Asheville is not a total wasteland for information media. Even WLOS TV covers the weather well. The Asheville Citizen-Times has a new editor and things are looking distinctly better there. But neither local TV nor the leading local newspaper is a credible watchdog of city, county and state government. They are, admittedly, on the half hearted prowl for private sector sins, nursing  homes and the like. But do major media do serious investigative reporting of local courts, prosecutors, police, property inspectors, givers of building permits and the like? Surely, you jest.

Fortunately for us, however, focused, specialized, single or “special” interest local media also exist which are not afraid to put a police chief or a puppet master family or a city or county council under the microscope. Names of journalists like Fobes, Fishburne, Green (Lewis and Hal), Morgan (Mike and David) and Bagwell leap like autumn lightning to mind. The spirit of classic American “muckraking” after the fashion of the immortal Ida Tarbell touches down even in Asheville, Hendersonville and the nearby northern Kingdom of Madison.

You do well to spend time among the “little journals” and the local radio talk shows. There is one such reporting outlet in particular which I find beyond price, factually accurate and  consistently in touch with a large swathe of local problems bearing down on our mountains.

In many ways the best of them all both for myself personally and for its other subscribers is the CIBO WEEKLY UPDATE.

CIBO (pronounced SEE bow) is short for Council of Independent Business Owners, Inc.. CIBO’s office and undersung staff of two (Michael Plemmons and Patti Beaver) are at 49 Zillicoa Street, Asheville 28801. Mailing address is P.O. Box 3215, Asheville, NC 18802. Office phone number is (828) 254- 2426. In an age of massive self promotion, CIBO is curiously shy about publicizing itself, boasting neither home page nor email address. At least not yet.

What CIBO does offer each month is a breakfast meeting and a lunch meeting for members and guests. There is, for instance, the meeting at noon Thursday October 4th at the Stephens-Lee Recreation Center (off South Charlotte, near the city’s “Taj Garage”). Two qualified speakers will address Asheville/Buncombe’s preparedness against terrorism and disaster. Thursday October 25th will see the CIBO Fall Classic Golf Tournament at Reems Creek Golf Club.

The core of CIBO membership is men and women who own their own businesses and meet payrolls. There are also associate members such as myself who can do everything but vote--at a very reasonable cost, let me add. CIBO exists 
--to educate business about how government works, 
--to be a two-way info channel between business and governments, 
--to make Asheville/Buncombe County a more attractive place to do business --and to encourage people who own businesses to serve on boards and commissions and, if they are brave enough, to run for elected office. The group is non-partisan but passionate for free enterprise in service of the public interest.

Staffers such as Patty Beaver or volunteers attend meetings of the Asheville City Council, the Buncombe County Commissioners, Buncombe County Planning Board and related. These events are then digested in the CIBO Weekly Updates mailed to each member. We learn who was absent, what the agenda was, how it was managed, who spoke up, what resolutions were passed and the like. Factual reporting is fair and  convincing. Personal interpretations and asides by the unnamed  reporters are in brackets and clearly identified. Smart, basic journalism that last touch.

The text of Weekly Updates is free of the typos and grammar glitches of the Citizen-Times.  Writing is crisp and clear and above all just what a reader needs to know. Let me therefore  publicly invite CIBO’s genial, eloquent president, “Mack” Swicegood, to nominate his writers for a North Carolina literary or journalistic prize. Wouldn’t I be proud to be one of the judges!

-OOO-

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