In Los Angeles, where I live, there was plenty of snickering this week about Tribune Company's decision to file for bankruptcy protection. Tribune owns the Los Angeles Times, which in recent years has seen its staff cut even more than its circulation and advertising.
The once mighty Times has managed to give almost everyone in Los Angeles a reason to hate it, as it cycled through editors and publishers and one staff reduction after another. You don't have to be a youthful new media type to brag about canceling your subscription to the Times, or how you get your news online, or how what used to take half a Sunday to read now only takes half an hour.
Similar snickers, albeit perhaps quieter ones, followed the news that the cash-strapped New York Times was taking out a mortgage to make ends meet. Who needs these dinosaurs?
The answer is: everyone who cares about politics or government or the arts or culture. They do two things that almost no one else does: report and edit.
I get my news online, too. At any time of the day or night, I cruise, checking out what's happening, what's new. I rarely sit down and read a newspaper anymore, not in the old-fashioned way that I used to.
But most of the websites I frequent don't report news themselves. And they don't edit the dispatches of those who do. They aggregate and collect the stories that other people — most of them newspaper reporters — write. They reprint, recite and regurgitate the news, but they don't report it.
There are, of course, the millions of "blogs" out there. Most of them are full of people's opinions about the news. Nothing wrong with that, as I should be the first to say.
But the opinions that interest me most are the ones that are based on something more than the automatic jerk of one knee or the other. The best columnists are the ones who know something about something, who are either reporters themselves or pay careful attention to the work of others who are.
As for blogs that actually report the news, the short answer is that they are few and far between. The ones that do, and do it well, depend on someone not so different from a newspaper reporter to go out and dig facts, and someone not so different from a newspaper editor to review their material before it's published. The Huffington Post started out as a collection of unpaid blogs and links to other media sources. It has since taken what it must have seen as the necessary step of hiring former reporters and editors, as has Josh Marshall's first-rate Talking Points Memo.
The truth, whether you want to admit it or not, is that what drives public discourse today is still the work of the nation's top newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and, yes, even my much snickered about Los Angeles Times. If they can't do their job, they won't be the only ones who suffer. All of us who depend on their reporters and editors will suffer, and so will the public discourse about important issues.
Talking about the news is easy. Finding it, digging for it and separating what's accurate from what's not are laborious, time-consuming and often unrewarding tasks. Newspapers, even the best of them, make plenty of mistakes. I've been their target often enough to know that. But in this information age, we need them and the professional standards of reporting and editing to which they aspire, even if they do not always meet them.
To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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Dear Susan,
I grew up loving newspapers and columnists. I especially loved Mike Royko, I once awarded him my BULLSEYE AWARD for being right on point. It was a phony-baloney award but I got a letter back from him saying that even though it wasn't a real award in MY opinion, he was prouder to accept that award because it came from an ordinary citizen than from professionals trying to fawn all over him. Anyway, the reason I gave him the award was that Royko had an ability to get down in the trenches and actually find and confirm the story. He never relied on print-outs or press hand-outs to write his opinion columns.
Today's newspaper writers don't send many reporters out into the field and thus have no man in the street perspective. And that is why they are failing. They don't go after the stories. They let them come to them.
Today's reporters should take a lesson from one of the all-time greats of the LA Times sportswriter Jim Murray.
Mr. Murray, who in his later years was almost blind, could see more than the average sportswriter BECAUSE HE HAD THE ABILITY TO LISTEN and he listened carefully to what people had to say. I remember watching him after a game in Philadelphia.. While every other reporter shouted out questions, he very quietly listened , took notes, and then next day, his column was the best written and perceptive of anyone who had been in that room. He reported WHAT HAPPENED not what he was told. Today's newspaper reporters would do well to emulate Jim Murray.
Comment: #1
Posted by: robert lipka
Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:27 AM
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Your John Edwards article helped me better understand this insanity known as the Liberal (lack of) Thought process. For instance, I truly liked Bill Clinton as President and a world Leader, even have a nice signed letter from him. Until his answer in his book as to 'why' the whole Monica thing occurred. Simply put, he said, "Because he could"? In the REAL world, Not those tiny but very loud ‘abnormal centers of pure stupidity' like New York, LA, Chicago and so on, we say NO too many things Because! Why? Because in your gut, in your heart or in your upbringing and teachings from family you know right and you know wrong. That any of us ‘Can' do something should NEVER allow that we should do it?
