Earlier in the year while taking my daily tour of the TOS site, the counter that tracked visitors was sitting at 99,999 visitors to date. Thoughts of being some sort of a grand prize winner ran through my head as I logged on and watched as the counter rolled over to proclaim a total of 100,000 visitors. There were no pop up pages of balloons or banners claiming “congratulations to our 100,000th customer”, or anything else that might underscore the significance of reaching this milestone. In contrast to my expectations, the home page opened quietly, with no fanfare, doing what it always does, delivering the news and comments from around the city in a way no other organization or site has been able to do. As I read through the news and the comments (this is back when there were anonymous comments – and there were some doozies), I came to realize who the true winners were. It was the previous 99,999 visitors, the residents and neighbors, the concerned citizenry who look for the information needed to frame their opinion of just what’s important in this fine city. Agree/ disagree , support or condemn, where else would you find the kind of stories and debate found on this site? If you take a look at the top stories for 2009, you really get a sense of how the local media has been absent in it’s information stream. I still can’t get over how the Journal News assigned a professional comedian (Aman Ali) to cover the issues of the 7th largest city in New York State between his stand up routines. That alone speaks to the necessity of a site like this one. A place where anyone can have a voice, spark an idea, or join up with a thousand others who share the same opinion.
From the online newspaper "The Interim", Sue Careless has some thoughts on why a site like Talk of the Sound is not only welcomed, but needed. She writes “In cases like these, when the mainstream media ignores, trivializes or seriously distorts your cause or your community, then your cause or community needs its own media. If your people are never quoted or they are quoted inaccurately, if they are stereotyped or misinformation is spread about them, then they need their own face and voice. Every significant social movement has had its own media. “
There’s a lot of good in this city, and there’s a lot to work on. Bringing people together to work on the problems facing the city now has a method to connect the people who care most, and there are plenty of them. To borrow a line from one of my first stories “Things are bad. For many, it’s as bad as it will ever be in their lifetime. But, it will get better, and perhaps it will have more to do with what we do rather than what the politicians do.”
So congratulations to the real winners – you – and thank you, to Bob and all the contributors who take the time and commit themselves to make this a better place for all of us.
(PS – I heard there might be a prize for the one millionth visitor, so keep checking back for more info)
Happy New Year to All!
On the mark
John, all I can say is DITTO; you have hit the nail on the head as usual. Thanks to Bob for providing this site and for the many citizens who take advantage by expressing their views to make New Rochelle a better place to live. Whether you have an axe to grind, information to disseminate or the inside scoop, you can participate here. Here’s wishing many more productive years (decades) to New RochelleTalk.com and the generations to come.
Anthony Galletta
could not have said it better
“when the mainstream media ignores, trivializes or seriously distorts your cause or your community, then your cause or community needs its own media”.
New Rochelle is seriously underserved by the “mainstream media” and with layoffs at Gannett, Newsday, the New York Times and just about every paper in the area and around the country that is not going to change any time soon. The TV stations in New York City give a disproportionately low amount of coverage to Westchester in general and New Rochelle almost never. Local media like WVOX, Channel 12 News and The Sound Report obviously provided coverage but have too many personal and financial connections to local government in New Rochelle to be considered honest brokers of information.
The Sound Report actually bills itself as New Rochelle’s “official” weekly newspaper. Sheesh. Any self-respecting reporter would be embarrassed to work for a paper that openly serves as a propaganda outlet for government but this paper actually advertises the fact. To make the point, if you google for the phrase “official newspaper”, the first paper listed in the search results is Granma — the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
The Mayor has his own show on WVOX and the former morning drive-time host is now the City Manager.
Tara Rosenblum, a reporter for Channel 12 News has reportedly been romantically linked to a top executive at Capelli Enterprises, and the sister of Janine Rose, anchor and news director at Chanel 12 is Christine Coleman, a highly paid administrator in the New Rochelle school system.
Is it any surprise then that New Rochelle officialdom is in an uproar over this web site? Just imagine! Any resident can publish information and reach other residents without a muzzle.
What makes community news sites like this so frightening to information gatekeepers like government officials and media outlets is summed up very well in my pal Glenn Reynold’s book An Army of Davids or “How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths”.
Howard Dean’s former campaign chairman had this to say…
“Glenn Reynolds has written an essential book for understanding how technology and markets are creating a bottom-up shift in power to ordinary people that is changing business, government, and our world. Packed with fresh ideas and adorned with graceful prose, An Army of Davids is a masterpiece.” -JOE TRIPPI, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
For those readers who have yet to take the plunge — register and join the conversation.