Let me state from the outset that I like, and even have grown to respect, the AJC.  They provide a needed service, and we frankly rely on them (and others) for a lot of what we cover here at Peach Pundit.  I know quite a few of their reporters as well as much of their editorial staff.  And generally, I do think they’ve done a better job in recent years of keeping ideology on the editorial page and have made an effort to take a better middle ground on the issues they cover as news, and how they cover them.  I don’t like them being scapegoated by pols claiming the “lib’rul AJC” is out to get them. 

Today, however, there is a bit of exception that deserves a bit of attention. 

Headline:  Lottery Props Up Jackpots; Gives Less To State

Twentieth Paragraph: 

 ”While money for education has fallen as a percentage of total revenue in Georgia’s lottery, revenue has grown in actual dollars from $647 million in fiscal 1999 to $884 million last year. Still, it is not enough to fund HOPE and pre-k at the same levels.”

First expert cited (regarding claim that lower payouts on some games generates more players): 

Richard McGowan, a Boston College economics professor who has written critically about state lotteries, said there is something to the argument. Lotteries have life cycles, and Georgia’s mature game needs to reward gamers to keep their interest, he said.”

…

But McGowan said states are competing with other gaming outlets, including casinos in nearby states. That means lottery officials cannot reduce prize money without hurting themselves, he said.

“It’s a tough business to be in because there is so much gambling,” he said. “Even the worst slot machine pays out 90 percent.”

Second Expert Opionion:

“A state audit of the lottery released just before the HOPE vote in the Senate offers further evidence that less is more. The audit found the Georgia Lottery is fifth-highest among 42 lotteries in the nation for jackpots and still ranked seventh in total money transferred to the state because it had maintained high overall sales.”

The argument for increasing the percentage is given by State Senator Jason Carter, who has become the point person on HOPE reform for Democrats in opposition, (and has done an admirable job of gaining some political traction for his positon), but the argument does nothing to refute the above two experts.

His argument is buttressed in this article by comments from a Peachtree Corners Parent, and a Stone Mountain Auto Mechanic, neither of whom seem to have a strong opinion that the lottery payouts should be changed.

In sum, the headline and lede of this story don’t come close to matching the content contained within.  The lottery continues to increase sales AND payouts to the state.  Experts from both the State and an outside economist have indicated that the Lottery Commission’s strategy most likely have increased the amount of money paid to the state, not robbed from it.

Yet, the AJC provides a distinct impression that the lottery is paying the state less.  Semantics, yes.  But let’s be real.  It was 11 paragraphs into this story before the reporter chose to include anything other than cuts and broken promises.  Yet all the facts are about successful competion and increasing revenues.

The AJC editors need to take a look at their reporting on HOPE.  The issue is rightfully the first one state Democrats have found any political traction since their rout last November.  The AJC would be wise to ensure that their coverage doesn’t become cheerleading for the cause, and give cause for those who want or need there to be a “lib’rul AJC” for their own scapegoating purposes.

UPDATE: OMG! Stop the presses! (Ooops, they’ve already done that.) Alert the media then. Julia Wallace has been sighted commenting on a blog. I swear to God this is true. With full transparency too, albeit it IS an AJC-generated blog. Duck! Pigs are surely flyin’ overhead in Dixie now. Scroll comments here to see for yourself. Could a Facebook page or a blog be far behind? Stay tuned As The AJC Twists In The Wind continues.

With a sweeping staff cut, the AJC has iced-out daily print news coverage of life in Gwinnett. Seems nothing’s terribly interesting out there. And whatever there is, it’s certainly not impacting the bottom line. Between this news and the MARTA referendum, Gwinnettians should just build a moat and a drawbridge now. And oh yeah, get a few blogs going. You’re gonna need ‘em out there in the ‘burbs. Now more than ever.

And if you haven’t had enough BS with your morning coffee, read this funny memo from AJC publisher, John Mellott. Funny because Mellott neglects to mention the biggest phenom that’s tanked newspaper advertising nationwide: Craig’s List.

