The Cincinnati Beacon
Margaret Buchanan: Conflict of Interest in Newsmaking?
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
 Do a site specific Google search for Margaret E. Buchanan,” or ”Margaret Buchanan.” Even when allowing for Google’s “repeated results,” you’ll come up with less than 50 hits. That’s not a lot of ink spent talking about The Enquirer’s President and Publisher. But why should we expect anything else?
Margaret Buchanan sits on the Executive Committee for the Board of 3CDC. Even locating such information is strange. Go to the 3CDC website and click ”About 3CDC.” You will see a link entitled ”Board of Directors.”
Now, one might expect clicking on that link to display the Board of Directors. Instead, it brings up another screen where you find you can download a word processing document which includes the list.
This is a standard tactic designed to prevent people from bothering with such information through fatigue.
Don’t believe me? Just ask yourself a simple question: How often have you found a link to a news story, then discovered that the site requires you to register. Have you ever decided not to bother with reading the story? In the earlier days of online news, publishers thought that getting a better sense of who visited (through registration) would make it easier to sell more costly targeted advertisements—but that technique, over time, has been shown to fail.
The Enquirer, unlike many other online papers, does not require registration. They know it causes people to fatigue and stop clicking. But if you bother to download the 3CDC document, save it to whatever location to which you save such things, and open it, there you will see a list of 3CDC’s Board. And there is Margaret Buchanan’s name.
As of this morning, a site specific Google Search will give you almost 300 hits for stories including 3CDC.
What kinds of things does The Enquirer have to say about 3CDC?
Square project tests 3CDC, By Cliff Peale:
Led by local corporate types, 3CDC in effect owns Fountain Square for the next few decades. It’s done an admirable job lining up financing, with private interests paying all but $4 million of the $42 million reconstruction costs.
What separates good cities from great cities?, By Tony Lang
3CDC’s Fountain Square makeover isn’t about planting trees or moving the Genius of Water. It’s about creating real estate values, making leases work, attracting new consumer spending. Restaurants and retail ought to be clamoring for that location.
You get the picture. The Enquirer has great things to say about 3CDC. The Enquirer has no criticisms of 3CDC. The Enquirer does not investigate 3CDC, choosing instead to report the organization’s talking points.
And Margaret Buchanan, President and Publisher of The Enquirer, is on the Executive Committee of the 3CDC Board.
This is not about whether anyone thinks it a good or bad idea to renovate Fountain Square, for example. This is about understanding whether or not The Enquirer is a trustworthy source for real news.
Would Margaret Buchanan allow one of her staff writers to investigate 3CDC and the numbers behind some of its plans? Would she allow such a story to be published? Whenever The Enquirer prints praise of 3CDC, is it worth remembering that the President and Publisher sits on the Executive Committee of the Board? Should The Enquirer tell us, whenever it publishes stories that gush all over 3CDC, how their President and Publisher sits on the Executive Committee of the 3CDC Board?
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