Saving journalism

Continued from page 7

the theory embodied in the words of that old song that goes something like this, “Shin bone’s connected to the knee bone.” What’s happening to news reporting is also happening to our civic lives.

Community clubs struggle to keep up membership. Church attendance is way down. Most people never attend a city council meeting, a school board meeting, a booster club meeting. Heck, neighbors don’t even know neighbors. The fabric that binds communities together has frayed and become ragged, on a good day.

I always believed good journalism was a connective tissue, reflecting a community’s deep reality. The best journalism is practiced, in the old saying, without fear or favor. That means the good, the bad, and the ugly. And it means telling the truth even if nobody wants to hear it.

Today, lots of people reject uncomfortable or inconvenient facts. So-called “news” organizations – think MSNBC for lefties, Fox for righties, and even more deeply biased outlets online – make sure users’ preferred storylines are never challenged. That’s not news. It’s propaganda.

I give all the credit and cheers I can muster to today’s journalists, who continue to forge ahead in an unforgiving business climate, where it’s not only tough to make a buck but it’s also likely they’ll be subjected to insults and abuse just for telling the truth.

I’ll pose a question I presented to the ladies in my audience: “Who calls out the abuses of the powerful if the watchdog is dead?”

And this, in closing: “The people in this room, their families, friends, strangers and everybody, will decide how it all turns out. Journalists can’t save journalism.”

Bill Barth is the former Editor of the Beloit Daily News, and a member of the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame. Write to him at bbarth@beloitdailynews.com.