A few key blogs in Gwinnett, and hey, even the AJC’s Editor, Julia Wallace, might have to curtail churning out her special brand of bs-laden memo too. You can read yet another prime specimen of her notes ‘o arrogance here. No one does corporate spin like that gal Julia!

Paging Arianna. ATL primed for online local news showdown at the lagging Marietta Street corral.

AJC.com puts… stand-up comedy video clips on their homepage. WTF is up with that? Slow news day? Boring political news year? Must be.

According to the AJC, Soulja Gal is getting some much needed help in a group home situation. Let’s hope our taxpayer dollars work their magic, but seems the most help was from the shaming powers of viral video, an interesting phenomenon no traditional media outlet has yet to report on:

The woman whose tirade against an elderly MARTA train passenger was caught on video has been released from jail and is living in a personal care home for the mentally ill.

“We’re not dealing with a criminal here,” (Derek) Gage (DeKalb County DA) said. “We’re dealing with someone who’s mentally ill and doesn’t have the services available to her that she should have available to her because she is indigent.”

At the personal care home, Ziyad will be monitored to be sure she stays on her medication, her lawyer said.

“She’s doing very well. She’s obviously extremely embarrassed about the fact that this video was so widely seen by so many people. But I think it’s also kind of become a stimulus for her to take a little more responsibility in her life,” Gage said.

Full story here.

I don’t know where to begin with this one. It’s just that awful. So I’ll let a writing teacher handle the beat-down duties. From Tania Rochelle:

Poor Brian Feagans must have drawn the short straw when he got assigned this remarkable piece. I wonder if they’re planning to do a series: Georgian Recalls Riding the Escalator With Tiger Woods, Atlantan Recalls Waiting in the DMV line With Colin Powell. The two women featured (a mother/daughter team with dreams of meeting Matt Lauer and Oprah, no doubt) are middle-aged Catherine, who once was assigned to a dorm room with Michelle Obama at Princeton and the elder Driving Miss Alice, who demanded a room change for her child. Eventually, Catherine came out as a lesbian and learned what it feels to be marginalized and the mother figured out that her prejudice lost her a ticket to the White House.

The writing itself is horrific; I wouldn’t know where to begin. But what’s worse is the entire premise, along with the literal length(s) it goes to to make its point(lessness). And by the end of the article, I certainly don’t have the impression anyone has learned anything at all. They made the enormous leap from:

“I was horrified,” recalled Brown, who had driven her daughter up from New Orleans. Brown stormed down to the campus housing office and demanded Donnelly be moved to another room.

The reason: One of her roommates was black.

“I told them we weren’t used to living with black people — Catherine is from the South,” Brown said. “They probably thought I was crazy.”

to:

Society changed, and Donnelly has seen her mother nudged along with it. Says Brown: “It’s become politically incorrect to talk about black people in a negative way. It’s like smoking.”

Brown quit smoking in 1996. She’s still working on the other.

Brown says she wouldn’t mind if her child or grandchild roomed with a black person today. But she’s far from colorblind. “Where I draw the line is interracial marriage,” Brown says. “That I can’t quite deal with.”

She holds firm to the belief that African-Americans don’t take enough responsibility. “Bill Cosby says the same thing,” she says. “Get off your rear end and work hard and improve yourself.”

I haven’t read anything this self-indulgent since that AJC obit I wrote about a few months ago. When it was all over, I couldn’t figure out if Feagans was serious, or if he was deviously making fun of the women and giving his editors the invisible finger. If the former, wow. If the latter, what a puss.

Full blog post here. Laughably ludicrous AJC story here. The best part of the whole train wreck? How quickly they could find a K-mart before checking into Princeton! You can take a cracker out of the country, but…

Bye bye Bob Kemper of Political Insider. We hardly knew ya. But your many bosses aren’t wasting any time closing the door behind you. Ouch. That infamous AJC door’s kinda hard and cruel we hear.

Your job is online here now. Dig that laughably old-school “work your beat” verbage, man. Absolutely no tech knowledge whatsoever a hiring plus! All that quaint highbrow hire-babble when all they need to ask of an appropriate candidate for this particular job is, “How many times a day do you call the Peach Pundit tip line?”