantiation SouthComm executive editor Liz Garrigan's supposed view of alternative media.
Byrd followed up with a Tuesday post discussing how Solidus could stand to benefit from a state program called TNInvestco, which gives tax breaks to insurance companies investing in venture capital firms (like Solidus) that put money into small and start-up businesses. "Will SouthComm reporters and editors have the will," Byrd asks, "to dissect TNInvestco deficiencies on the market side if SouthComm paychecks hinge on a TNInvestco win?"
Last night on Enclave, NashvillePost.com writer Tom Wood penned a lengthy comment responding to Byrd's concerns. Wood defended how NashvillePost journalists have covered Solidus in particular and Nashville's venture capital community in general in recent years.
My own quick take is that it's eminently reasonable for Byrd to raise questions about potential conflicts of interest in local journalism related to media ownership. Any press outlet owned by a corporation whose other activities are an object of news coverage faces these potential conflicts. It also incurs the obligation to address and overcome them.
That said, one can question whether Byrd has a complete handle on how venture capital works, and whether he overstates the "risks" (as he puts it) to average Tennesseans posed by Solidus involvement in TNInvestco. He also might find that his arguments are weightier without the embellishment of unsubstantiated assumptions.
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