About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2018)
PAGE 7 A Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 1600, Dawsonville, GA 30534; fax (706) 265-3276; or email to editor@dawsonnews.com. DawsonOpinion WEDNESDAY, May 2, 2018 This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and others. Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the writers and artists, and they may not reflect our views. I’m stoked over UGA football I feel like a hypocrite. Well, sort of. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the academic mission at my alma mater, the University of Georgia, the oldest state- chartered university in the nation, located in Athens, the Classic City of the South. I evince that support with an annual gift to UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications. The funds help underwrite a professorship in crisis com munications leadership as well as award student fellowships. It is my wish that the Grady College becomes the go-to place for media seeking expert analysis on the current crisis de jour as well as for scholars to share research on the issue. Why am I connected with such an effort? I like to say that I am an expert on crises, having caused as many as I attempted to solve. In truth, I was involved in some high-profile crises such as the divestiture of the old Bell System and, years later, the bombing in Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. In both cases, I had earned a seat at management’s head table with the opportunity to have my views considered in the decision-making process. That has led me to put my money where my heart is and try to encourage the next generation of communicators to earn their seat at the head table and influence deci sions in the external environment. At the same time, I am a longtime sea son-ticket holder at Sanford Stadium and was attending games there when Georgia was getting beaten like a drum by anybody and everybody. That all changed when Vince Dooley arrived. You remember Vince Dooley, don’t you? He is the Hall- of-Fame coach for whom the field at Sanford Stadium should be named as has been done with other legendary coaches at most major college venues around the country. Why influential lettermen whose lives were forever changed for the better by this good man don’t make this a priority while their coach is still around to enjoy it is a mystery to me. Maybe they will tell me. So far, I haven’t been able to get my phone calls returned, seeking an answer. And don’t tell me it can’t be done. It can. I have often been critical of those who rate UGA only by its success on the foot ball field. I have suspected that many of the rants on social media come from those who didn’t go to school there and don’t give a tinker’s dam about academics. Not me, except — uh, well, ahem — this is where the hypocrisy sort of seeps in. During Mark Richt’s 15 years as head coach, I came to expect that our teams would usually be pretty good with little expectation they would be great. You may recall that in 2008, Georgia began the sea son ranked No. 1 and ended up 13th, despite having future pro stars Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and A.J. Green on the field together. But having sat through enough 4-6 sea sons in my time, a 10-2 or 9-3 season was OK with me as long as the Dawgs beat the You-Know-Where Institute of Technology every year, which Richt did 13 times out of 15. I still get night sweats from remember ing how Bobby Dodd’s teams dominated us for eight long miserable years or rough ly 2920 days until Macon’s own Theron Sapp broke the drought in 1957 at Grant Field, of all places. Praise his name. Richt leaves and in comes the pride of Bainbridge, Georgia, Kirby Paul Smart, a former Bulldog defensive back, to take up the reins of the football program. All of a sudden, just being good doesn’t hack it anymore. The Bulldogs end up playing for the national championship in only his sec ond year. Not only can Kirby Smart coach a tad, it looks like he can recruit pretty well, too. At the recent G-Day scrimmage, he put eight of the top 25 recruits in the country on the field, including quarterback Justin Fields of Marietta, the nation’s top-rated quarterback. I understand more blue-chip- pers are on the way. Happy days are here again. So, while I will continue to strongly and faithfully support the academic mission of my alma mater, including my beloved Grady College, with my time and tithes, I must confess I am big-time stoked over where the football program seems to be headed which is up and up. Is that being hypocritical? Heavens, no. It is being a proud Georgia Bulldog. Woof! Woof! DICKYARBROUGH Columnist You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dickyar- brough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, GA 31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb. UNITY SOMETHING TO PRAY FOP NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER - MAY 3 Newspapers face a hard road One of the most common questions I’m asked after tell ing people what I do for a liv ing is: “How is the newspaper business?” The honest answer is: “Not very good.” As an industry nationwide, most newspapers are in criti cal care and many are on financial life support. The Associated Press reported last week that over the past 20 years, the number of newspaper jobs in the United States has declined by about 65 percent. An estimat ed 426,000 people were employed by newspapers two decades ago; today the num ber is about 150,000, with many newspaper operations continuing to cut employees in an effort to just keep the doors open. Having spent more than 40 years working to keep people informed via the privileges afforded by the constitutional guarantee of a free press, I am loath to consider that a day may be coming when there is no objective and independent entity capable of communi cating vital information to those who need it. The industry is reeling from a series of financial body blows that has many newspaper operations stag gering against the ropes: For decades newspapers in the United States depended on advertisers to underwrite the cost of covering the news and to provide a profit mar gin. But now advertisers are exploring other marketing options — most of them digi tal — leaving newspapers searching for new streams of revenue. Most newspapers are real- N0RMAN BAGGS General Manager izing the key to survival now is to get readers to pay more for the content they receive, knowing that in the past sub scribers actually paid only a fraction of the true cost of delivering the news. When you think about the fact that someone fills a printed news paper with information and delivers it to your driveway, typically for less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you realize how underpriced the product