ilBLOGical tidBITs

Just another Tucson Citizen weblog

by blogbits on Jun.04, 2009, under Uncategorized

Is Freedom of the Press Still Free?

For months now, many people online have expressed their ambivalence at the departure of the Tucson Citizen as it rides into the sunset after nearly 140 years.

 

Many have cited the quality and quantity of journalistic endeavors by the editorial staff over the past few years, while some say it is simply a matter of economics, and still others claim that print media is dead.

 

Many people have lost sight of what a free press brings to the party in a republic like the United States — including those in the media who produce infotainment in the quest for better ratings at the expense of journalistic integrity.

 

Public education was once valued in this country because we recognized that to fully participate in the political process an educated electorate is necessary. Now, as public education standards decline and the political process is more about party affiliations than actually doing anything about the state of the nation, the job of a free press is more crucial than ever.

 

Unfortunately, the virtual wall between journalism and the business of journalism has disappeared. Now, those who used to serve the public’s interests by holding government agencies, representatives, public organizations and corporations accountable have surrendered the high ground to the prevaricators of prepackaged, pretentious pap perpetrated upon the public by papers such as USA Today, aka McPaper, which brings us to this point in the history of the American Experiment.

 

Today, for good or bad, it is electronic voices crying in the wilderness of the World Wide Web that are trying to blog their way into the public consciousness. No one knows for sure how this will work out, but one thing is certain — it’s going to be like nothing we’ve seen before.

 

“I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy — but that could change.”

 

— Dan Quayle (1947- )


8 Comments for this entry

  • akonchar
    June 4th, 2009 on 3:57 pm

    I enjoy reading newspapers. The Washington Post, The New York Times, the nutty Chicago Tribune, for example. I like to read what
    people write in black and white. I want to touch the page and see the words printed. I don’t want an elecronic lifestyle. A computer is enough. No iPods, no cellphones, no blackberries, no nothing. No HDTV, no Blue Tooth, Blue Ray or anything else. I want bookstores, like Borders, I want a CD and DVD store, like Tower Records. I want to get off my fat ass and go out and SEE and HEAR what I want to purchase. And maybe even meet someone human along the way. I cannot do that sitting at my computer. And I don’t blog and I don’t do nothing in chat rooms and I hate Facebook and all those other assorted “social” disorder networks. If you have to advertise you have 26,000 friends on your Facebook page, only 3 of whom you know, than you are sick. Come back Tucson Citizen, there was room for you. Unfortunately, and grossly unjust is the fact that, there’s always more room for greed and profit than for fair and balanced news reporting. They don’t care about US. WE don’t matter.

    Reply
  • RADC MAXIMUS
    June 4th, 2009 on 5:18 pm

    Good reading Rynski! Here’s another Quayle-ism “A mind is a terrible thing to be born without”, from the guy who can’t spell potato correctly. :) I believe the days of free will print journalism are over, for anyone corporately employed…welcome to the blogosphere!

    Reply
  • Rynski
    June 4th, 2009 on 5:59 pm

    RADC MAXIMUS -

    Thanks, but I did not write this…it was from our blogger who runs this blog!

    ryn.

    Reply
  • RADC MAXIMUS
    June 4th, 2009 on 11:12 pm

    AnKonchar, Some of us face the public all stinkin’ day! You like the huddled masses? You can have ‘em! As far as intellectual exchange, unless you spend all day at the bar or coffee shop, good luck. P.S. I hate my cell phone too, must ring 70 times a day! At least after a hard days’ work I can relax with a beverage and see what the literate crazys are up to. Yeah, I miss a GOOD paper too…

    Reply
  • GG
    June 5th, 2009 on 2:10 am

    I think the editorial touched on a key issue leading to the demise of the Tucson Citizen…”journalistic integrity”. How about having some? The inability to objectively and critically investigate and report relevant news was just absent. Your steady declining lack of readership subscriptions was telling you something, you just didn’t get the hint. You resisted changing paths and hence you paid the price with the closing of the paper. People would have read your paper if there had been something worthwhile to read. Don’t get the idea that the AZ Daily Star is any better…it ain’t.

    Reply
  • Leftfield
    June 5th, 2009 on 6:55 am

    Can a nation of people who care more about Dancing With The Stars than the news be saved from themselves?

    Bread and circus.

    Reply

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