Cases in point -- more on last week's newspaper discussion

Last week, I gave you a rundown of the current state of Flower Mound newspaperdom. This week, with only one exception, every paper held form, which gives me more examples to make my case.

• The News Connection held true-to-form with single-source stories with their subtly titled "Flower Mound Council Briefs" (front page and here at this link for this week only). In an election season, how could TNC cover a council meeting and print comments from only one candidate - someone who's not even on the council? As a professional journalist myself, I've been in this situation before. I don't subscribe to the notion that every single story I do has to be fair and balanced on its face. But if one story covers only one angle, I better see another story right away that hears from the other side. Let's see what they do this week.
  
• The Messenger this week is chock full of local stories, and several of them exclusives. If you read nothing else in this area, read the Messenger. It's the one place where you'll find a laser-like focus on Flower Mound and its closest neighbors, and you'll find good journalism too.
  
• The Leader went both ways on me this week. Wednesday's paper was an unfocused mesh of stories, one or two of which were from Flower Mound. The rest focused on Lewisville, Carrollton, Plano and The Colony. Most of the Flower Mound entries could have been cribbed from council minutes and from news releases. I really got irked at the front page on Wednesday's paper, which read "Heavy downpour hits hard Tuesday night". Tuesday night (the night of the Arlington tornado), it poured in Plano, Carrollton and Coppell. I don't think anyone in Flower Mound got rain Tuesday night, perhaps a few people near Gerault Park or Lakeside, but probably not even them. But Saturday's Leader was much better, and that's the one exception I noted above. All but one of the stories on Saturday's front page were Flower Mound-focused, the only exception being a story about a boat club on Lewisville Lake. That story has a direct appeal for Flower Mound readers, so it belongs in a Flower Mound paper. The stories aren't as deep as the Messenger's, but at least they're trying to cover more bases in this issue. Also, I give the Leader credit today for writing a pretty good Flower Mound-focused editorial. They take a stand on one of the charter proposals on the May ballot. The editorial is not posted on their website, so you'll have to buy the paper. But this latest entry is a good sign. More please!