Extra! Extra! Read All About It: Does your daily let your down?

Thanks so much Daily Astorian for bringing us a complete, unbiased picture of the problems between the DA and the county commissioners. NOT! It is frustrating and the reason why I canceled my subscription years ago and read online the pages I can get to. Your bias is a sad representation of the level journalism can sink to when given the opportunity to be the main source of written media in a small community. You have betrayed the trust of your community over and over again!

This was sent to us recently from someone who typed it into the comment box of the Daily Astorian. It is doubtful that it will appear on their pages, in print or online, any time soon. A chronic problem in small communities which has one newspaper is that the paper has no fear of losing its revenue, it is the only advertising source. The only need it has is of maintaining a base of readers. Subscribers are a potential magnet for potential advertisers, but many times a paper without significant subscriptions will obfuscate and write, “reaching a readership of 60,000 people in the such-and-such corner” meaning that the area has a combined population of that many people in three or four counties who may or may not purchase the paper over the counter or out of a paper box. Misleading potential advertisers is small potatoes compared to the harm of damaging businesses, reputations and people’s lives.

The tragedy at the Astoria Aquatics Center is another example of the poor reporting and editing of the Daily Astorian. Tom Freel, a newscaster and commentator with KAST radio station, writes on his blog Coast Watch, "When did you guys decide to report rumor as news?" He decries the reporter’s shoddy work at taking merely one account of the witnesses to the tragedy to portray as the full truth. The Daily Astorian reporter wrote: "She blew her whistle and jumped into the pool," Hartman said. She said it was only then that other lifeguards ran out of the pool office. Once Kim was out of the water, Hartman said she watched two female lifeguards begin performing CPR. She said they should have continued until paramedics arrived, but instead, "They stopped and went in back and started to cry." Freel commented: Lifeguards stopped CPR (because she was apparently revived at that point, you don't send dead people to the hospital). Actually paramedics do as would all businesses that had someone seemingly just expire on premise. No one except a doctor is qualified to pronounce someone dead, even if they have been dead for days. But Freel was not reporting, he was commenting on his blog, sponsored by KAST (tackle responsibility of radio to its community at a future date).

When a small community has one traditional daily, news source, its accountability should be held to the highest standards. Akin to doctors, school teachers and law enforcement it holds in its hands the life blood of the people it is supposed to provide information to. It is a vital component of setting a climate in a community. That climate can be one of unbiased fairness, mutual trust, open and frank consultation on all levels and in all matters, child centered, outward looking, upward oriented, neighbor-to-neighbor friendly, future based. Or the climate set can be one of prejudice, dogged predetermined outcomes, materialistic gain, sensationalism, selfish motivational advancement.

Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? When people read headlines falsely proclaiming “The community comes out to support DA” do they bury their own doubts, reaching for a bottle of their drug of choice to help them forget or do they reach for their keyboards and turn to a website to find that they are not alone a whole battalion of people know as they do that there is more truth out there then the Daily Astorian, or any small community paper, has the courage to print? More and more people don't bother reading the paper version and turn to the electronic page to find the opposing viewpoint, the frank consultation, the good, and often wonderful side, of their communities.

While it is sad and disappointing that our own local daily has such shoddy reporting and editing, it is because of this disappointment that new and wonderful writers have emerged. More people are feeling free to ask more questions, more people in public offices are being held accountable for their actions, more people are reaching out to become involved and more neighbors are becoming friends. Even in the smallest communities the computer age is drawing people closer while adding a whole new opportunity of becoming involved. All dailies should beware as their day draws to an end.