Leonard Pitts: (Once upon a time,)
… only the local paper performs the critical function of holding accountable the mayor, the governor, the local magnates and potentates for how they spend your money, run your institutions, validate or violate your trust.
Does your local paper do this? Ours doesn’t.
UPDATE: The Virginian-Pilot was named the state’s best daily newspaper in its class (daily circulation of 100,000 or more)! I guess that answers my question.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Fairy tales are what most of the legacy media tell themselves, pretending as if they are somehow delivering a useful public service. Maybe once upon a time, but even then? Probably not.
But in the end isn’t it the responsibility of the citizens to do this for ourselves. Sure its tough with out busyness but in end its up to us. We deserve the government we have.
My fear is that more and more people vote party/incumbant without considering the actual actions of the candidates in question. With the increasing number of gerrymanndered one party districts once an official is elected it is nearly impossible to remove them regardless of their actions.
Of course it is our responsibility. But even the most informed among us have a hard time keeping up and getting to the truth.
He ends his column by writing “I think 63 percent of all Americans are wrong.”
That, sir, is the problem.
The papers where I live are horrible, but that leads me to raking some muck once in a while.
😉
Yes, though prodding is sometimes needed from other media.
He is right to the some extent, because in Brazil the regional media is REALLY crappy, and because of that politicians always get a free pass.
Nonsense Andre — I suspect the politicians pay quite handsomely for that pass.
It’s going to get even harder as papers begin to fold and/or cut their staff to stay afloat leaving skeleton crews who only work on a website.
Recently, Sen. Chap Petersen and AP writer Bob Lewis have commented about the fact that there are less and less reporters covering the General Assembly. Independent weeklies in Hampton Roads and in North Carolina’s Triangle have begun to shut down or downsize. All this leaves spotty reporting, at best, on the state level. God knows what to continue to expect from the media covering local news.
Which leaves blogs and websites. However, the old school electeds don’t trust blogs. So the automatic access isn’t there. You have to fight to earn access, which I’m sure Vivian can attest to.
I like what someone once said about blogs: they’re like the modern day pamphleteers. People who think that may wind up being more right than they know.
The automatic access is exactly what the newspapers enjoy and then fail to use. That’s why Pitts comments to me were such a fairy tale. The fact is that they could do those things, but they don’t. And this has been going on since long before the crisis in the newsroom.
In my opinion, this is exactly why the newspapers started to falter. And now they lack the resources to do the job.
Just updated with the story that the VP was named best in its class. That should give some hint as to the state of the newspapers.
Wow. I’m totally about regional pride, but if the Pilot wins the best in its class I can’t even begin to imagine what other papers are like.