Someone somewhere once wrote or said that journalism, particularly that what appears on newsprint, is the “first rough draft of history.”
Some have credited the former Washington Post president/publisher Philip L. Graham for coining that phrase, but that has been debated, as there were others who said or wrote similar things before Graham.
Regardless of from whence it came, consider the initial documentation going on in the last print newspaper you picked up, or here on East Texas News dot com, where many of the stories that appear in our print editions also run concurrently, or prior to being printed. We also, by the way, offer our publications as e-editions, which can be viewed at your convenience on a tablet, smartphone or computer.
Just in the Tyler County Booster, alone, there is news of all of the winners from the annual county fair, coverage of a Farm Bureau banquet and a story about a charitable cause happening in December to bring about some much-deserved cheer to some deserving folks.
Several weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of newspapers as keepers of vital community history and information, regarding a bad bill that came up before the Texas Legislature that would’ve been bad for our business, so if it seems like the following contains ground I’ve already plowed, just pretend it’s new stuff.
National Newspaper Week is celebrated this week, and according to its website, this is the 85th year. It is a week-long promotion of the newspaper industry in the United States and in Canada, and it runs from Oct. 5-11.
According to that same website, with global headlines and “social media noise” taking up much of the available oxygen, “reconnecting with local news is vital for civic engagement, accountability and community resilience.”
It’s more pressing than ever in this day and age, when massive media consolidation moves are taking place, and many corporate-owned outlets are tripping over themselves to appease certain politicians with glowing coverage. While conglomerates swallow up once-independent outlets, and ABC and CBS are paying out millions of dollars in settlements to the Trump White House, community newspapers remain one of the last strongholds of true local democracy, with a diversity of voices and perspectives.
This newspaper, and many others still publishing across this great land, are driven by the people we serve – of documenting our respective communities’ histories, as well as holding power to account. We’re here to document the triumphs, the tragedies and to be that watchdog for the public’s right to know.
In the print edition of the Booster this week, there appears two very well-reasoned letters in response to a column written by our faithful Mencken-meets-Asimov scrivener Jim Powers. Jim’s column, and those two letters, represent practicing the very essence of the First Amendment: there’s the speaking of truth to power in Jim’s column, and the response in the letters to represent a variety of viewpoints. It’s a full spectrum of opinions, which is something increasingly rare in today’s homogenized media landscape.
This publication, and many other community newspaper like it, give space to letters, community news snapshots and other dispatches from readers. It’s important to capture the nuance of the life of our community, and in doing so, there’s a preservation of something sacred: the democratic marketplace of ideas.
The need for strong community-minded journalism is more urgent than it has ever been, and without it, we risk losing not only local accountability but also the freedom to see the world through our own community’s eyes.
We are not a relic, but a living embodiment of free expression, civic responsibility and the belief that democracy begins at home.
