“I won’t spend money on a newspaper that doesn’t print what I agree with.”
That’s where we are today.
This was a woman’s response during an interview about the death of newspapers generally and local papers in particular – but her comment was actually more far-reaching.
This woman was basically saying that not only was her head in the sand, but that she was piling more sand on top of it.
She was saying there was no possibility she was wrong and had no interest in learning anything that did not fit her preconceived ideas. She was promoting the sadly common misconception that if one does not agree with it, it surely must be fake.
I fear that too many people feel that way regardless of which way they lean philosophically, and which contributes to the catastrophic split in our country. If one disagrees with you, he or she literally becomes an enemy, sometimes to the point of violence.
Once upon a time, we got 30 minutes of national news on TV each weeknight. That was it. Walter Cronkite or one of his peers would speak and people would take what he said at face value. He would end his broadcast with, “And that’s the way it is….” People did not doubt him, and did not think the news was slanted toward any political view.
Then Ted Turner wrought the first 24-hour satellite cable news.
Since there was not enough news to fill 24 hours, they repeated what they had. But it was still not enough so they began to explain the news, partly on the premise viewers could not understand it and partly to fill the airtime.
Taking political sides reinforced taking political sides even more and the natural political natures of people became amplified, reinforced and cemented more in place.
Next came social media, with no accountability for truth or accuracy or even that the source is real, but a focus on the number of views and the premise that the more people are riled up, the better it is for business, truth be damned. Social media works hard to keep one from changing and that means keep from learning or growing.
People have lost the ability of critical thinking and just swallow unreservedly what they are fed, if it is what they agree with.
Social media flourishes and in the meantime, community newspapers are dying – now at the rate of about two every week.
Obviously, I take this personally.
Sure, internet news is free, but you get what you pay for in terms of accuracy and reliability.
Then there is The New Albany Gazette, which is the newspaper of record for Union County.
That not only means printing news, but that we are the custodians for history of news, business and advertising, legal matters and more extensive material that one will never find on the internet.
As a newspaper of record, we are entrusted with printing and preserving things accurately and without bias. We try to just tell you objectively what happened and avoid political leanings. I, for one, don’t think political party philosophy has a place in local city and county events anyway. A pothole is neither Democratic nor Republican.
But it continues to get tougher for local papers.
One study found that 360 newspapers have shut down since the end of 2019, 336 of them weeklies serving small communities. There are various economic reasons as well as changing reader trends. However, the study found that communities without a reliable local newspaper tend to be “poorer, older and less educated” than those who have solid local news coverage.
Newspaper readers are generally better-educated, more involved in local government and community activities, and have more disposable income as well.
One may say of the newspaper, “There’s nothing in there,” but one of our front pages will have more information than a half-hour TV news broadcast. It will be as accurate as possible, fair and all of it will be relevant to our local community.
One hopes it will open the reader to other possibilities, broaden horizons, and help make better citizens in a better community.
We just celebrated Independence Day. Celebrate independent thought.
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