Strong and sunny

 The Buffalo News does not intend to die.

   The fact that that sentence even needs to be written is a stark example of how much things have changed. And not for the better.
   Sunday's Buffalo News Opinion pages began the annual observance of Sunshine Week with editorials that not only call for transparent government but also raise concerns about whether there will be enough newspapers, and newspaper reporters, to carry that information to you.
   The lead is "Keeping the media strong."  It explains how, even though there is a lot of news to write, and a lot of people still reading it, the ability of the writers to make money from the readers is quickly vanishing in an online world.

   Despite the occasional rant by a blogger, those problems are not tied primarily to perceptions of media bias. Papers with liberal or conservative editorial pages alike are threatened, and here at The News our monitoring tells us more people than ever before are reading our paper—although more and more of them are accessing it for free, online. The journalism isn’t broken. The business model is, and we’re working to change it—constantly improving our Web sites and designing specialty publications, for example.

   The second -- "Federal shield law needed" -- explains the need for laws that keep the government and its doings open to the people it is supposed to serve.
   And the Sunday Viewpoints cover story -- Jerry Zremski's "Out of the shadows" -- explains the history of Sunshine Week and outlines the possibility that things may be more open under the new Obama administration. 
   But, face it, without newspapers, the kind that do the real reporting and digging and comparing and contrasting and, on our pages, evaluating, it doesn't matter if all government doings are open. Nobody'd hear about them anyway.

   Other exortations on the importance of open government from:
- Ohio's Chillicothe Gazette: Closed-mindedness, while not the norm, breeds suspicion. Freedom of information and open meetings, on the other hand, bring the light of day to the residents and help them make informed decisions.
- The Arizona Republic's distinguished counsel, David Bodney, quotes James Madison: A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or both.
- The Nashville Tennessean's Mark Silverman*: The best test of this administration's commitment to open government will be the transparency given the economic stimulus program.

-- George Pyle/Editorial Writer
   * Silverman's title is editor and vice president/content and audience development. An example of what we're all up against trying to figure out this brave new world.  

Comments

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Maybe if reporters actually reported news instead of spinning it in order to get people to draw specific coclusions; maybe if reporters still made sure they got their facts straight and reported all sides of a story; maybe if reporters were still paragons of proper grammar, spelling and usage, newspapers might still be worthwhile.

[Grammar?]

So says the person with a long run-on sentence and a misspelling of the word conclusions.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Of course, I could have done that intentionally just to see if anyone would notice or it could be that my brain moves a lot faster than my fingers...

Then again, I'm not a newspaper reporter.

[JCS]

Libertarian, I have to disagree. First, apart from the editorial pages I don't see much spin in any particular direction in the newspaper. The "feature" pieces may be thought of as having slightly more spin, but even those tend to have viewpoints from multiple sides. Second, even if there is spin associated with newspaper reporting, isn't that why more people are getting their news from television or blogs? To watch or read the opinions of panelists or reporters with a specific point of view? Finally, I agree that grammatical mistakes appear too often and make the paper appear unprofessional. But there aren't enough of them to make me think that that's really one of the reasons why newspapers are hurting so much. What I don't get is...if so many people are reading the news online, why can't papers charge more for advertising on their websites? Isn't advertising where most of the money came from anyway when everyone read newspapers on actual paper?

[Hodge]

I would put the grammar, spelling and "slant" of a traditional newspaper up against the garbage available on the internet any day of the week. Go ahead, click on iReport or any other internet blog you want to name. You'll see the personal opinions of the biased, the bigoted, the uninformed and the just-plain-ignorant in all its ugly glory, rife with misspellings, run-on sentences and every grammatical error you can imagine. We're talking about people who don't the difference between "to" and "too," "your" and "you're," people think "should of" is correct, and have no clue what an apostrophe is for. It's actually painful to read a lot of that stuff, and that's without even considering the absence of verifiable facts to back up their opinions. If that's where people get their news, then we are all in deep, deep trouble.

