[Note: I usually blog here about the good things about Blacksburg, and its surrounds.  But I don't always blog about good news.  Nor am I a newspaper reporter or publisher, who are supposed to present news, most of which is not good.  Because I believe that a newspaper should not shrink from its core mission, to inform, I offer the following "Epitaph" for the Roanoke Times.]

It is one of the ironies of our (Roanoke) Time(s) that the very organization which criticizes, and even sometimes mocks, bloggers seeks to make itself into a blog-like “news” paper.  You see the “news” is now all about “us.”  The front page (FP in blog-speak—you might as well get used to it, RT, you are a blog-in-print now) oozes with a veritable stage drama.  While anyone who’s suffering deserves respect and support, so do readers.  We do not need the details of people’s lives played out in graphic detail as we eat breakfast.  Rather, we need the information we need to function as citizens.  What is it that’s important for us to know? 

However, implicit, in both coverage and messaging of the revised RT,  is that we need to focus on–even help –every single case that is trotted out before our eyes.  In this, the RT encapsulates what is wrong with on-your-own health care, but it seems oblivious to the fact.  It leads readers to believe they can only hope to survive if they are deemed worthy enough to make the front pages, draw in enough “support, and march in the legions of worthy survivors–no matter if the health care system forsakes all the rest.  They need press agents, perhaps?

Citizenry dies a little every time the RT spends a full page (or more, sometimes) on such you-based “journalism.  And those demanding “good news” all the time, or to feel good while reading the news, or even shed a tear or two over others’ pain, need to grow up.

The FP also is now our trip into intimidation by the supposed God-filled lording it over those they (usually falsely) assume to be godless.  (And if they were (godless), so what?)  It is their right.  The sickening Pharisees are trotted out for all the world to see, and emulate(?), no thought or mention of humility or respecting others.

One day this week, real news didn’t appear until Page 5.  Why is P. 2 handed over to the trivial and the inane happenings of celebrities?  It’s the non-news “news.”

Newspapers are vitally important.  Indeed, I honor the excellent reporters, such as: Tim Thornton, Beth Macy (though her talents are currently wasted on irrelevant puff, feel-good, and local pap—it’s not her fault), and Greg Esposito.  I miss former EP editor, Tommy Denton.  When I cancel (soon), I will miss Dan Rachmacher.  I will miss the truly poetic Field Notes, and even the not-so-relevant (to me) Starshine Rochelle’s column.  The latter helps this older adult to stay connected to the issues facing young mothers in our society.

Especially I will miss Eugene Robinson, and all the other columnists long ago cancelled, whom the RT has deemed less important than the opinion of other local residents (i.e., they write or speak for free).  We do not need “Voice of the Valley,” or this or that local individual who actually believes that he or she is a better op-ed writer than the nationally syndicated columnists.  (See my disclaimer below.)

Be the news.  Be the journalist.  Be the opinion writer.  Help the RT stop paying journalists to do journalists work!  Does the RT really think we want it to publish nearly all the letters they get, as it tells us it will do now?  Many already do not deserve publication.  Yet the RT publishes letters with factual errors, outright lies, and religious intolerance nonetheless.  Almost daily we get a more than adequate dose of insufferable fanatics trying to cram theocracy down our throats.  If I want a Bible verse I can go to church –or open up my own Bible.

Regarding column writing, I admit it is seducing to get a column in print.  But as a blogger, I at least know where my opinion pieces belong.  Blogs serve a function: They inform on material the newspapers won’t.  They push back against a recalcitrant or neglectful press.  And yes, blogs have often afforded balance, such as when the news regurgitated Bush talking points, and even fake news during the late, but not so- great Bush administration.  Blogs can provide action tools for people to respond to what’s happening in Richmond, for example.

By disclaimer, I admit that I actually applied for one of the local columnist positions a couple of years ago, willing (sorta) to accept a mere $50 dollars for a carefully written and edited column each week.  Talk about low wages!  It struck me at the time, that I shouldn’t collude with the publisher wishing to undermine opportunities for paid staff with such cost “effective” near-volunteers.  And in the time since then I have pulled back from submitting column material and even letters to the editor (most of the time).

Time was when both my husband and I raced each other to snag the paper out of the driveway.  That hasn’t happened for years, since the RT dropped the “World News” from its masthead, since publisher Debbie Meade took the paper to depths of feel-good “journalism” that even Wendy Zomparelli could only dream of.  Come back, Wendy!  At least under Wendy, the paper was largely still relevant.  Additionally, did the RT ever think that consolidating so much of the paper into one section leaves one spouse with exactly no important section to read at breakfast?

It will only take the right day or hour to pull me from my lifetime habit of reading the paper with the morning tea, and propel me toward the phone.  And then I’ll be done with it.  But I keep holding onto that earnest principle, that newspapers are the lifeblood of the body politic, that readers of all varieties need to subscribe, and even keep the pressure on newspapers.

For all the claims of “liberal media,” they aren’t .  Instead we have a commercial/corporate media whose interest is dumbing down the news.  Any pretense that it is really “about us” is all the more cynical.  And so, we are left with a paper which under-, dis-, or mis-informs to a greater extent every day.  At its best, a strong and active press protects our country.  At its worst, it helps achieve our worst nightmare, a country which ceases to work for its citizens, wipes out the middle class, and serves only the moneyed-elite vulcans circling and swooping in to take away the last morsel of protection, stability, and support citizens have in this country. It’s class warfare, all right, but it is not being waged against the rich.  All the while, the press tempts us with self-importance, which only exacerbates the numbing and senseless pretense at news that is hardly worth the trees it consumes .

Kathryn Welch is a free-lance writer and blogger from Blacksburg