When the Social Security Administration contributes $700,000 to your economy helping to create jobs in one of the top 2 states for job loss percentage in the past 18 months, you jump all over them for spending that money here and make such a public outcry – and do it when GM does the same thing here – that any smart business takes their conferences to Las Vegas.

This is “responsible” journalism since you’ve driven business out of your community. No other local media questioned this, either. Yet business bloggers nationwide did! They said it was the same as “shooting yourself (your local economy) in the foot.”

Local agencies then whine they’re losing business. It is a ying/yang relationship. The better your local media, the better your public relations skills will be.

While local media is publicizing its first on that $700,000, they never report this Associated Press story, “The federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion to help the financial sector… Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government’s maximum exposure could total nearly $24 trillion, or $80,000 for every American.”

If you search AZCentral.com, you’ll see no reference to the Huntingdon Valley swimming pool discrimination story. Could be why businesses choose other community to hold their conferences, plus relocate to, taking jobs that would help your company prosper.

From St. Louis Today – “’St. Louis is a good location because of the history of farming there,’ Matthews told the (St. Louis) POST-DISPATCH.” Notice St. Louis Today gave the Post-Dispatch credit for doing the initial research of developing a story?

You don’t just take another media’s story and re-write it. You attribute. Any “noteworthy” journalism school teaches this in an ethics class plus journalism law. Even a decade after my material was stolen weekly, Phoenix television, radio and print – now Internet, too – put their bylines on re-written stories. Understand the situation?

Businesses include this in their “environment” plans when selecting cities to relocate to. Phoenix would get an F in media ethics by businesses wanting to relocate here.

On the other hand, it is a PERFECT business media environment if your organization has something to hide; since there is no investigative business reporting.

At the turn of the century I worked on one of the metro area’s minor media. We came out on Monday and on Tuesday I’d see all my stories re-written with someone else’s byline in the Republic; making five times in salary what I was. Never received a dime from The Republic for supplying its stories! This is still being done, and not just the Republic. This is a common Phoenix media practice I’ve never seen in another market.

Go to the majority of Phoenix business publications – including the Republic’s business pages – and most stories are press releases used as sent with a reporter’s byline. That’s why per capita, Arizona has the fewest Fortune 500 headquarters of any state besides New Mexico and Utah. Would you relocate your company to a place where there are virtually NO business reporters?