Journalism is dead!

Well, let’s clarify that proclamation.

Objective journalism is dead! Journalism as a whole is deathly ill.

One need only watch national television news programs and read the offerings of major newspapers for evidence that objectivity has gone the way of the dodo bird; it’s extinct.

There are many reasons why this is true. But the universal truth is television and newspapers are trying to survive in an information world dominated by the internet. The advent of the internet, with its 24-7-365 supply of rapidly updated news and information, sparked a stampede of people away from broadcast and print news sources. That left television and newspaper outlets struggling to maintain their audiences and to keep the revenue needed to stay alive flowing.

To do this they started playing to their audiences. They sacrificed accuracy, objectivity, and, sometimes, truth so they could give their audiences what they wanted to read or hear. If the audience leans to the political left, they are fed stories that reflect their beliefs. The same holds true if the audience leans to the right.

So it is that newspaper pages and television news programs often carry more propaganda than fact.

It can not be said that local newspapers are immune to the political and marketing forces assailing the larger, mainstream news outlets. But they are better able to withstand the onslaught because they aren’t trying to please a huge audience from which they need to elicit huge sums of money to pay for statewide or nationwide operations.

A local newspaper’s audience is made up of people with whom local reporters and editors live and interact every day. They know these people and know they want accurate and unbiased coverage of local news.

And local news is what the community newspapers provide. This is a commodity larger newspapers can’t, or don’t, offer to rural areas such as Robeson County.

Local newspapers serve the local community, and they serve the truth. They are becoming the last bastions of objective journalism.

But they need support if they are going to be able to continue to serve their communities. They are small businesses. And like small businesses everywhere, they are victims of the economy. When the economy is strong, so are they. When the economy is weak, local newspapers must cut personnel and services in order to stay alive, just like other small businesses.

Does this mean residents of the communities the newspapers serve should open their wallets and throw money at the newspapers? A nice idea from the newspaper’s point of view, but no. Support can come in the form of working with reporters and editors to ensure relevant and factual information gets to the public.

They also can call their congressional delegates and ask them to support the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which provides for tax credits for subscribing to a local newspaper, payroll credit for paying journalists who provide local news, and credit for advertising in local newspapers and local media.

The legislation was introduced July 16 and referred July 16 to the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. It hasn’t moved since.

So, support a local newspaper any way you can and help keep sources of unbiased truth alive.