Posted by David Kopel:
Journalistic stages of grief:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_02_22-2009_02_28.shtml#1235757810
Today's on-line Columbia Journalism Review features an article titled
[1]Rocky Mountain, Bye: Rocky Mountain News staffers share their
thoughts on the paper�s closing. Yesterday the CJR asked Rocky
staffers to send in a paragraph or so of their thoughts. There are a
wide variety of reactions.
A small number of Rocky writers, including the excellent sports
columnist Dave Krieger (whose CJR comment expresses his frustration
with Scripps' corporate priorities) [2]will be moving to the Denver
Post. As many of you know, I've never been a full-time employee of the
News, just a bi-weekly columnist; my regular job is Research Director
of the Independence Institute, one of the oldest state-level think
tanks in the U.S. I wish that the Ind. Inst. had a few million dollars
sitting around in a vault, so we could hire some of the great
journalists who will be losing their jobs.
The CJR's request for a reaction put me in a historical mood:
It�s been a very high-tech day, with the Rocky posting near-instant
video coverage of its own death. Yet today evokes for me a picture
of Italy around 450 A.D., with declining literacy, and the
crumbling of what used to be the great institutions of civic
engagement. As a media columnist, I�ve written often about media
bias, which is a very serious problem, but which is not the primary
cause of the current collapse of the newspaper business. We have a
society that reads less and less, and which passively watches more
and more video. Over the long term, I expect that quality coverage
of national business and national politics will survive, because
there will be enough highly-literate readers who will pay the
premium prices necessary to support sophisticated reporting. But I
am not at all confident that there are enough readers who will pay
what is necessary for the existence of good coverage of local news.
At a time when governments are growing more and more powerful, we
are losing a crucial part of our checks and balances. "Quis
custodiet ipsos custodes?" as they used to say. A healthy society
needs someone to guard us from the government "guardians."
Newspapers have been far from perfect in performing this vital,
protective civic role, but more protection is better than less.
With the Rocky's demise, Colorado is going to have much less.
Today's [3]final edition of the Rocky Mountain News, available, of
course, for free on the web, includes a 52-page special wrap-around
section about the nearly-150-year history of the paper. It would have
been a great addition for the Rocky's 150th birthday, 55 days from
today. But I guess the birthday edition had to come a little early,
combined with the funeral edition.
References
1. http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/rocky_mountain_bye.php?page=1
2. http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11792235
3. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
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