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AT&T is really not all that big. Really.
I admit it, I'm old school. One of those soon to be extinct dinosaurs that still stumbles out the front door at the crack of dawn in their boxers with a bad case of unintentional bed head to fetch the newspaper from the driveway. (So far Cookie hasn't picked up on that fetch the paper thing. Maybe Cesar Milan can help).
I imagine waking up to that sight of me is not a pretty one for the neighbors to endure, but where this bloated and belabored setup is heading is that I think one of those papers I retrieve every morning, the San Antonio Express-News, is a pretty good local paper.
Having said that, during all those years of local dead tree consumption, I can't recall barely an article reported in the Express-News that one might view as highly critical of either of our hometown communications giants - Clear Channel or AT&T.
Both companies HQ in SA and get what seems like more local coverage on the Express-News Business page than just about any other local business. Maybe Toyota and Valero are in the running, but they're not companies that have a large impact on content developers (at least not yet) so lets leave them out of it for the moment.
Nothing wrong with all that coverage. T and CCU are important symbols to San Antonio and warrant the attention. But wouldn't you think that at least something relatively unflattering would appear locally every now and then. I know people at both companies and like them, but they're not saints and to their credit would be the first to admit it. So why does it feel like the local press gives them a pass much of the time? As their friends and neighbors, don't we have a responsibility to draw their attention to those awkward occasions when they are suffering the professional equivalent of having some spinach stuck to their teeth or being in dire need of a breath mint? Or both? Isn't that what friends are for?
A good example of the kind of softballs being lobbed by our homer hometown press is the recent article on AT&T which puts forth the proposition that, when you look at it in the context of telecom companies from around the world, AT&T is actually not all that big. The article is based on a recent report from TeleGeography comparing the size of global telecom companies and basically states that when you take into account the world, AT&T ranks a meager second, third and fourth in the areas of revenue, landline and wireless subscribers respectively. Slackers.
Now, to be clear, I don't believe there is any kind of conspiracy or collusion here between the company and the paper. I think the story is an honest attempt at solid journalism but if I were part of AT&T's PR muscle I would be pimping this big wet kiss all over the world. Don't like how you're being portrayed as a big and evil company with the death star logo? No biggie, just change who you're being compared to to someone even bigger that is run by foreigners - what? the Chinese? even better! - and suddenly T doesn't seem all that scary.
Classic tactic, and when someone else is doing the switch for you, even better.
The facts no doubt check out and I have no complaint with the study, but the article's use of it feels kind of like comparing the San Antonio Express-News circulation numbers to the New York Times and concluding that since the Times is much bigger and people can read it in San Antonio as well that the Express-News is no longer the 800 pound gorilla in the San Antonio newspaper market. Facts would be correct, interpretation could be subject to question.
To be fair, on the back page of the Business section where the article finishes up a Frost and Sullivan Stratecast analyst is quoted with a Solomonesque apples to apples line suggesting that you can't make that comparison. Granted, that gives the article a legitimate argument that it is actually balanced, but I think that most readers would agree that the weight is on the other side.
I've never had the pleasure of meeting Sanford Knowlin, the reporter behind the article. I enjoy his writing and understand that he is not an opinion reporter and is not providing that dreaded journalism product known as news analysis. Still, I think there is some room to be a little tougher on these guys. Again, if you can't hammer on your own, then who can you hammer on?
Sanford seems to do a little more hammering in his AT&T blog. Sure would like to see it in the paper more. Might help make those socially awkward early morning trips out to the driveway still feel worthwhile.
Posted by davidc | March 19, 2006 04:18 PM | Permalink | Email This
