Why newspapers are too important to fail

Writing is a weapon and it's more powerful than a fist could ever be. - Denzel Washington as Rubin Carter in "The Hurricane"

It's no secret that over the past decade, newspapers have fallen on hard times. A storm of brutal factors have combined to lay low this once mighty and seemingly-indispensable industry, and the recovery, if it can be called that at all, has been slow and halting.

Some who never liked us to begin with have said this is a good thing. They say the slow death of the "mainstream media" is a result of our liberal bias, and laugh to each other that we're finally getting what's been coming to us for a long, long time.

Others lament the loss, and shake their heads when you tell them you work at a paper, saying, "Oh isn't it a shame what's going on? The Internet is just killing them." But they never quite care enough to lend their support - or their dollars - to the cause.

But if nothing else, The Record's recent breaking of a story that turned just another Fort Lee traffic jam into a scandal that might bring down one of the nation's most popular governors is proof positive that newspapers must continue to exist in one form or another, and if they disappear, it will be to the detriment of democracy.

To be frank, only a newspaper could have dragged this lovely New Jersey story of retribution and (possibly) corruption out into the daylight. No citizen blogger, even if he or she had the time and inclination, would likely have the resources that would enable them to dig up the necessary information without being brushed aside by state officials.

Yes, it's sad to say, but it takes a big, fearsome organization, one with enough artillery to hold fast no matter the threat, to counter another big, fearsome organization, and putting a lone blogger in that firing line is like giving a man a toy gun and pushing him off onto Omaha Beach.

It sounds like hyperbole. It is most certainly not.

I am not sure what the future holds for this industry, and the outlook, for now, remains grim.

But one thing is certain: saying, "Well, we didn't need you anyway" is not only callous, but ignorant as well.

This country needs writers who will act, like Steinbeck said, as "watchdogs for society" to make sure that the people at the top aren't trampling the people on the bottom.

Words always have more power than we think they do, and there's more than a little pride in knowing that a news organization - a real one, without talking heads and scrolling tickers - still has the ability to throw an iron bar in the works and stop up the whole machine if it's necessary.

I think by now, Chris Christie (or at least his staff) has learned that lesson well. Whether or not the public catches on...that remains to be seen.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

http://www.northjersey.com/news/last-call-jan-22-2014-why-newspapers-are-too-important-to-fail-1.652191