Although I've heard the word "pander" many times  I wanted to understand your reference to the opinion of the white-shirted gentleman above.  Fishing for my old fashioned, hand-held dictionary I found:

         n. pander: a person who caters to or profits from the weaknesses or vices of others; a procurer; a pimp.
          v.i. to cater to the tast of vulgar persons.

Could these definitions apply, not only to Slager, but Liz and K&P?

waterview wrote:

n. pander: a person who caters to or profits from the weaknesses or vices of others; a procurer; a pimp.
          v.i. to cater to the tast of vulgar persons.

Could these definitions apply, not only to Slager, but Liz and K&P?

Pandering in the sense of appealing to purient, or baser, human instincts; the lowest common denominator.

Race War!, one week. Class War!, the next. Then Police Brutality! and Elitist Librarians! Rinse and repeat. Stir Effluent Discharge! into the town water supply two years running while the Selectmen/Sewer Commissioners watch.

Women of negotiable virtue might flash some bare boob. For Geraldo, it means pretending to parachute behind enemy lines, digging up Al Capone's vault or repeatedly buzzing golf tournament swells in a helicopter after they denied him membership at the Kittansett Club. 'Scuse me, I'm all choked up...

Last edited by billw (2008-11-23 09:00:15)

There's also the advertorial end of sleezyness. It has become the norm to run articles promoting businesses and pass them off as informative stories, isn't that what advertising is supposed to be? A wonderful example of this is the repeated stories about Wareham Crossing in the slobserver. Convenient that these stories coincided with the grand opening of the plaza. The Courier basically did the same thing, and both papers had big ads from the plaza. To use a slagerism, shameful. The part that makes this such a milestone event for the slobserver is that bob had such a woodie for Andrea Smith's crusade against the building of Wareham Crossing that he just knew she would be a dedicated journalist - there's that word - alarm sounding. Then just a few short months later, Andrea Smith herself is writing the stories about the grand Wareham Crossing. Talk about selling your soul! Way to pimp out newsapers in general to make a buck.

Have you noticed that the Rag has been doing more and more "news" stories on its advertisers?  Case in point - right around when the Rag announced its financial meltdown, the Rag had a full page - half was a "story" about a new salon opening, the other half an advertisement for the salon.

Sickening...especially from a guy who rails up and down that every paper but his panders to advertisers.

There was a market for a small independent newspaper in Wareham - but, a newspaper that was unbiased, told both sides of the story, was receptive to complaints (not threatening the complainers)...told all points of view and let the people decide, that is the type of paper that would have thrived in this town.

That's not what the Rag produced.  Instead, he sacrificed his reputation and credibility to start printing up what is essentially a promotional newsletter for the current ruling regime.

Our marketplace tends to regulate what is a good idea and what's a bad idea.  If trying to pass off a pro-Brucey newsletter as a newspaper was a good idea, then advertisers and subscribers would have supported it.  They' didn't.  They saw right through it.

Sadly, the Ragman has failed twice at this and still hasn't realized his utter stupidity.

So sad when a pathetic and perpetual failure doesn't realize his shortcomings and won't just fade away into obscurity to avoid further embarrassment to himself.

billw wrote:

Hamatron5000 wrote:

There was a market for a small independent newspaper in Wareham

There isn't and wasn't a market for any kind of Wareham newspaper, not for quite some years. .

The Cape Cod Independent seemed to do well until Elsie died.  I think that is when Eliz decided to start her paper.  Can't  remember if she wrote for the Independent or not.