Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4, APRIL 13, 2009, THE ISLANDER
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Why Local Newspapers are the Basis of Democracy
By John W. Whiteheod
Publisher's Statement
THE ISLANDER (USPS 002430), A
member of the Georgia Press Association
and Glynn County’s only weekly newspa
per is published 51 weeks a year for $20
per year in Glynn County and $22 per
year in the United States outside Glynn
County by Permar Publications, Inc.,
3596 Darien Hwy. Suite 6, Brunswick,
GA 31525. Periodicals postage paid at
Brunswick, GA.
Contents of The Islander, including
advertising, may not he reprinted or
reproduced in any form without written
permission of the publishers. POSTMAS
TER send address change to The Islander,
P.O. Box 20539, St. Simons Island, GA
31522.
Publication Deadline
Publication Date:
Every Monday
Deadline: Thursdays, 12 PM for
ads and news copy for the
following Monday’s edition.
Holiday Schedule
On Monday Post Office holidays,
The Islander is printed on the
Friday before.
2009 Post Office Holidays
Thursday, January 1 - New Year's Day
Monday, January 19 - MLK Birthday
Monday, February 16 - Presidents Day
Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day
Saturday, July 4 - Independence Day
Monday, September 7 - Labor Day
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Wednesday, November 11 - Veterans Day
Thursday, November 26 - Thanksgiving Day
Friday, December 25 - Christmas Day
Holiday Deadline: Wednesdays,
12 PM for ads and news copy for
the following Monday’s edition.
Mission Statement: to publish the
truth without fear or favor.
Established 1972
Matthew J. Permar - Publisher
Elise J. Permar - Publisher 1972-2003
Gertrude Bradshaw - Co-Editor 1972-1991
Managing Editor &
Advertising Manager
Pamela P. Shierling
912-265-9654
Production Manager
Sarah Banks Long
Church News
Patty Gibson - 912-638-8844
Sports
Jake Harrison
Contributors
Dave Barry, Clark Gillespie MD,
Sonny Doehring, Roland Willis,
Diane Bowen MD
Phone Numbers
912-265-9654 • Fax - 912-265-3699
entail: ssislander@bellsouth.net
www.theislanderonline.com
Award Winning Newspaper
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"The basis of our governments being
the opinion of the people, the very first
object should be to keep that right; and
were it left to me to decide whether
we should have a government without
newspapers, or newspapers without
a government, I should not hesitate a
moment to prefer the latter." -- Thomas
Jefferson
With newspaper readership and
circulation continuing to drop, more
and more local newspapers are being
forced out of business. However, as a
recent poll by the Pew Research Cen
ter indicates: "Many of those who say
the closing of the local paper wouldn't
make much, if any, difference in their
communities note that there are other
news sources available."
Young people, in particular, are more
inclined to get their news from the
internet. According to Pew, only 27% of
those born after 1976 read newspapers,
as opposed to 55% of those bom prior
to 1946. One person who believes the
closure of the local paper would make
no difference to civic life stated: "There
are other forms of communication that
are more important and easier to fol
low. I either go to television or turn on
the radio in my car."
There are, however, serious prob
lems with this fine of thinking.
First, anyone who relies exclusively
on television for knowledge of the world
is making a serious mistake. TV news
networks, having fallen prey to the
demands of a celebrity-obsessed and
entertainment-driven culture, provide
viewers with what they want to see,
rather than what is newsworthy. As
a result, there tends to be little devia
tion between the networks as to what
stories are covered. Hence, more time
is spent titillating and entertaining
viewers than educating them about
pressing issues of concern.
Second, the emergence of the corpo
rate media has ensured that a hand
ful of corporations now control most
of the media industry and, thus, the
information dished out to the public
by the national media. As one for
mer Newsday reporter observed, "They
serve their stockholders first, Wall
Street second and somewhere far down
the fist comes service to newspaper
readerships. All across America news
organizations have been devoured by
massive corporations, and allegiance to
stockholders, the drive for higher share
prices, and push for larger dividend
returns trumps everything that the
grunts in the newsrooms consider their
missions."
Finally, there are very important
things happening at the local level of
government and community life that
national newspapers, television news
and online news do not-and cannot-
cover. Local newspapers tell us what's
going on in our local councils of govern
ment, in our schools, on our streets.
As one journalist, remarking on the
fact that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
has ceased to exist as print news
paper, recently observed, "If we lose
local newsrooms, we lose the watchdog
power of the media. The most disheart
ening part of seeing the physical Seattle
P-I close is that only 20 of its reporters
went to the website. Not only is that a
lot of lost jobs, but that represents a lot
of important news contacts lost. That
represents a lot of carefully cultivated
sources gone. That represents a lot of
shady, lazy, or dishonest politicians,
corporations, and agencies that won't
be watched as carefully as they used
to be."
The basic mission of the media is to
serve as a check on the government.
That is why the freedom of the press
is such an integral part of our First
Amendment. Our founders understood
the vital importance of the press in
maintaining an educated citizenry and
a transparent government. However,
even freedom of the press will not make
much of a difference if there are no local
newspapers keeping watch over what's
happening in our own back yards.
Local newspapers are the clarion
call of democracy. "The power of the
periodical press is second only to that
of the people," wrote French historian
Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in
America, one of the definitive works
on early America. Tocqueville under
stood that governmental power flows
up from our local towns, cities and
counties-that's where democracy hap
pens. Hence, the Constitution begins
with those three beautiful words: "We,
the people."
However, we've been deceived into
believing that the most important
governmental matters are housed in
Washington, DC. In truth, the real
government, the one that Abraham
Lincoln spoke of as being a government
of the people, by the people and for the
people, is housed in small towns across
this country. That's where democracy
is being played out on an everyday
basis.
Unfortunately, in subscribing to
the false notion that national news
is somehow more relevant than local
news, we have mistakenly bought into
the idea that what the talking heads in
Washington, DC, have to say is more
important than the dialogue taking
place between average Americans and
their representatives at the local level.
That's where we're failing in our
democracy today. The founders did
not establish a national government.
Rather, America was intended to be a
conglomeration of small governments,
not one big government. In this way,
the cities, towns and comities were to
be the basis of American democracy. As
Turn to Page 9 - Local newspapers
Local Republican takes TEA party to Capitol
Congressman Jack
Kingston (R/GA-1)
recently met with Ruby
Robinson of Bruns
wick who brought a
TEA (Taxed Enough
Already) Party to the
Capitol. Robinson, in
town for a meeting
of the National Fed
eration of Republican
Women, delivered
tea bags to the office
of House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
to signify her opposi
tion to the $1.4 billion
in net tax increases
in the federal budget
proposed by the Pres
ident Obama and
recently approved by
the House Committee
on the Budget.
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