Don’t let it become ‘that’s the way it was’

Sixty-three years ago, Walter Cronkite shocked the world when he closed his first-ever half-hour nationwide newscast.

Instead of saying “and that’s the way it is,” as he did for the next two decades, he ended with: “That’s the news. Be sure to check your local newspapers tomorrow to get all the details on the headlines we are delivering to you.”

CBS was horrified, and Cronkite quickly relented. Still, the person who epitomized news through one of the most turbulent times in American history continued to believe that, for democracy to function, citizens needed to be informed beyond the brief snatches of information available in something as short as a half-hour newscast.

Imagine how horrified he would be today to see citizens getting most if not all of their information not from the brief headlines of half-hour newscasts or even the less thorough, more biased views of comics and talking heads on late-night TV but from one- or two-line blips of pseudo-information posted by who-knows-who on anti-social media.

As we approach July Fourth, we’re reminded not only of the freedoms American democracy allows but also of the responsibilities it demands. Keeping informed — fully informed, not just getting all atwitter about some spin spewing forth from your cell phone — is every bit as necessary to continued democracy as are the valiant sacrifices our courageous military personnel make in times of war.

When our founding fathers were crafting the Constitution for the world’s first successful democracy, it wasn’t “one big, beautiful bill.” It was something average citizens debated and discussed in detail after being informed by such things as 85 essays in the “Federalist Papers.”

Compare that to the 85 or more flames you’ll see on Facebook, Instagram, or X anytime we publish anything that even vaguely mentions some hot-button issue. No one’s minds are changed, in part because their minds have been so starved of actual information that they cannot function in ways other than to repeat meaningless slogans.

Those who think their time enjoying family life is more valuable than learning about how democracy allows that to happen deserve neither democracy nor the family enjoyment it allows.

That’s why we were horrified last week to learn of the cavalier manner in which Marion County residents were dealing with a legislative vacancy. In the end, only one citizen came forward to try to join the depleted group of precinct committee members who will select our next legislator. And she had to battle bureaucratic reluctance and practically threaten legal action to be included.

We also were saddened last week to learn that Hillsboro Free Press — which earlier admitted it wasn’t a full-service newspaper — was abandoning even the “newspaper” name and beginning to call itself a “shopper” publication.

We understand the challenges publisher Joey Young faced in trying to publish a “free” newspaper in Marion County. He and his staff do a great job producing traditional, paid-circulation papers elsewhere. But with fewer and fewer local businesses, and more and more of them having to get permission from distant owners to advertise, the only way a newspaper can survive is on contributions from readers in the form of subscriptions.

A “free” newspaper, especially one that isn’t full service, does a disservice to democracy by allowing readers to wrongly believe they get all the news they need from it. Joey, to his great credit, understood this, and we’re certain it figured at least in part in his decision to transform the Free Press into a “shopper.”

Newspapers face other challenges, as well — a U.S. Postal Service that continually increases its rates, as it is doing this very week, by far more than the rate of inflation and a general reluctance among young journalists to relocate to unfamiliar rural areas.

We consider ourselves considerably lucky to have been able to hire Finn Hartnett, who hails from Tribeca in lower Manhattan and graduated from the University of Chicago, to join our staff a year ago.

For Finn, working in Marion is like former Marion High School valedictorian Emmy Hess’ decision to spend a year in the jungles of Guatemala. It’s a gap year of service, motivated in part by his desire to contribute to a small, locally owned newspaper with traditional journalistic values and special needs after being illegally raided by police.

We won’t be able to keep Finn much longer. Like the Wichita Wind Surge, small community newspapers are a farm system for the nation’s bigger news organizations. Sometimes you can find someone local to help out, as Joey did with Laura Paulus Fowler, but her departure also was a key element in the decision to transform the Free Press.

We’ll try our best to avoid being forced to cut back when Finn departs and our three full-time team members staffers over the age of 65 finally begin to retire, but it will be challenging.

Journalism is not a business for those with thin skins or weak hearts. We’re constantly cussed out, accused of “fake news,” portrayed as biased, and lumped together with all those non-journalist spinmeisters on late-night TV, in blogs, and on anti-social media.

We don’t even have the “but you’re on TV” allure than allows such places as local TV stations to pay their journalists what in some cases is less than half what we have to pay.

Some politicians — particularly those too obsessed with enjoying family life to seek out and study full information needed for democracy — might disagree.

But a corollary to the adage “show me a beloved newspaperman and I’ll show you a sh***y newspaper,” is the adage that newspapers and communities tend to rise or fall with the same tide.

An informed citizenry leads to an enlightened and progressive community. A community that insists on never examining itself honestly in the mirror that journalism provides ends up growing unkempt and sickly.

Public TV and radio, where our former reporter, Alex Simone, now works in New York State, has it right. Subscriptions are like donations to democracy, and ads not only help sell goods and services; they also support democracy and should be considered at least in part to be underwriting, not just advertising.

If rural communities such as ours understand and appreciate that, we’ll be confronted with fewer things like the Free Press becoming a shopper or dailies in towns like Salina, McPherson, Newton, El Dorado, and Abilene becoming mere shadows of their former selves.

This Independence Day, all of us need to remember that independence depends on information. Supporting institutions that professionally provide information is a firecracker of an idea.

— ERIC MEYER