The importance of newspapers

Anyone familiar with Facebook, or any other social networking Web site, is no doubt familiar with the regularity of invitations to join "causes."

There are causes dedicated to fighting childhood illnesses, causes dedicated to political campaigns and even causes dedicated to changing the way Facebook works. I've pretty much ignored most of these causes — not that I don't believe in them; but rather that when you sign up for every cause under the sun, it just starts to seem trivial that you ever even enlisted your "support."

But I got a cause invitation the other day that I couldn't just ignore. It struck close to home — most specifically, to my profession. The cause is "Tell Five Friends How Important Newspapers are," and I am the 12,164th person to join. As of this writing, I've even recruited three additional people to the cause, with a handful of other invitations still pending.

The idea, of course, is that by signing up, I am to tell five other people why newspapers are important. Well, I thought I'd do just a little better by telling a few thousand, via this weekly newspaper column.

It's not hard these days to find stories about the impending death of the newspaper industry. I’ve attended conferences of editors where the gloom-and-doom was positively thick. And Web sites and blogs across the globe have been writing the obituaries for newspapers for the past several years.

Well, I may be consumed in a haze of self-preserving wishful thinking, but if you ask me, this "death of the newspaper" stuff is a bunch of hogwash. Newspapers are a pillar of the communities they serve and a vital source of communication. They've served this role for a long time, and will continue to do so in the future.

The fact is, the information in a newspaper can't be found anywhere else. In small, community newspapers, like the Blytheville Courier News, this is even more true.

Where else are you going to find stories about the most recent City Council Planning and Development meeting, or an account of what happened at the Quorum Court's Efficiency Committee meeting?

Where else are you going to find a write-up on last night's high-school basketball game, complete with photographs?

Where else are you going to go to learn who was named a Citizen of the Month at a local elementary school, or to the President's List at the local community college?

Where else are you going to read comprehensive news — including analysis and citizen's views — about an upcoming tax election? Where else are you going to find complete results and reactions to that election?

Where else are you going to go to find out which of your neighbors got married, who had a birthday, who had a baby, or who passed away?

Where else are you going to find complete listings of upcoming meetings and events for local clubs and organizations?

Where else are you going to find reports of local homes and businesses that were burglarized?

Where else are you going to go to find comics, crosswords, advice columns and horoscopes, all in one convenient location?

Imagine if the newspaper didn't exist. Where would citizens go for this kind of information? The loss of a newspaper would leave a gaping hole in any community, a hole that no Web site, blog or Internet message board could ever fill. When was the last time you saw an out-of-town TV crew at a local school board meeting? When was the last time anyone blogged about high school honor rolls?

It was evident how much a local newspaper could be missed a few weeks ago when, due an afternoon power outage, the Courier News was several hours late in reaching homes. The phones rang off the hook that afternoon. I heard the ladies up front repeat, “I’m sorry, we had a power outage so we’re a few hours late today,” over and over and over again, to the endless stream of readers who were waiting for their paper. There had to have been more than a hundred calls in just a couple of hours.

This isn’t to say newspapers are perfect. From the Blytheville Courier News to the New York Times, there is room for improvement. And as more and more Americans get comfortable living in the digital age, changes will have to come. Without a doubt, newspapers have challenges ahead.

But newspapers have always adapted to the changing world. Whether it has been radio, or the telephone, or TV, or cable, there have always been changes to the ways Americans communicate. But newspapers have always been there. And there is no reason to think they can’t continue to adapt.

So it’s my hope that communities across America embrace their newspapers, and I’m not just looking out for my own long-term job security. Newspapers make better communities. They inform, they entertain, they educate, they enlighten. They bring people together. They serve a purpose that no other medium has ever, or will ever, match.

Newspapers are a cause worth fighting for.

No longer taking electricity for granted

You walk into a room, flip the switch, and the room is instantly bathed in light.

You turn on the faucet, maybe wait 10 seconds of so, and soon the hot water warms your skin.

You pull into the driveway, push the button by the visor, and like magic, the garage door goes up.

You’re a little chilly, so you go to the thermostat in the hallway, and nudge it up a couple of degrees. You hear the furnace kick on, and not long after, the room begins to warm.

You want to check in with a friend, so you pick up the phone and dial the number. Or better yet, flip open the cell phone, and scroll down to the name you’re looking for.

These are all incredibly simple, everyday tasks. They’re the things we do every day of our lives, rarely stopping to consider what life would be like without them.

But in the past week, area residents have learned just exactly what it is like to live without such conveniences, after a devastating ice storm swept across the region, leaving thousands of homes without electricity.

It hasn’t been fun. For anyone. Homes were left dark and cold. Businesses were silenced. Local residents were left scrambling for ways to stay warm and stay fed.

I’ll never forget my pre-dawn drive to work last Wednesday morning, through the deathly dark streets of Blytheville. Nor will I forget the scene that appeared as the sun came up — block after block of storm-ravaged streets, a hellish tundra of frozen trees, downed limbs and blocked roads.


We should give thanks that the situation has improved in the past week. The army of utility workers that has descended upon our community has restored power to many. Key service providers, such as the hospital, city hall and grocery stores, are up and running. Many lights have come back on.

