Recently, a substack post by Don Surber caught my attention. “Let Newspapers Die” was the title. “They dropped objectivity and with it credibility” reads the subtitle.
Mr. Surber then goes on to explain, with numbers backing him up and partisan fervor (he feels Republicans don’t get a fair shake by mainstream journos), why he feels that newspapers (mainly big national names like The Washington Post) may deserve to die off:
Nevertheless, journalists who oppose giving both sides of the story complain the most about misinformation. They are activists, not journalists. By not telling both sides, newspapers lose nearly half their audience. Getting back to that poll on all news media, 70% of Republicans trusted the media in 2016. By 2021, that fell to 35%.
Many other factors are at play here. Across the nation there is a loss of the sense of community, which makes local news less important. The competition for delivering the news today is faster and better online.
Also, the stories newspapers cover are dominated by boring reports on the government. Every few months it seems, there is a threat of a federal shutdown.
I am someone who grew up in Montgomery County during the days of the Montgomery County Gazette. The paper came about every week in print and it was my go-to for local news and sports content. The final issue went to print about 8+ years ago. This June will actually represent year nine without the widely-circulated community paper, printed for more than 55 years at the time of its suspension:
At the time of its demise, everyone, from people on the street to MoCo Councilmembers like George Leventhal, seemed pretty upset about the ‘local news gap’ that would result because of The Montgomery County Gazette’s closure. But, almost nine years on, local news coverage in MoCo is arguably thriving. Through the efforts of citizen-journalists like CleanSlateMoCo.com, citizen groups like the Parents Coalition MC (which focused on MCPS corruption and graft), community-focused entrepreneurs like ModeratelyMoCo.com and the blogs of former County Council / Rockville insiders, like Adam Pagnucco, MoCo residents can get all the news and views they desire on local policy, politics, local business and more. This is on top of local news sites like MoCo360.media (recently sold to new owners) and your tax-dollar funded MyMCMedia.org.
So, I partially disagree with Mr. Surber’s take that “local news is less important” in the information age and should therefore diminish or be ignored. It is still very important, especially in a place as big and as populated as Montgomery County, MD.
But where it is hard to disagree with Mr. Surber is when he calls out mainstream media’s lack of credibility because they don’t cover all sides to issues and policies. He links to this infographic from The Pew Research Center:
This view by pro ‘journalists’ is very problematic to see and read about, and frankly, it does exist in local media here in MoCo. It is one of the key reasons CleanSlateMoCo.com exists and why I contribute to it (among other reasons). For too long, local media has covered local politicians, local business conditions, the goings on in Annapolis, the MoCo school board, and other government bodies with “kid gloves”. Pretend to see nothing, or ignore an issue, and then move on to another shiny object presented by politicians. The policies that come from these institutions, many of which are regressive or plain redistributive (from the poor back to the rich) also get very little actual investigation or mention beyond a short headline. Only one “side” is told — and the telling is very surface-level, at that.
Well, no more. Continue to join us at CleanSlateMoCo.com for real investigations, questions, analysis and discovery.
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