Subscribe to Your Local Newspaper
It’s the right thing to do even if you don’t read it every day or agree with all the editorials.
I cancelled my subscription to my local newspaper years ago. I just didn’t have the time to read it through, and I was on a cost-saving jag. I thought I could just as easily keep up with the news via televised reports or the stories on my cell phone.
Now, I’m sorry I made that choice.
Many local newspapers have gone out of business because others like me no longer subscribe. Their demise is a major loss for our communities.
Budgets have been cut drastically at local newspapers. I talked recently with a former reporter who used to head up five other reporters assigned to cover one section of the county where I live. Now, one reporter covers that entire section. The former reporter shook her head when she told me how a press release she wrote was run without being checked because there simply wasn’t enough staff at the paper to look into the veracity of her release.
The freedom of the press is enshrined in our constitution for a reason.
Sure, we can all still get our news from the big-name papers, but those papers don’t report on what decisions are being made by our city councils, our county supervisors or our neighborhood school boards.
No one is holding those elected officials accountable except our local news. I know I don’t attend all those meetings.
I don’t want to knock our local television news stations. Many have investigative reports. However, they are also time limited; the half hour of news shares space with weather, sports and advertisements.
I was foolish to rely on my cell phone to give me comprehensive news coverage. We all know now that our electronic devices curate the news to our particular bias.
Now that I subscribe again to my local newspaper, I’m reading stories I wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m reading editorials with varying points of view.
I’m counting on my local newspaper to hold my local elected officials accountable for how they’re spending my tax dollars.
Are you?
