The Washington Times: Supporting Journalism's Role In Civil Society

At the Washington Times, the conservative newspaper where my On Crime columns, book reviews and other pieces appear, there is an editorial about the necessity of newspapers. 

These days it is both common and unpleasant to hear espoused, especially by members of the elite, that the coronacrisis is helpfully accelerating the demise — if not total destruction — of sclerotic industries. One such industry, and everyone’s favorite whipping boy, if we are being honest, is the media, particularly newspapers, which seem to have now regressed from a decade-long serious condition to one in need of critical attention.

Critics on both the left and the right point to different culprits: Outmoded business models; the disruption of “new,” online media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook; shortened attention spans; a public sick of ideology masquerading as “fact,” you name it. But all of this is beside the point. Because like your local mom and pop store, or local library, or public park, journalism done well is an important part of a healthy civil society. We simply need to have it around.

And we can go further. The philosophic concepts that prop up the historical success of everything great in America — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — only move from the theoretical realm to the practical when its disseminated, discussed and debated in the public square. The roaring pamphlet debates between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, which all took place in the pages of newspapers, brought America as we know it into existence.

Now, one may downplay this and argue, as they do, that the death (or “evolution” if you prefer repeating a well-worn lie) of news media is just one of those things in life, akin to the move from traditional taxis to Uber. Except, of course, it’s not. Because when newspapers die, at least in this environment, there is nothing to replace them.

This is lamentable for many reasons, not least of which is the loss of the employment, our ability to hold to account corrupt business and bad government, and the innumerable feel-good, feel-bad, or just plain fact-neutral reporting that, in aggregate, tells the story of our country.

… Finally, we would be remiss if we did not remind you that, when it comes to covering national news, no one beats the men and women of The Washington Times. That goes double for our columnists. If you haven’t already, please do subscribe.

Our motto is: Reliable Reporting. The Right Opinion — we would love to see more of that across America.

You can read the rest of the editorial via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/14/editorial-news-best-when-its-disseminated-discusse/ 

Note: The Washington Times was President Ronald Reagan's favorite newspaper.

'Dear Stan: Your Newspaper Sucks: Ralph Cipriano's Scathing Letter To The Executive Editor Of The Philadelphia Inquirer

I was a proud contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer for nearly 20 years, but I’m now saddened to see this once great newspaper, the “newspaper of record” for Philadelphia, decline. 

Although I remain a subscriber to the Inquirer, I moved on to the Washington Times, where I now write a weekly On Crime column. 

Ralph Cipriano (seen in the below photo), an author and former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, offers on his website Bigtrial.net the scathing letter he wrote to Stan Wishchnowski, the senior vice president and executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.         

You could also consider diversifying your news coverage and opinion pieces, which, with few exceptions, always come from the same perspective, that of a politically correct, social-justice warrior and progressive Democrat. You may have noticed that the people of America may be tiring of that approach, and that’s why they elected Donald Trump as president. And why South Philly revolted against Safehouse. 

In short, you are failing on all levels of what a newspaper is supposed to do. And a few field trips, and a few journalism trophies, which mean absolutely nothing to the average reader, can’t cover that up. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

www.bigtrial.net/2020/03/dear-stan-your-newspaper-sucks.html#more 

Evelyn Waugh's 'Scoop': Journalism Is A Duplicitious Business

Alexander Nazaryan at NPR looks at the state of journalism and looks back at Evelyn Waugh's classic satiric novel Scoop. 

In only a few years, a child will ask a parent about newspapers: What was their purpose? What did people do with them, and why? The parent, a little flummoxed, will explain that, long before biosensitive data aggregators simply uploaded information into the neurons of our frontal cortexes, people actually read the news by holding a piece of paper in front of their noses and scanning columns of text with their eyes. There were many such newspapers, to be read in the morning, over breakfast, and in the evening, over scotch. The newspapers competed with each other by sending actual people out into the actual world to report what had taken place, was going to take place — or, even, was alleged to have taken place but didn't. On days when there was little so-called news to report, the newspapers filled their pages with stories about, say, puppies who could recite Macbeth or people who wore jeggings to work. Also, there were crosswords.

Of course, this fictional parent could give his/her fictional child Evelyn Waugh's Scoop — a fictional 1938 tale of British foreign correspondents reporting on a civil war in the fictional East African country of Ishmaelia. Fictional, yes, but to a journalist like myself, most everything about the novel is too real. Waugh was a master at mixing humor and pathos, as evidenced by his two most ambitious novels: A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited. Scoop, on the other hand, is all laughter, of the sort that will make the person next to you on the subway think you have problems. Every time I read it, I miss the glory days of the ink-stained art — but also see why they have come to an end.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.npr.org/2013/06/16/189218139/evelyn-waughs-scoop-journalisms-a-duplicitous-business