Why We Need “Newspapers”

Why Newspapers Matter

Despite the financial blows that the newspaper industry has taken over the past decade, a strong argument can be made for the newspaper as a critical source of information.

• Radio news is largely superficial (except for NPR).
• Large disconnects exist between television news in local markets and the cities that they serve (crime and fluff)
• Blogging, while it can be real journalism (example: Huffington Post), is short on people, time and money — things newspapers used to have.

This most powerful example of journalism took place in the city of Bell, California.

Consisting mostly of Latinos and working-class residents, this community is inhabited by approximately 38,000 citizens.

Bell was run by gangsters and thugs. The community’s politicians and administrators basically did whatever they wanted — whenever they wanted. In 2010, Bell’s Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earned $787,637, with annual 12 percent raises. Bell paid its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earned almost $100,000 for part-time work. The city’s personal average income was $24,800.

There was no “local” media in Bell to keep an eye on these criminals, so for years, the ruse went undiscovered. Two Los Angeles Times reporters, one with decades of experience, and another just barely out of journalism school, stumbled upon Bell one day. They asked questions, and people started talking.

In a series of articles written in 2010, a team of 20 reporters, led by Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, revealed that Bell politicians secretly enriched themselves with whopper salaries and benefits while illegally raising taxes on the city’s residents.

On September 21, 2010, former city manager Robert Rizzo, Mayor Oscar Hernandez, former assistant city manager Angela Spaccia, and numerous council members were arrested and charged with misappropriation of public funds. The mayor and council members all resigned or were recalled. In the aftermath, the California state legislature passed new laws protecting citizens from the types of crimes committed in Bell.

It’s hard to imagine that one or two bloggers could accomplish what these on-the-ground newspaper journalists were able to accomplish.

On April 18, 2011, Ruben Vives and Jeff Gottlieb were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Reporting — the highest journalism honor possible.

Vives commented in a New York Times article:

“At a time when people say that newspapers are dying, this is a day that I think we can say, no not really. I mean, we gave a small town . . . the opportunity to speak out. And that’s what newspapers do.”

That’s what newspapers do. Who’s covering your school board, your city council, your statehouse? Not many anymore. And what happens when there are no more watchers? Criminality and corruption. You think it’s bad now? Wait till you see what unchecked power does.

And with the possibility of Trump returning to office in 2023, journalism will become one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

Pay for your news, please. You and I pay for streaming garbage programs without even thinking about it. Support local journalism. Ignore your friends who think journalism is an AM radio talk show or a cablenet talk show. Truth, sourced, is a commodity we cannot afford to lose. When it’s gone, it will never come back.