But for as a dramatically better as the situation is today, compared to a week ago, it is dramatically horrible for those who still lack power. There are still thousands living as best they can in cold, dark homes, waiting in anticipation for the joyous moment when the electricity comes back on. But there’s no telling when that might be.

You can learn a lot about the character of community by how it reacts to adversity. And in the past week, Blytheville has proven its mettle. It would be impossible to recognize all the acts of heroism that have occurred in the past week, but a few can’t go without mentioning.

First, there’s the utility crews which have worked absurdly long hours — and continue to do so — to bring power back to the community. Those crews include hundreds who have come from several different states to lend a hand.

Then, there’s the American Red Cross. The local chapter had already sprung into action by Wednesday morning, and within hours of the ice storm, was establishing shelters across the country. If you’re looking for a way to help others, consider a donation to our local chapter. Call 763-4481 for more.

And, of course, there are the fine employees of the city of Blytheville. From the police officers striving to keep the streets safe under blackout conditions; to the firefighters taking on a new wave of power-outage related threats; to the public works crews, clearing our city streets; there are plenty of folks who deserve our thanks.

On a purely personal level, I would like to give a shout out to the employees of the Blytheville Courier News. It’s not easy to publish a newspaper when you don’t have any power. But I will forever remember the way the people in this building pulled together to provide our readers with information in the wake of the worst natural disaster to strike our area in recent memory.

As difficult as the last week has been, and despite the challenges that still lie ahead, we have reasons to be grateful. In time, our community will recover. The power will return. The lights will come back on. Even the trees we have lost can be regrown. The destruction wrought to Blytheville by the ice storm is nothing compared to communities that have been ravaged by things like tornadoes, floods and earthquakes.

It won’t be long before we’re all able to get back to our everyday lives — when we can illuminate a room with the flip of a switch, warm our homes against the cold winter wind, and take a hot bath whenever we feel like it. Soon, life will get back to normal.

And one thing’s for sure: Normal never looked so beautiful.

Help for "Lost" viewers

If you're a fan of the TV show "Lost," like I am, you might find the following scene from "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" a bit helpful as you tread through the newest season:

Time to get over loss of the air base

CBS News has yet to announce when they will air the “60 Minutes” segment that will apparently feature Nucor Steel and Blytheville in some capacity.

A crew from the popular news magazine was in town last week to film footage. They spoke with several Nucor officials, as well as some community leaders. They filmed footage at the Chamber of Commerce, and made several trips to the steel mills out by the river (and apparently got a couple of speeding tickets along the way). Even veteran journalist Lesley Stahl was here to report on the story.

It will be interesting to see how “60 Minutes” portrays our community. The overall angle seems to be generally positive, but when it comes to network news — especially TV news magazines — you never know.

One angle I hope they don’t pursue is the “poor little town that lost the air base” approach. It’s an approach that’s not uncommon when out-of-town media visit Blytheville. Indeed, it’s hard to ignore the array of timeworn buildings on the Arkansas Aeroplex, and it’s no secret that the Eaker Air Base — and it’s closing — is part of our community’s history. And there’s not a person in Blytheville who hasn't taken part in a conversation that begins with, “Back when the air base was here …”

But more and more, the base closure is a part of our distant history; and less and less part of our recent history. It's an event that is quickly losing relevance. And it’s become a pet peeve of mine to hear people continue to blame the closure of the air base for our community’s woes.

There’s no doubt that losing the base was a blow to our community. It was, in fact, a devastating blow. But it was a blow that occurred nearly 17 years ago. That’s a long time. And our community has become a completely different place since then.

Consider our industrial base. Save for Nucor-Yamato Steel, which briefly overlapped the time Eaker was open, nearly all our industry has come here since the base closed. This includes everything from Nucor Hickman and Tenaris, to IPSCO and Roll Coater. When the air base closed, we were barely a blip on the steel industry radar. Today, Mississippi County is one of the top steel-producing counties in the world.

Or, take a look at the retail development near the Highway 18/Interstate 55 interchange. On the day the base closed, you could stand atop the overpass, look east, and see nothing but cotton fields, all the way to the Mississippi River. Today, there is a retail supercenter, a big-box home improvement store, a strip mall with a dozen tenants, three restaurants, a gas station and a bank.

Or consider this: For today's high school seniors, there is no memory of the air base ever being open. The idea of an open Eaker Air Base has no place in what they know about their hometown. The same goes for everyone who has moved to Blytheville in the past 17 years (including yours truly.) To an ever-growing number of Blytheville citizens, the air base has never been open.

And all this is why it frustrates me to hear people use the closure of the air base as a crutch for what’s wrong in our community. The fact is, the loss of the air base is part of our distant history, a history that has long since faded from our collective rear-view mirror. Our community has its share of shortcomings and challenges, for sure. But those shortcomings can no more be blamed on the loss of the air base than on the the collapse of the local logging industry.

We’ll have to see what “60 Minutes” does with its steel story. They may very well take the knee-jerk path, and show how steel has saved “the poor little town that lost the air base.” It would be hard to blame them if they did.

But for the sake of people in Blytheville continuing to look forward, I hope they look for something different.