Over the past two weeks the Buffalo News shrunk
dramatically. The Monday to Saturday editions dropped from 4 sections to 3
while the Sunday paper saw the Niagara Sunday section eliminated entirely. Within
days of that change we learned that numerous reporters there were offered or
took buy outs – 9 writers in all were shown the door.
If, as this was happening, you looked through Twitter
or Facebook you would have found hordes of people reveling in this. It was the
usual schlock – the News is too liberal; it’s only fit to line bird cages; no
one reads newspapers anymore.
It was disheartening, and aggravating, to see such
behavior. If you’re celebrating the end of the press, you’re celebrating the
end of America.
Our country cannot survive without newspapers, whether
in the print version or in their modern online style.
The strength and character of our constitutional
republic is contingent upon an informed citizenry, which is why the forefathers
found it necessary to recognize the value of the press in the First Amendment.
News agencies -- large and small, national and local -- keep all levels of government
in check by investigating improprieties, shining light on policy both active
and proposed, and sharing the socioeconomic issues that force government and
civic action. A good newspaper will educate, and hopefully inspire, the electors
and the elected alike.
Take that away and what are you left with? Mostly incredibly-questionable
social media accounts and websites, many of which are created by political parties
and biased sources that have their own special interests and not the interests
of the masses at heart.
Look at the “news” that drove both sides in the
past election; it didn’t matter if it was pro-Trump Russian websites or
domestically-made Democratic initiatives masquerading as news entities…that was
what dictated much of what was shared online and around the water cooler. A
discerning eye knew that most of those sources couldn’t be trusted but many
Americans ate it up, especially if it played to their biases. If newspapers
disappear, will such free-wheeling disinformation become the norm?
Newspapers, on the other hand, utilize reporters
and editors who were trained in (and accountable to) integrity and how to get
to the bottom of a story, and those newsrooms have the resources, employees,
time and public trust to expose and/or expound upon the issues.
It doesn’t end there. The micro is just as
important as the macro with the press. Your neighborhood news outlets do things
at the most local level that you cannot get from Facebook – they provide a single
source that offers in-depth coverage of events and people in your community; promotion
of the academic and athletic endeavors of your children; attendance at common
council and school board meetings and public hearings that you otherwise wouldn’t
be able to fit into your schedule; and populkar updates like police reports and
obituaries.
In the absence of a newspaper in your town, who has
the time or ability to fill that void? The answer is simple: no one.
Don’t think that what is happening to the Buffalo
News and other major metropolitan newspapers isn’t and can’t happen to those smaller
papers. It’s like a plague that has taken over the country.
Case in point, the Lockport Union Sun and Journal
and Niagara Gazette don’t print one day out of every week and just a few years
ago their sister papers – the Tonawanda News and Medina Journal-Register – had to
close due to the economics of the industry. People genuinely miss those
newspapers – I hear from local residents all of the time. They feel like they
are totally out of the loop without them.
Or, how about my beloved Wellsville Daily Reporter?
It was announced 2 weeks ago that the Reporter, the history of which dates back
to 1880, was merging with Hornell’s Evening Tribune. That’s an absolute
necessity in a changing news marketplace and a depressed Southern Tier economy.
To keep the news alive, publishers have to be
creative and, unfortunately, they have to break from tradition and/or write
pink slips. Smaller papers, consolidations, and not-so-daily newspapers are
becoming standard practice.
The fight for the press shouldn’t begin and end in
their offices. We all have a say in it.
Businesses need to buy advertisements.
Consumers need to purchase print or electronic
subscriptions.
And, above all, we need to stop cheering the decline
in newspapers’ sizes, profitability, and employment rolls.
It’s ignorant to do that, and an ignorant people we
all will become without the press behind and before us.
No news is bad news.
From the 28
May 2018 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News
No comments:
Post a Comment