Celebrating a newspaper where 'Community' really matters

What the Newsroom saw

Check out this Associated Press article about how the Butler Eagle handled last week’s assassination attempt.

Small newspapers, and their staff, are the lifeblood of a community when the journalists live there, work there and care.

It’s not empty platitudes from Alabama about how “Community Matters” while enabling a morning radio show like Shredd and Ragan to laugh at and trash your community, it’s real, boots-on-the-ground journalism.

They even had a professional photographer, not a freelancer, on the scene, shooting photos as well as multiple reporters and an assignment editor coordinating coverage and enough even-handed staff to pick an appropriate photo rather than using the fist pump with the flag above.

It’s like the Gazette newsroom of 35 years ago under Gannett ownership. The current iteration of the Gazette has done more to hurt Niagara Falls than even Niagara Falls Redevelopment by solidly branding a city with lots of good going on as a shit hole.

Houses in LaSalle should be priced like houses in Kenmore or North Tonawanda. Houses in DeVeaux should be comparable to the best in the villages of East Aurora or Williamsville.

Cayuga Island is Grand Island without the entitled snobbery (Sorry Mari but don't you dare put an AirBnb on my block and never mind the bullied 10-year old attempting suicide last week.)

Instead, houses in the Falls are worth less than half what they would be elsewhere because we have two glib assholes on the radio laughing about how awful it is and gullible people don't see value. I will step down off my soapbox now and go back to celebrating how a real community newspaper handles it when a great story comes to town.

https://apnews.com/article/butler-pennsylvania-newspaper-trump-assassin…