The Ink is Fading

"The Ink is Fading" states today's Editorial in the Record. The editorial does a great job of pointing out the danger we face if many of our struggling newspapers cease to exist. Let's face it, while many of us get our news via the internet, it isn' a Google staffer reporting the news. It is the local reporter at the local media outlet who is providing the information. Without those reporters, we are left with bloggers who are under no requirement to report the news fairly, factually, accurately and objectively. While we don't always believe that our reporters do our story justice, their version is far better than much of the what we find surfing the web.

Many small communities have already lost their local daily or weekly paper. The editorial points out that the Los Angeles Times, the state's largest newspaper, which also is having financial difficulties, reported last week on the Carbondale (Colo.) Valley Journal, a weekly paper that succumbed after 34 years as that mountain town's only newspaper. Nobody missed it much until residents figured out they had no way to get basic information about their community. "I didn't hear of his death for a couple of weeks," Rebecca Young told the Times of a friend.

Here in Manteca we are fortunate to still have a community newspaper, and one that is still reporting primarily local news and reporting it on a daily basis. We may not always agree with their approach to a story or its conclusions (more on that tomorrow), but we are far better served by having our story told to the community on a daily basis.