David Sirota in the D&C as a regular syndicated columnist
It’s nice to have local success.
We have been following Sirota for quite some time and frankly were pleasantly surprised when the D&C announced they were considering adding him to their stable of syndicated columnists. A month or so lapsed with no news from that announcement so I emailed D&C op-ed editor Jim Lawrence over the weekend and asked what’s up. He mentioned that there were budget considerations to work through which I interpreted that he wasn’t ready to confirm anything yet. However, I figured that something was up when Sirota’s column was printed yet again on Monday. Late this afternoon, however, Lawrence had the courtesy to email me again with a link to this. (I was on the road so just got it)
For the past couple of months, we’ve been occasionally running David Sirota’s syndicated columns on the Editorial Page. Readers have responded favorably with letters, phone calls and emails. They like what he has to say and the way he says it.
As a result, we’re adding Sirota to our stable of regular columnists. Sirota, as anyone knows who reads him, is a progressive who isn’t shy about telling readers exactly what he thinks. He currently appears in newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times , The Idaho Statesman and the Denver Post, with a combined circulation of more than 1.3 million.
We believe Sirota will be a strong addition to our diverse selection of columnists who appear daily on the Editorial Page.
Jim Lawrence, I don’t think you will be disappointed.
To all the readers out there who acted on our request to email Jim Lawrence and encourage the D&C to add Sirota - thanks - I’m sure it made some level of difference. I know that the folks at TAP were also following the story so glad we could make a difference.
In the end Rochester benefits.
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Big thanks to Rochester Turning and its readers for all the help with this. Your support - your emails, website comments, etc. - were absolutely integral to making this happen, and I really appreciate it. I will do my best to make us all proud.
THANKS AGAIN.
Hey David - thanks for stopping by - glad to have contributed in some way. Looking forward to the next time you are in Rochester.
Thanks for checking in. Great news that you’ll be a regular.
So let me see if I’ve got this straight- The D&C sheds local people like Tom Tobin, Kathy Wagner and Joe Specter that at least knew something about the local political scene, makes reporters take unpaid weeks off, contracts a guy that lives 1500 miles from here to reprint his views on national political issues that we are largely isolated from, and I am suppose to even consider buying a copy of the D&C or advertising within its pages?
The D&C would do well to find a local political columnist that could provide some insight into the complexities of local politics, not a syndicated national one. Sorry David, you seem like a bright guy with some very solid writing, but at the pace the D&C is taking to run itself into the ground, I wouldn’t consider this a longtime job.
I hear you +++ but this isn’t about Benjamin Wachs writing a local column from somewhere out West. No, this is about adding a nationally syndicated columnist to discuss national issues.
I though this was about making the D&C relevant.
The problem is that the D&C will never do a good job at discussing national issues, but they could do a good job at discussing local issues if they got their priorities straight.
It is also about outsourcing a job that should be done locally. Out of the million people within the reach of the D&C there isn’t a single person that would bring a progressive viewpoint to a weekly column?
As to Wachs writing from San Francisco, you bring up a good point. If the D&C doesn’t do it, who will?