Hometown Paper

I was recently, as I have noted, back home with my family for the holidays. I lately touched on my interest in the obituaries, but don't take me to be a purely morbid person. That section is just one of many which hold my interest. The paper that I see at that time is the preeminent one in the state of Arizona, the 'Republic'. My mother worked there at one time, and it was a vibrant, indispensable staple of the community. It's hardly at its high water mark now, but remains viable at least for local coverage if one properly accounts for editorial bias of the sort which affects all papers run by humans.

They don't write their own national or international stories if anyone else has written ones which may be licensed. Generally those sections are taken up largely by wire service articles, which are serviceable but do not cause civic-minded locals to swell up with pride at the achievements of their journalistic institutions. The in-house writing is adequate, being most evident in the probably more profitable sections of the paper. The locals news section is an example of this, as is the sports section. If they didn't write about the local teams, who would? The national media takes little interest.

Actually the most compelling writing is to be found in the letters to the editor section. I may not often agree with what they say, but it certainly cannot be accused of being uninteresting or of lacking a strong point of view. It may even spur people into action, even if the sole action is to punch a wall in frustration at the ignorance and objectionable views of ostensibly mature and responsible adults fully vested in the democratic process. I enjoy reading them aloud derisively to my father, for if we couldn't laugh would we not all cry?

I find myself having a 'Citizen Kane' moment. As Kane wrote in a letter, "I think it would be fun to run a newspaper". Regrettable it is that it would be such a futile endeavor. The prospect of starting a news site hardly smacks of the romance that Kane must have sensed in the operation of the New York Inquirer. I wish such a thing were possible. It's not, and I myself am slowly falling out of even reading print periodical, so if I'm not going to run a paper or read a paper where I live, I'm glad at least to have the chance to read the one I grew up with every Christmas season.