Shame Your Local Newspaper And Help Your Community At The Same Time

December 28, 2024 10:38 am

Following the 2024 election, the political establishment panicked upon realizing that most of us in Flyover Country are now more influenced by alternative media than we are by the traditional, corporate-owned newspaper and TV outlets.

And with good reason.

I cannot account with my own two eyes and ears what goes on behind closed doors at national corporate media outlets (although I have a pretty good idea).

But I worked in newspapers for nearly a decade. Some were locally owned. Some were corporate owned.

Upon my exit from that world, people in my hometown started contacting me to tell me that such and such story wasn’t getting covered. They also told me that local crime spree #1 wasn’t getting reported and neither was crime spree #2, #3, or #4.

And I knew exactly why. In one case, a woman arrested and charged with a felony was married to one of the local newspaper’s top advertisers. In another case, reports of a local burglary ring were put aside because that news cast the city in a negative light….and that’s not good for economic development….and what isn’t good for economic development isn’t good for advertising revenue.

Newspapers, supposedly a watchdog on politicians and other powerful people, no longer look out for the best interests of the communities that they serve.

In my hometown, the local media became nothing but fluff. One day, the front-page headline was about the mayor reading a proclamation to honor the little old ladies of the red hat society. The next day, the top story listed who sold the most Girl Scout cookies.

Riveting stuff.

All this, while the local police department refused to inform the public about a homicide that occurred along one of the city’s most heavily traveled thoroughfares. All this, while the city and county raised taxes to pay for pet political boondoggles and, in the process, penalized lower-income people and retirees on fixed incomes.

And, for a lot of newspapers, doing or saying anything to offend the local or county government is a big no-no. Those papers are often the official city or county journals, which means the government pays them an astronomical sum of money to publish the legals. And, for a lot of newspapers, those legals make up the biggest chunk of their yearly revenue.

So, reporters are instructed to put their local elected officials in the best possible light…no matter how terrible they are at their jobs.

The community’s best interests are not served.

A SOLUTION

I built a local Facebook group. I and the group’s other admins never got paid for our work. We never had to worry about pandering to politicians or local business owners.

On the first day, 3,000 people signed up. A decade later, the group has 10 times that number.

Local journalists use the group as a resource for story tips. People use the group as a resource during local emergencies like floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

Thanks to the group, criminals who were terrorizing neighborhoods into silence and/or compliance were arrested. Also, countless lost and abused animals were rescued.

Many bullied kids who were getting zero help from (clueless) school administrators and had no other place to turn finally had a resource to try to make life better for themselves.

People use the group as a neighborhood crime watch.

IN THE NEWS: Capital Punishment Keeps Our Society From Falling Apart

If your community is ill-served by your local newspaper or TV station, for whatever reasons, you have options…IF you are willing to volunteer your time and are willing to network with others.

Newspapers now face severe consequences for forsaking their proper roles as watchdogs over their communities. They have fewer viewers and fewer subscribers. Some are closing their doors. That’s just the free market and the universe correcting itself.

But, as stated above, new media has arrived.

And anybody and everybody can get involved…including you.

Special thanks to Warhammer’s Wife proofreading this story before publication to make certain there were no misspellings, grammatical errors or other embarrassing mistakes and/or typos. Follow Warhammer on Twitter @Real_Warhammer