Dispatch from Lowell
I'm sitting on the second floor of the Wannalancit Mills building in Lowell. It's about 4 p.m. and I'm about to catch a ride home from the New England News Forum conference with David Eisenthal, who is on the other side of the room posting to his blog while I type this. I've typed up three posts of notes from the sessions I've been to, but my mind feels pretty mushy about them right now.
Perhaps the highlight of the day has been when Jim Taricani, a TV journalist who spent four months in house arrest for refusing to name a source who leaked him a video of Provincetown Mayor Buddy Cianci's lieutenant taking a bribe, turned and said it was the Sarah Olsons of the world -- the independent journalists, not the major networks and the metro dailies -- who were really fulfilling the role of the press that the founding fathers intended. "They wanted them to be more like Saras of the world and not Jim Taricani's of world," he said. It was a surprising moment, for me.
Also, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas was wonkily charming in advocating for universal broadband/wireless coverage in the Green Mountain State. Born in Springfield, Mass., he said, "I really wanted to be born in the Green Mountain State, but I really thought I should be close to my mother."
And I enjoyed the panel on the New England Common with Neal Pierce and co. More regional collaboration and less sprawl. Hooray!
Perhaps the highlight of the day has been when Jim Taricani, a TV journalist who spent four months in house arrest for refusing to name a source who leaked him a video of Provincetown Mayor Buddy Cianci's lieutenant taking a bribe, turned and said it was the Sarah Olsons of the world -- the independent journalists, not the major networks and the metro dailies -- who were really fulfilling the role of the press that the founding fathers intended. "They wanted them to be more like Saras of the world and not Jim Taricani's of world," he said. It was a surprising moment, for me.
Also, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas was wonkily charming in advocating for universal broadband/wireless coverage in the Green Mountain State. Born in Springfield, Mass., he said, "I really wanted to be born in the Green Mountain State, but I really thought I should be close to my mother."
And I enjoyed the panel on the New England Common with Neal Pierce and co. More regional collaboration and less sprawl. Hooray!