What have we done to our Fourth Estate?

I proudly admit I am writing this as a retired 32-year member of the Montana Newspaper Association. I have been a publisher, President of the Montana Newspaper Association and six-year member of their Board of Directors, and proud recipient of the Master Editor/Publisher Award and a forty-year political cartoonist. I believe in the absolute importance of newspapers in our lives. It is for these reasons I am fearful of where the industry is headed.

Lee Newspapers, one of the largest chains in the country, is considering a sale to a ruthless hedge fund company. They own five newspapers in Montana: Billings, Helena, Butte, Missoula, and Hamilton. Subscriptions are drastically down, employees have been push out to save money, and advertising revenue is scant. All because people are turning away from their home delivery subscriptions, with some reading the much cheaper e-editions produced on line. 

The only ones who celebrate the deliberate destruction of America's Fourth Estate are the right-wing varmints of the Grand Old Party. Their battle to bring down the pillars of truth has raged for years as they undermined the foundations of America's newspapers.

It has always been their belief that if they could convince the people that newspapers were the carriers of all that is untrue, they would finally be able to set their own controls on what the people    should see, read, and hear.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."  Geo. Orwell "1984"

Many compared quotes from Former President Trump to the famous quote from "1984."  It was Trump and the Republican Party's words to the people of America. The people are only to believe that which comes directly from the "Party." Many of us returned to Orwell's book for a reminder of what he was laying out in front of our eyes and ears.

Sadly, too many of us ignored the lesson and fell headlong into the Trump & Company trap of deception and lies.

Today, it is faster, easier, and in some cases cheaper to get our information on hand-held devices, social media, and overtly biased talking heads on television and radio "shows."  While the information we get may be all of those things, we must take into account one important part that is woefully missing:  Absence of Truth!  Of what use to anyone is deceptive, misguided, and blatant lies?

The purveyors of these lies will tell us that there were endless untruths being delivered by newspapers from the beginning. Admittedly, there are some "gossip tabloid" and "illegitimate publications" in circulation around the country.  But long-standing and reliable publications work hard to give us the best of their work.  Stories are verified and re-verified before going into print. Sources are checked and re-checked for accuracy. Details are important to give the full story. Errors - not lies - happen and are quickly re-published as soon as possible.  

That is not the case from the fly-by-night social media sources that come from someone with an axe to grind or a bias to sell.

We are losing the Fourth Estate of America. The Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch. . . and the Fourth Estate: the Media.

What source do you rely on for the truth?

Is giving up your subscription to your hometown newspaper worth filling your head with half-truths, deceptions, and lies?

The world is passing you by.  You may have convinced yourself that your sources are accurate - but you really don't ever know for sure.

Let's put newspapers back in our lives.