will small town papers save us?

[liberalitch]

I am wondering if the rags in some small liberal towns will be the force in the media to save us and start telling americans the truth.
Surely the mainstream media has abandoned the truth.

[Greybnk48]

1. Gannet controls the news in my area

They own and control the print news in the Green Bay/Fox Valley area--both major newpapers and one major T.V. affliate, I believe CBS. I cancelled my paper, The Appleton Post Crescent because they endorsed Bush. Their reasoning--he deserved a second chance. I don't watch the news anymore either. I cull info from the web

[Tux]

2. Small towns

I live in a mid-sized city that acts like a small town. The local paper tries to demonize Dems, non-Christians, non-Evangelicals, and environmentalists. Internet for me.

[Skittles]

6. the rural newspapers I've read in Texas

contain nothing but conservative garbage

[jswordy]

4. The Appleton Post Crescent is an unabashed right-wing tool.

And that's being kind!

The only problem with culling from the Web is, unless your local paper has a site, you miss out on tons of local news that way.

On the larger question, small town papers will not save us from anything. They have far fewer resources and are far more dependent on national wires services, and few of the small papers have the bucks to subscribe to more than AP only, let alone hire reporters to cover national issues.

The best mix of news can be had in dailies of over about 150,000 in size. They have the cash to get several wire services and provide a wider view.

I'm in the biz. I think the thesis that the so-called MSM is bought and paid for is fallacious, as do my colleagues in the profession who know how the newsgathering process works and what its relationshiop to the "business side" is at legitimate operations. (Note: Faux News is not a legitimate operation, nor is any Murdoch property.)

There is plenty of high-quality information out there for those who are not lazy and are willing to find it. I find that people who are widely-read have excellent grasps of the issues (no matter their politics), people who read narrowly have good grasps, and people who rely only on broadcast news have poor grasps.

The key is in being your own news hound, and not waiting for someone else to prepackage and predigest it for you. If you read two or three different stories on the same subect, you are then well informed. Two stories? Pretty well informed. One? Basically informed. You say you saw it on TV while making dinner? You are barely aware, then.

Let me also say here that it is good to read from a variety of perspectives, not just from the places that offer a news perspective with which one agrees. It is much more informative to read from a wide-angle view.

I find that, across the board, the level of disgruntlement with the so-called MSM rises dramatically among those who want their news spoonfed to them from the TV screen. And rightly so.

UNDER EDIT: The firm that controls the paper often does not determine the editorial stance of that paper, BTW. Many individual properties are left to determine their own news content. That is certainly true of my paper's owner. And it is true of Gannett. Let me point out that Gannett owns the Appleton conservative paper, and also the Nashville "Tennessean, seen as a liberal "Democratic" paper.

[Greybnk48]

10. My apologies to Gannett

And you're right. I no longer have access to local news. But I refuse to finacially support the APC. I'd rather be out of the loop.

[maxsolomon]

3. no they will not

only an invasion by the forces of the EU at the end of WW3 will save us.

and by "us" i mean those "liberals" who manage to avoid the camps.

[thinkingwoman]

5. they would if they existed

But most "small" papers are actually owned by bigger and bigger papers these days.

The independently owned small town paper is dying, dying, dead.

I own one that has been in my family since 1978. We cease publication Feb. 23rd of this year.

Why?

I've been wal-marted to death by the big paper in the next town who won't even bother to buy me because, as they said to our face a year ago "we'll just run you out of business instead."

They've kept their word. And our community is about to lose its voice.

[killbotfactory]

7. Not mine

It's got the republican propaganda machine firmly planted up it's ass. I can't read anything in it about politics without having my blood pressure rise and wanting to throw it across the room.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. Our liberal small town rag was just bought out by conservatives...

I'm sorry to say. I suspect they are doing this all over the place.

[Misskittycat]

9. Also, they seem to use Associated Propaganda stories every day

so the public is being misled in that way (in the guise of receiving straight news).