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What a strange article. From my understanding it's an article about a family owned business supplying coal for a newly launched coal power plant in a remote Al

What a strange article. From my understanding it's an article about a family owned business supplying coal for a newly launched coal power plant in a remote Alaskan college town. There were 4 quotes from the article: 1- From a representative of the college (good) 2- From an analyst who did not participate in this situation making a report that is totally unrelated to this news piece 3- From an analyst commenting on the news piece 4- From the company's website There were no interviews with the residents. Nothing about the business supplying the coal. No comments from students. No mention of town halls or different sides. Am I just becoming an old crabby guy or was this... lacking something?

bhelkey 8y ago
Those things all cost money and time.
- ComputerGuru 8y ago
  No, those things all used to be considered basic journalism.
woodandsteel 8y ago
The focus of the article was on the question of why this particular facility makes economic sense when coal generation as a whole is declining in the US.
- towelr34dy 8y ago
  Oh I get that. But it was lacking any depth. It seemed one sided. But I can't even call it that. It didn't even give a side. It was more like... hearsay with a single interview, probably on the phone, with 1 person on the ground. Even then, they could have published the interview for some depth. But not even that. Hell, probably browsing local facebook groups/reddits or calling their local municipality/college associations you could find more information with a few hours of free time. It's... surreal in terms of how shallow it was. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd fully expect a tabloid to publish trash rag stuff, but... I'm seeing it more now in major publications, and even oddly shared on sites like this. I'm just... I just find it odd.
  - 8bitsrule 8y ago
    Feels more like a small-town newspaper writeup. Could be that an overloaded author, sitting at a Bloomberg desk, was assigned the story ... with no experience in energy, and given nothing to to work with but a couple of local Alaskan newpaper clips. Maybe muttering to himself while he typed.

bhelkey 8y ago

Those things all cost money and time.

ComputerGuru 8y ago
No, those things all used to be considered basic journalism.

woodandsteel 8y ago

The focus of the article was on the question of why this particular facility makes economic sense when coal generation as a whole is declining in the US.

towelr34dy 8y ago
Oh I get that. But it was lacking any depth. It seemed one sided. But I can't even call it that. It didn't even give a side. It was more like... hearsay with a single interview, probably on the phone, with 1 person on the ground. Even then, they could have published the interview for some depth. But not even that. Hell, probably browsing local facebook groups/reddits or calling their local municipality/college associations you could find more information with a few hours of free time. It's... surreal in terms of how shallow it was. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd fully expect a tabloid to publish trash rag stuff, but... I'm seeing it more now in major publications, and even oddly shared on sites like this. I'm just... I just find it odd.
- 8bitsrule 8y ago
  Feels more like a small-town newspaper writeup. Could be that an overloaded author, sitting at a Bloomberg desk, was assigned the story ... with no experience in energy, and given nothing to to work with but a couple of local Alaskan newpaper clips. Maybe muttering to himself while he typed.