Why is it the good papers that are dying?

Trib's demise follows trend

Another newspaper bites the dust, and this one – like the Gazette – is too close to home for comfort.

On Dec. 31, the East Valley Tribune will close its doors after 118 years in business. In the last few years, it was regarded by most journalists as the best daily newspaper in the state.

Even more significantly, in April two of the Tribune’s reporters won journalism’s ultimate honor – the Pulitzer Prize. Paul Giblin and Ryan Gabrielson earned the coveted award for their series on the impact of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s illegal immigrant crackdown on police protection.

Green bologna and pink underwear Joe. What a colorful guy.

You can like him for being a hard ass, but in the end he sure makes heroes out of a lot of journalists and lawyers who challenge him for abdicating his first responsibility in favor of causes that guarantee his re-election. We are either a nation of law or we are not, and Sheriff Joe, of all people, is supposed to set an example.

But this is about newspapers. Especially dead newspapers.

Why is it that the good ones seem to be the ones that are folding – the ones with the highest journalistic standards, the greatest public conscience?

Maybe that’s a question that answers itself. Maybe it’s because of the dumbing down of our society. The papers with the best chance of making it today are the ones that pander to the public’s basest instincts – to the lowest common denominator.

Right here in River City, we have two papers that appeal to all that is mean in human nature – to our desire to know who got caught doing what, whose marriage didn’t work out, what 13-year-old was able to kill an innocent and unwary animal to prove his or her manhood, and all the fears and prejudices a cowboy columnist can stoke – all the while oblivious to the intentions and motives of those with the power to negatively impact our quality of life.

A mayor with an ego the size of a seven-story building is glorified by a reporter hellbent on building his own stature on a tower of superfluity. Winking, meanwhile, is a bulbous photographer turned editor who doesn’t seem to have a clue. And a rapacious publisher whose sole motive appears to be a return to power and profitability at any cost – even the truth.

In the process, two town councils are allowed to run amok (term limits be damned) and the water problem that divided them, that defines our communities is pronounced “history.” As, by the way, is the drought that may ultimately prove our undoing, as it did of those who occupied this land before us. This past week, when a forecast storm piddled out, offers yet another example of the tenacity of the drought the Roundup pronounced over – twice. Drought is bad for growth, so let’s pretend it’s behind us.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are being duped. By one newspaper that has absolutely no scruples. And by another newspaper that doesn’t have a clue – that can’t even spell a notable citizen's name correctly in a front page headline while accusing him of being a child pornographer (and that better be careful lest it end up with a John Hanna on its hands). Wouldn’t it be deliciously ironic if the Jesus freak, good news publisher from Globe was brought down over a child pornography story?

Now we hear that the ladies who broke off from the Gazette are about to break off again – to found, get this, their own newspaper. Rumor has it the Rim Country News is bleeding big time, and its parent the Copper Country News isn’t in this fight for truth and justice.

But, you ask, aren’t they in it for Jesus? Until, it would appear, they start losing money, and then all bets are off, Jesus be damned. Isn’t it amazing how Jesus and money get intertwined and which one invariably comes out on top?

Mark my words, if the girls start a new paper they will fail miserably because there isn’t a true journalist among them. And in the process, the Roundup will laugh all the way to the bank.

Because a weak and harmless competitor is really better than no competitor at all. Remember The Backbone?

Will the citizens of this community ever rise up again? Not likely without another issue of the magnitude of the Star Valley water heist and another leader with the stature and political savvy of Bob Edwards.

Right now, Kenny is playing it safe – stirring college town visions in our head, and it appears that no one from Edwards’ camp is willing to pick up the bicycle helmet knocked from his head in that mysterious, still unexplained mishap.

These are not happy times for people who value the things that good newspapers stand for.