America needs newspapers more than ever
I read some complaints about late or undelivered papers and here is my reply:
Please don’t cancel your subscription! Even if they’re late or have a slant, print newspapers need our support to do the little investigative reporting they can afford to do. The Packet/Gazette has done some very successful work this year.
Newspapers are one of the few resources we have to expose the corruption that has made our country so dysfunctional and vulnerable. I’m hoping that there is an awakened and revitalized younger generation coming aboard as voters and activists and many will want to become reporters — in all media. I was a reporter in the Washington Post Watergate days and saw it firsthand.
If you want to read a good book about it, I suggest Charles Lewis’s “935 LIES: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity.” Lewis is the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, which published the Pentagon Papers and the Paradise Papers, books about how billions of U.S. dollars are hidden in offshore accounts. It exposed very important figures and forced Apple to repatriate $350 billion over the next five years.
In addition, don’t forget the social and cultural value of the ability of our communities to “read from the same page” — even if we disagree with what we read. We need to cultivate, strengthen, and support our local newspapers — in addition to our communities — not abandon them.
Kate McClintic
Beaufort
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This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 3:26 PM with the headline "America needs newspapers more than ever."