Something has changed at the venerable Times Observer. I say venerable because every day the people at this newspaper do good work regardless of your political persuasion. For example, Chuck Hayes' reporting on the Bucky Phillips capture was better than any national coverage. You didn't know the whole story until you read his articles.
This is the way it should be. A local reporter writing about what he knows best. The local area. Media from outside the county cannot compete with this. Or how about Dean Wells' series on tourism in Warren County? Regardless of how you feel about tourism, you have to admit this guy has talent. Once again, no one can write about local news better than a local reporter. The managing editor, Eric Paddock, is a terrific writer. Those interested in improving education in our county should consider encouraging more of this kind of work because it makes everything in school more relevant. Without the strong press that we have grown accustomed to school is really meaningless, it has no currency, it has no connection. A good, local newspaper is an informal foundation of every school.
The best part of the paper was the daily editorial, which was written by local writers. This is gone. In its place we no longer read about local issues and our knowledge of what is going on in our community is diminished. A long time ago, editorials were written by the editor--a local resident. Now I have no idea who is writing the copy that appears in the same place where real editorials once appeared.
I have no idea who is writing these because no one takes credit for them. The exact same editorials appear in many of the same newspapers owned by the chain of newspapers which owns the Times Observer. At most papers one assumes that staff listed on the masthead on the editorial page wrote the editorials. I don't think this is the case at the Times Observer. I hope someone tells me I'm wrong, but the evidence seems pretty clear. Editorials written in the Times Observer appear to be written by people who do not live here. Even worse, whoever is writing these things appears to be doing it anonymously.
The worst part of it is that we have no idea who writes these editorials. No author is listed. No one takes responsibility for it. We can only assume that there is someone in the corporate organization, maybe somewhere in West Virginia where the Times Observer's owner, Ogden Newspapers, has its headquarters, who is responsible. Welcome to corporate journalism.
What is really missing is authority. Without an author how can there be authority? Without authority, there is no credibility--it's just a tower of Babel signifying nothing. This is not only bad journalism, this is bad business, not just for a single newspaper among dozens and dozens owned by a conglomerate, but for our community.
I cringe every time I read the headline "Our Opinion." It's not ours. It's theirs. As a famous Times Observer reporter once enjoined us many years ago: Tell it like it is, Ogden.
See related article: Local Editorials Return to Times Observer
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