truly is. But the need for consumers to pay more comes at a time when fewer consumers see the value in paying for news content at all. For many, the idea that they should pay to read a news story, either in print or online, is a non-start er, considering the huge vol ume of information available that is seemingly “free.” So when newspapers need public support the most, the public is the least inclined to help. The most recent assault on the business side of printed newspapers comes in the form of the tariffs that have been imposed on Canadian paper production companies by our government. The majority of newsprint used by most newspapers in this country comes from Canada, because of the scarcity of mills in the United States pro ducing the product. It isn’t a matter of newspa pers not wanting to buy from U.S. companies, but rather that there aren’t sufficient U.S. companies to meet the need. The tariffs have already driven the price of newsprint up considerably, and forecasts are that the cost of paper will continue to climb in dramatic fashion for the rest of the year. The harsh realities of a loss of advertising revenue, a reluctance by subscribers to pay for news and sharply ris ing production costs do not bode well for many newspa pers. Sadly, the failure of the business model for many in the industry comes at a time when our nation and our world need accurate, honest objective news coverage more than ever. When the sources of “real news” dry up, “fake news,” propaganda and disinformation will take over. When people think about newspapers, they think about the journalism, not the busi ness of producing and deliv ering content. Somehow, there is a false public percep tion that the journalism can continue without a viable business model behind it. In a perfect world, we could put all of our energies into gathering, packaging and distributing the news that people so desperately need without having to worry about making money off the process. But that world doesn’t exist. Here at the Dawson County News, we have employees who need to get paid for their efforts, so that they can feed, house and care for themselves and their families. We have taxes to pay, expenses to meet and capital expenditures to make, just like any other busi ness. We have to be financial ly viable to survive. So what’s the answer? Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy one. Here at the Dawson County News, we are committed to providing our readers with professionally reported local news that is important to them and that they cannot get anywhere else. We are com mitted to providing our adver tisers with marketing avenues that have been proven to work time and time again. We are committed to delivering an exceptional product in print and online that is worthy of the legacy of the Dawson County News. For us to continue to do that, we need your support. We need you to subscribe to the newspaper, which is still the greatest bargain in town. For less than the cost of a pack of chewing gum, you can stay abreast of everything you need to know about local schools, governments, politi cians, sports, entertainment and sometimes even the inter esting couple living just across the street. We can provide what you need in print, delivered to your home, or in a digital product delivered to your phone, tablet or computer. We’re committed to keep ing the journalism going because it’s vital to our sur vival as a free nation, but we need your help to pay for it. It’s as simple as that. Norman Baggs is general man ager of the Dawson County News. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Complex things I have been hard at work getting my sister-in-law’s 1933 Ford Flathead up and running. It had been sitting for years with a frozen motor. At the same time I have been working on my new to me 2000 BMW Z3. The contrast is stunning. The Flathead is dead simple. Everything is barebones. I rewired the car in less than a day. There are a few places that it is hard to work because the V8 is sort of jammed into the frame but it takes no special tools to work on the thing. Regular wrenches are all you need. The 2000 BMW Z3 is an old car by today’s standards but it takes a ton of special tools to even change a wheel bearing. The electrics are beyond mortal man. A computer runs the whole show and the motor is covered up in sensors. You need fingers with 10 joints and they need to be about 12 inches long to try and get to places you need to reach. The Flathead does not have air condi tioning. It does not even have a heater. The BMW Z3 has all the creature com forts including heated seats. The Flathead has mechanical brakes with no power assist. And the steering is all human arm strength. A child of about five is strong enough to operate the Z. Everything in that BMW is powered, including the convert ible top. So what are we to make of these two approaches. My guess is that in 100 years from now there will be Flatheads still running. All the BMW Z3s will be gone to the junk yard because no one will have the electronics to keep them going. All the plastic in the Z will outgas and be little piles of broken grains. In everything in life, we are adding complex systems to complex systems. The next big thing is supposed to be self driving cars. We are going to reach a point where nothing will ever work or can never be repaired because we are trading robustness for complexity. Here is Gary’s Law of Complexity: If you add fallible systems together in strings your total failure time will contin ue to increase until nothing ever works. The Corollary to Gary’s Law is: There are only two people in the world who can repair your new complex thing. One is sick and the other one is on extended vacation. My new bread toaster has a control microchip in it. When it breaks, and it will, the whole thing will have to go to the dump. If it lasts long enough I will have to borrow my sister-in-law’s 1933 Ford to take it there. The BMW will be long junked out. Gary Pichon Marble Hill Letter policy The Dawson County News welcomes your opinions on issues of public concern. Letters must be signed and include full address and a daytime and evening phone number for verification. Names and hometowns of letter writers will be included for publication without exception.Telephone numbers will not be published. Letters should be limited to 350 words and may be edited or condensed.The same writer or group may only submit one letter per month for consideration. We do not publish poetry or blanket letters and generally do not publish letters concerning consumer com plaints. Unsigned or incorrectly identified letters will be withheld. Mail letters to the Dawson County News, RO. Box 1600, Dawsonville, GA 30534, hand deliver to 30 Shoal Creek Road, fax to (706) 265-3276 or e-mail to editor@dawsonnews.com.
