The Dumbing Down of America

Our discourse is stupid for many reasons, but one thing you might notice is that most of my criticism of the press is directed towards the national press. I don’t think the Illinois press is perfect, but it is excellent on average.  There is less he said – she said reporting and a surprising openness I’ve found to readers and even us bloggers. They also are the sharpest critics of what I often write pointing out when I’ve blown it and I truly appreciate that.

First, the Trib had Steve Franklin and Maurice Possley (who both resigned). Then the Trib layed off a whole host of great reporters who are too numerous to name here, but the Miner has the list over there. Franklin is one of the few good labor beat reporters in the country and one of the few reporters for whom I sought out his articles that weren’t just on Illinois.  Possley is one of the best investigative reporters in the country and led the fantastic work the Tribune did on the Death Penalty and Prosecutorial abuse.

The news last night that I didn’t see until today is truly shocking. The Rockford Register Star shut down its Statehouse Bureau and laid off several people including Aaron Chambers who I consider one of the best statehouse reporters in Illinois.  This is truly awful news even if Aaron gets picked up by another paper–it means less coverage and even if he gets picked up, someone else won’t fill that slot.  The fewer Aaron Chambers, the fewer checks there are on state government and the excesses of Springfield leaders.  No one will report when the State Senate President keeps making fun of Rockford by asking where it is–no one will be talking to Chuck Jefferson and Dave Syverson getting their angle on state stories–Jefferson being at the center of the Amendatory Veto controversy lately.

Fewer people will have institutional memory of past decisions and how they affect Rockford and the entire state.  And even if Aaron is picked up, that’s one fewer slots for someone to learn along the way and become the new Aaron.

Anyone who Google Alerts Aaron’s stories recognize he was covering more non-political stories over the last year or so with regular dispatches on the Alan Beaman court proceedings and other downstate news.  Beaman was from Rockford so it had a local angle even.

The problem is that newspapers are gutting the very thing that keeps readers. Writers like Chambers and others are who build a relationship with readers and that keeps the paper going.  The notion of cutting costs and going after some of the most experienced journalists is self-defeating to long term readership and profits.

The public companies who own most newspapers now are worried about quarterly profits which is sending long term business down the drain.  Newspapers aren’t losing money for the most part–they are just not earning as much as shareholders would like.

When Eric Zorn started blogging at the Tribune I pointed out that it was this kind of effort that would help newspapers transition to a dual existence on-line and in the paper.  The blog creates a greater conversation with readers and that relationship is central to the long term interests of the newspapers.  However, all of them are destroying that relationship by laying off the reporters with the most experience and the best relationship with their readers.

The long term way to stay in news now appears to be held privately and create a joint on-line/off-line operation that interacts with readers/viewers/etc, but few are pursuing the strategy.  The worst part of this is that the beat reporting and experience from being on the job is lost.

Instead, what we are likely to see are more efforts like Progress Illinois (and this is no criticism of it–I love the site)–that are funded by interests or parties or unions which is similar to the news models of the 19th century when papers were extensions of political parties.  I think bloggers, Progress Illinois, and others are great additions, but the basic reporting has to be done as well and that aspect of news is crumbling.

So if you want to start a new news organization, just drop me a  whole lot of cash and my first hire would be Aaron Chambers.