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We All Win When the Media and the Government Collaborate

On Friday, August 12, The Philadelphia Daily News introduced “Pick It Up,” the paper’s new campaign for a cleaner city. The front page story and two page spread not only made a call for action to Philadelphians to clean up their act. It did so without dissing the City’s—specifically The Street Department’s—focused efforts to fix the problem. Too many times when it comes to news reporting, it’s a gotcha mentality that drives the story. The government is wrong. The news guys are heroes for exposing the wrongs. Gotcha! Well, at least in this case, the DN joined with the Streets Department in a much needed initiative, even lauding the City’s UnLitter Us movement as “promising” and including the Deputy Mayor, the Streets Commissioner and the Deputy Streets Commissioner in the dialogue. The City’s effort and the paper’s effort are both strengthened by the collaboration. In the end, it’s us—the citizens of Philadelphia– that win. Kudos to all parties for avoiding the finger pointing and for putting the need to solve the litter problem at the center of the discussion.

-Scott Tattar

*Featured photo is from the latest Daily News editorial entitled “We’ve become the Cradle of Littery” by Sandy Shea