[Jason]

The fact that JCS doesn't see the spin and bias in the majority of Buffalo News articles explains how NY'ers continue to elect the most corrupt incumbent politicians back into office year after year. Just keep voting for who your paper endorses at the same time wondering why NY is in the state it's in.

[Rick]

Hodge, there is a difference, though. If a reader logs on to a blog, then they are likely seeking an opinion. Newspaper coverage isn't supposed to be colored by opinion. And, bias isn't merely opinion. Neglecting to cover stories negative to a viewpoint, giving prominence to other stories, labeling groups on one side of an argument and not another are all ways of news bias. I don't think it's conincidental that newspapers are in decline, given the bias of the news- witness the fawning coverage for Obama during the last election. For these reasons, the last thing they should get is a shield law. An institution that hasn't demonstrated good judgement with its current role does not deserve more. An old high school teacher told us that "Privilege entails responsibility". Until the media shows more responsibility, it gets no more privilege.

[NotAgain]

I see the Seattle P-I is publishing its last edition Tuesday. Made me remember the day the Courier-Express closed up shop. I had a Courier-Express paper route as a kid and worked as a truck hopper when in college.

Good luck to the News - hope the revenue keeps coming in.

[BobbyCat]

I think that most critical thinkers expect objectivity and accuracy in a newspaper. Just get it right, that's all. That probably holds true for progressives, liberals and all independent thinkers. I won't attempt to speak for right wingers. I think they want something else.
If you profile a crook, for example, I'd hope you would call that person a 'crook' and not hold back. Let the chips fall where they may. It's enough just to tell the truth.
If the President is a drunk, for example, I'd wish you would call him that.
If our republic has been hijacked by 3 men in a room, I wish you would say so.
I want neither right nor left; The truth is what it is and it's enough.
I don't see much bias in the NEWS. I do see a timidity, a reluctance to get tough on any number of recurrent issues - horrible planning, weak leadership - the same issues that have been crippling us for generations.
I think that Buffalo and WNY has developed a second rate mentality and a history of doing things half baked; We seem to accept second rate leadership, second rate planning, second rate everything. Much of what we do is bush league. Outsiders see it better than we do. Why can't we seem to do things right the first time?
Why is the Skyway still standing?...and ad infinitum.
Even though critical thinking is not a popular notion these days, we need it more than ever.
I don't know how to make a better Buffalo. But I think the NEWS needs to take tougher, more vocal - even strident- stands on lots of issues. Loosen up, find some cool, let your hair down, throw the long ball once in a while. Go for it.

Posted by: BobbyCat |

[Don H]

Newspapers are hurting and folding because much of their lifeblood, classified advertising, has moved to the internet. Printing news on paper and hiring someone to throw it on driveways seems a cumbersome and passe news reporting method with today's instant access to breaking news on radio, TV and the net.

US News and World Report has a weekly paid subscription edition now available on the internet. I think newspapers need to do the same if they hope to survive.

Finally, expecting a reporter on a paper with a liberal or conservative editorial bias not to let that influence his political coverage,consciously or unconsciously, is unrealistic. Human nature just doesn't work that way.

[JCS]

I agree with BobbyCat...if a reporter knows or suspects he is receiving a load of bull from the person he or she's interviewing, or that some group or organization (i.e. State Gov't) is pulling the wool over our eyes, I want to see that person or group called out. It's like what Jon Stewart told Jim Cramer...if Cramer knew or suspected he was getting bad info from the CEOs he was interviewing, he should have taken a stronger stand against them.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

BobbyCat wrote: "I think that most critical thinkers expect objectivity and accuracy in a newspaper. Just get it right, that's all."

That's what I want from a newspaper and from the media in general. Leave the opinions, slants, biases, etc. to the editors and to people like Chris Matthews or Sean Hannity or Alan Colmes or other "pundits." If I want some reporter's opinion, I'll give it to him.

What's really sad is the way that legitimate media sources (newspapers, television news, etc.) are starting to turn to blogs as news sources. And there's apparently some debate over whether bloggers and other such opinionators should be considered "the press" for the purpose of access to events.

Just give me the facts - the who, what, when, where, and why of it - and let me draw my own conclusions.