The Passing of the Paper
February 27, 2009
With the demise of the Rocky Mountain News comes the slow disintegration of one of our fundamental rights—the freedom of the press. Our right to publish what we want in order to provide neutral coverage on any given topic has not officially been taken away, but with the advent of the Internet, printed materials are quickly becoming a thing of the past … and it could have serious consequences for our communities.
Online media sources, blogs and social networking sites have incredible power in providing us with up-to-the-second information made complete with photos, videos and sound bites. Readers can interact with the news by commenting, blogging in response, participating in discussion forums and sharing the news bits quickly and easily through e-mail. But this easy posting and quick response by anybody on any topic means that neutral, well-researched coverage is iffy at best. Printed news media have a responsibility—an obligation, really—to provide its readers with thorough coverage as well as a forum to explore different sides of an issue through op-eds and letters to the editor.
In addition to being a simple, peaceful way to enjoy a morning cup of coffee, local printed newspapers have helped keep communities … well, communities. Through the local paper we learn about who is marrying who, what local businesses are up to and how the local government is spending our money. We are accountable to the people we know, and when we know our neighbors, we care just a bit more about what happens to them. Community groups are more transparent when they know the local newspaper is looking for any small inconsistency in a suspicious story. Our city officials are under pressure to provide honest information when someone knows what questions to ask and how to communicate the answers to affected constituents. Newspaper reporters give us information when we don’t have the time to find it … or even know to look for it. When we lose our local print media, we close off our neighbors and potentially open ourselves to corruption by our local officials, crime and violence down the street, and community groups who aren’t at all held accountable for their actions.
The Rocky Mountain News is probably only the first of many local newspapers that will have to close its doors. Large and small, independent and wholly-owned, weeklies and dailies—they are all threatened by cheaper, more accessible online alternatives. In the near future it may become increasingly difficult to find well-researched and comprehensive investigative reporting worthy of a Pulitzer.
I appreciate that everyone has a voice on the Internet (myself included), but our freedom of the press doesn’t grow with more online capabilities. Rather, that voice is lost in the crowd and those who have intuition to sniff out a story are out of a job. Instead of picking up the phone for the next big news tip, employees at the Rocky Mountain News will pick up unemployment checks—and we will all pay for it.
Hey congrats on the new site and blog – it looks great! I agree that local papers are a valuable part of our communities. I subscribe to the North County Times, the smaller, northern cousin of the San Diego Union-Tribune, mostly because I value the more in-depth coverage of my little corner of the world. The NC Times doesn’t have as many lifestyle sections or as much national news, but I find out about things in my neighborhood. The U-T is a wonderful resource too, and I hope there will be room for both papers in SD County for some time.
— Louise · #