How about: PolitiConn.com?

I’ll search my couch cushions for $1 million …

The “crusading” element comes in when each editor, each reporter, decides which story is newsworthy, which sides (there are always more than two!) must be interviewed, how hard to press a story, where to place the story, when and how to follow up.

WRONG: the Courant now runs these 4-6 graph “mini-stories” that perhaps are intended to pass for reporting, but mostly feel like press releases with (big!) photos. Empty of meaning, of big-picture, of point.

Say Dodd has a press conference on his credit card bill. OK, quote Dodd. He’s CT’s guy. (But who needs a hagiography . . . ) Quote a DC policy wonk on why the bill is heaven on earth. But here’s the extra step. We know Dodd’s still taking donations from the guys he’s regulating. So are there loopholes in this wonderful bill? What national experts would know? Call them. Scan the Net for criticisms. Read the bill thoroughly and check them out (In this particularly case, for example, all the provisions to protect college students are moot if the kid takes some kind of “credit card class” . . . courtesy of Master Visa?).

Who’s doing this kind of reporting now in CT???

Take the time, ask the questions, watch out for the little guy (in this case, he’s the 18-year old kid who’s a ripe target for debt-pushers . . .)

I think the person who does it best at the Courant now, actually, is George Gombossy . . .

We could sure use a dozen more!

I didn’t state any values explicitly, perhaps because I automatically assume there are some built into the process of covering government critically anyway. Those values are honesty, transparency, fairness, respect for individual rights, good financial stewardship… Good reporting stems from fundamental values like those, though not necessarily from the pursuit of a more specific agenda.

Certainly the constituents of any news orgranization that covers government are the individual citizens who need information in order to make informed judgments about the government’s activities. The coverage has to align with the constituents’ values, or else the constituents don’t value it. News reporters mostlyare the eyes and ears of “the people,” aren’t they? Isn’t that the concept the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they protected the press?

Reporters as crusaders (I would call them propagandists) …. I don’t think so. But with good information and fair and balanced reporting, crusaders can take care of themselves.

You say your goal would be “setting the agenda and influencing government action.”

I don’t see any statement of values there.

Yes, the public needs more information and more news in certain areas (and in other areas, we probably need less!) But honestly, with limited reading time and infinite reading options, I for one am looking for something more — for CRUSADERS. Objective, smart, thorough, professional, crusaders. Crusaders for ethical government. Crusaders for the state’s 325,000 uninsured. Crusaders for those who have lost their homes or will lose them soon. Crusaders for those who must attend under-funded, horribly-managed schools.

Corny as it sounds, Connecticut needs crusading reporting that forces government (and the private sector!) to act in the interest of those who are NOT wealthy, who CAN’T fill the lobby with lobbyists, who feel the recession the hardest, who were hurting bad even BEFORE the recession.

Who needs still more information, more text, more words? What’s truly lacking in the media is passion, vision, COMpassion, and the courage to force change.

That – I’d pay to read.