In the past when I have written about this subject, there have always been a few comments belittling the newspaper industry and treating its possible demise as a good thing.
It is not.
We are living in an age in which we need newspapers or at least comprehensive local news websites more than ever.
Since the advent of conservative talk radio in the '90s, we have been bombarded with criticism of newspapers and the leading television network news, using such descriptive phrases as "the drive-by media," and encouraging an epidemic of victimization that has been horrific to behold.
It is essentially a cottage industry of people who are making millions convincing their listeners and readers that they are being mocked and taken advantage of by everyone from illegal immigrants to African-Americans.
Everyone who is on welfare is a freeloader who is lining his or her pockets at our expense. Government is bad, public schools are bad and everyone who is not a Republican is a leftist, a socialist or a communist.
Everything written or aired by anyone who actually has any training in covering news is "fake news" while people who use their standing as commentators to sell books promoting this nonsense are rewarded with millions because they say the things people want to hear and are willing to fan the flames of prejudice and fear without the slightest sprinkling of truth.
With that has come an unintended consequence. It is not just the networks and the bogeymen of the right, The New York Times and the Washington Post, who have suffered because of this self-serving deceit.
It has also affected how local newspapers are perceived.
If the only news sources you are paying any attention to are the ones that provide echoes of your political beliefs, you are not going to be supporting your local newspaper.
With the disappearance of so many local newspapers, we have lost our main tool for keeping an eye on what our local and state governments are doing.
That is why it is so important to support the local news sources we have left.
And as much as it pains me to say it.
We need to support the Joplin Globe.
The Joplin Globe is our newspaper, like it or not
It is an understatement to say I have been a critic of the Joplin Globe for years.
What is there to like?
We are talking about a newspaper that actually reserves space every Sunday for Geoff Caldwell, whose columns historians may study in the distant future in the vain hopes of finding an original thought.
This is the same paper that abandoned critical coverage of Missouri Southern State University during the Bruce Speck area and had its publisher at the time offer advice to Speck on how to manage the media.
This is the same newspaper that softpedaled coverage of Wallace-Bajjali until the firm skipped town and waited until it was too late to cover the flaws of former City Manager Mark Rohr and former Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff.
The Globe can be infuriating, but it remains essential.
How else would KZRG gets its local news?
How else would any of us get our local news?
Our TV stations provide local news coverage and many of our local organizations and governmental bodies post information on their websites and Facebook pages that is useful and informative, but they don't have to provide answers to tough questions that might prove embarrassing.
They are not going to file Sunshine Law and Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover information that the public needs to know.
They are not going to be able to provide the in-depth coverage that is necessary when the city is hit with a tornado or comprehensive coverage when there are local elections.
Unfortunately, many people view the Joplin Globe with the same blindspot that they show for the news product of newspapers and TV networks who employ the best trained professionals in the world.
I have had several people tell me they canceled their Globe subscriptions in 2008 when the newspaper's editorial board endorsed Barack Obama for president.
There is no way for me to be sure just how many people left the Globe because of that decision. My experience is that many people who claim to have canceled their subscriptions never had subscriptions in the first place.
As for the ones who actually used the Obama endorsement as a legitimate reason for canceling their subscriptions- What in the world is the matter with you?
Have we reached the point where anyone who disagrees with us on even one point is the enemy?
Never mind. The answer to that is yes.
I keep hearing that the Joplin Globe is liberal.
It is not and only a fool thinks it is. The Globe's Editorial Board (which is distinctly different from its news coverage) leans more toward pro-business and Joplin boosterism stances and usually does not take tough stances on too many hot button issues.
The fact that it occasionally sides with the Democrats does not make it liberal.
I still turn to the Globe each day to see what is going on. Of course, I am pleased when the Turner Report has a story that has not been in the Globe.
For every one of those stories, however, there are multiple stories in the Globe that made its pages before they hit the Turner Report or that never reached the Turner Report.
The Globe does not have the manpower it used to have, but it still has the biggest news gathering staff in this area and it still performs a public service. I dislike many things about the Joplin Globe, but I remain a subscriber and it remains an essential part of my daily routine.
I often note the services I perform on the Turner Report, Inside Joplin and the free obituaries on Inside Joplin Obituaries and I ask for contributions or voluntary subscriptions. I am not going to turn down anyone who wants to help my one-man news operation.
But we are at a critical juncture as far as local newspapers are concerned and I have loved newspapers since I was a child.
We have watched the rapid disintegration of our area's daily newspapers, to the point that the Carthage Press is gone after shrinking to one day a week and the Neosho Daily News and Pittsburg Morning Sun have cut down on their frequency and are part of a company that would have no hesitation to shut them down without a thought to the damage it would do the communities.
So please, think about supporting the daily newspaper we have left. Think about a subscription, whether it to be to the paper or to the digital version.
At the least, if you are not a subscriber, pick up a copy of the Sunday edition. It costs a lot more than it did a few years ago, but what doesn't?
It still has plenty of local news, advertisements, calendar items, obituaries and if you squint hard enough, you might not see a Geoff Caldwell column.
Support the Joplin Globe. We may not always like it, but we need it.
5 comments:
The Internet and rising pulp paper costs have decimated the newspaper industry....scapegoating won't help,as much as I am a newspaper person we are seeing creative destruction occurring with said industry...you are an asset to the Community, ty
There was a study that showed interest rates cities paid to borrow money went up when a local newspaper closed down. Less press scrutiny opened the way for more municipal corruption that an on-the-ball newspaper would have deterred.
Well if a person is in the municipal corruption business this isn't really bad news.
Funny you should write this article this week. I just renewed my Joplin Globe subscription for the next 12 months. It is for Sunday only, but it is still a subscription. I will soon be 51 and since I was a kid I spent every Sunday after church reading all the different sections of the Sunday Globe. While it does not take me as long to read the Sunday Globe as it did even just a few years ago, I still get satisfaction reading our local paper each Sunday. Yes, the Globe has its issues some of which are due primarily to the instant electronic news environment we live in today, but there would be a big hole in the coverage of local news without it. Just ask any of us Carthaginians about the demise of the Carthage Press.
The Globe abandoned its duties when failing The Chart’s investigations at Southern, it failed the citizens with Wallace-Bajjali, Rohr, and Huff as it was anti-Joplin boosterism to knowingly deprive citizens of information relevant to Joplin’s benefit of honestly reporting what they knew to be true. Geoff Caldwell has to be the least self-aware opinion writer the Globe could utilize, he is nothing more than a Limbaugh/Hannity parrot that cannot reconcile his own criticisms of others in himself. Caldwell makes Anson Burlingame’s screeds read like George Will by comparison. The ONLY purpose the Globe now serves is the newspaper of record for legal notices, if Jasper/Newton counties are unable to utilize the internet. Wally Kennedy is the only reporter worth following at the Globe, and I could not continue my subscription on an intermittent reporter.
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