John Edwards IS a lying, lousy lout as you say, and that alone must permanently assure his demise. He did it all on his own and here in the REAL world (again), the higher up the Power or Money ladder one goes, the HARDER and farther one must FALL! You end your piece saying Edwards was either a Lout or 'we are all hypocrites' and you surmise it must be the latter? Speak for yourself. Whether in a big city (of stupid) or the bible belt, when something is wrong, its wrong, plain and simple. IF 9 out of 10 people act stupid, that should NEVER allow that stupidity to be elevated to normal (didn't your mothers ever tell you if a friend jumped off a bridge would you as well)? I am that person and only through daily effort. I know many others too that understand for instance, Divorce is never an option. Far too many promises to far too many entities, including one's deity if one is so inclined. Loving my wife (10 yrs now) and daughters is a ‘minute to minute' job requirement for every marriage. When done right, a real joy too and when done wrong only one real answer exists…not near enough effort!
That leads me to another recent article you wrote. I disagree, vehemently, with your analysis and solution for Gay marriage. Gay really IS also OK, for others. Please, do as you wish, adults only mind you and always in private behind closed doors. Gay should never be allowed to marry; marriage is a religious, cultural and societal institution over all of human history with the express PURPOSE (funny word huh?) of protecting the next generation. You flagrantly dismissed that as the BEST and only argument? Real people don't dismiss or question the natural order that's been underway since before the Big Bang or before our city (stupid zones) taught ‘Learn-ed' got so very full of themselves! Another argument, ‘why would anyone put up with the put-downs and attacks for being Gay?' Well…. Why do people act stupid to get on American Idol? Why are Maury, Springer, Reality TV and other trash shows so popular? Why do teens and adults put holes and tattoos on every visible (and not visible) inch of their bodies? Attention! Try A.D.D. or A.D.H.D! All these afflications are resultant of horribly POOR parenting, no boundaries and no effort along the way and those parents should be mortified. The ‘15 minutes' of fame that every idiot apparently NEEDS is actually ‘crying out' yet the ‘Learned' haven't figured that one out yet? Love your show, so to speak.
Steve Donovan
Centreville, MD
smd@annapolis.net
Comment: #2
Posted by: Steve Donovan
Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:39 AM
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Ma'am;....Well, if you do not want to swallow new speak then you need a hard copy...The thing is that corporate news is no better than any form of news, and much as we feel we have moved beyond the paper as a source, our source is not reliable, because we cannot count on the new technology being immune from some attack, or simple false news... The fact is that the internet is a better devise for spying on the people than delivering the truth.....Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #3
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:48 PM
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The newspapers are failing and they only have themselves to blame. I do not subscribe to any of them anymore because of their bias. I use to love sitting down to read the paper. If the reporters would do their jobs like we expect them too and just report all the news not what the liberal media wants them to, I would subscribe. I am so disgusted and scared about the control the liberals have over the mainstream media. I get my information from FOX news, talk radio and the internet. I do my homework and will dig for information but I am informed. I want to see how much telfon the media will put on Obama with this Chicago government disgrace. Either Obama is lying or he is just stupid if he claims he is unaware. Either case I am ashamed and afraid of his presidency.
Comment: #4
Posted by: Kathaleen McCausland
Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:47 AM
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Oh my! Journalists are scared of losing their jobs and are pleading with the public to not let them die off. Sorry folks. 2008 is the year when true journalism died. The Democratic mouthpiece of NYT, LAtimes, NBCABCCNNCBS et al has so disgusted the American population that you give us no choice but to refuse to subscribe to your blatant communist, socialist, liberal agenda. The obscene Obama-mania media was in full display all through the election cycle. No investigative reporting on where he got all his money to buy the White House, no investigative reporting on his connections to Rezko slum lord, Bill Ayers, Rev.Wright and a host of shady Illinois characters including the Govenor of Illinois. But when it's a Republican, you are over eager to uncover every last bit of dirt. vis a vis Sarah Palin. What BIAS !! The American people do not need these newspaper rags. When you can report honestly and truthfully all the shady dealings of Obama and Democrats without bias, maybe then the American people will respect you. For now you have lost all respect and belong in the garbage heap of history.
Comment: #5
Posted by: Naomi
Sat Dec 13, 2008 3:21 PM
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Susan, the more I read your articles the more I feel sorry for you. Are you on medication? I have only a high school education so here is a simple mans evaluation of the demice of newspapers. First, newspaper publishers do not seem to grasp the fact that the American form of government requires two or more political parties each trying to win over the electorate and thus control of the country. Seems pretty basic to me but then again I never had a smelly long haired sandle clad professor explain it to me. Now, given the fact that roughly 40% of voters are Republicans and 40% are Democrats wouldn't it serve the newspaper and the country well to take a central position, and HONESTLY report each parties position? Plus in my estimation a newspaper has no business endorsing any one candidate. Your job is to inform us of the facts and we, the readers, will take it from there. But these facts must be truthfull. None of this disgusting Sarah Palin nonsense. This Susan will in time encourage people to read newspapers.
Comment: #6
Posted by: Ken
Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:12 AM
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