There is still integrity in news media

Two more speaking engagements set for this coming month

By Ken Tingley

This past year I’ve been meeting with local folks all across the region to tell them about my two books and the challenges that community journalism faces. It will affect you all directly.

Your taxes will go up.

Less of you will vote.

And there will be less community involvement.

That’s the sad reality and many of you still don’t realize how much of an impact your local newspaper had on your community.

When I’ve talked to people, they often asked where they could get news they can trust. I’m a print guy so I point them toward newspapers. I tell them they can be trusted. The problem is not bias, but dwindling resources.

I tell them to stop watching prime time cable news shows. It is entertainment, not journalism and the hosts often sensationalize and spread false information so they can get higher ratings and make more money.

But I also tell them, if you are going to watch television news, you should tune in to PBS Newshour where Judy Woodruff had been the anchor for the past 11 years.

I tell them it is an hour of commercial-free television that will make them smarter. PBS  covers issues with more depth and a broader perspective than the network news and without a roundtable of talking heads. They play it straight. They report the news and tell you what you need to know.

It was last broadcast for the 76-year-old Woodruff Friday. She is retiring to do special projects for PBS.

One of my favorite segments on PBS Newshour is the Friday conversation between Woodruff and newspaper columnists David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart. One is conservative, the other liberal. One works at the New York Times, the other for the Washington Post.

I especially like Brooks. I think of him a “deep thinker” and someone who looks at the world with an eye for humanity and spiritualism you don’t always see from columnists, so it didn’t surprise me that Brooks set the tone for Woodruff’s last night.

“People step down from a job, but they have got many years of vitality and vital service ahead of them,” Brooks began. “And we don't have a name for that phase of life. So, I'm calling it the prime of life.”

That got my attention because that is where I am now and where Judy Woodruff is going next.

“And you (Woodruff) have set a tone, a culture, and a set of values,” Brooks continued. “And it's just easy to be better when you're around you. And that involves the values of dedication, hard work — you're the hardest-working person I know in journalism — a spirit of kindness, a spirit of generosity, and a spirit of humility. There's — ego is not allowed here. And that radiates from you.”

It was a wonderful tribute to a retiring colleague, but it also resonated with me and I hope with some of you now. What I tried to impart when writing “The Last American Newspaper” was that the men and women I worked with at the newspaper had many of those same qualities.

For those that suggest journalists come from a single rabid political viewpoint, I tell them they are wrong. I explain that the people I worked with wanted to make their community a better place through telling stories accurately, sometimes exposing problems and other times offering solutions. It was what Brooks saw over his long working relationship with Woodruff.

“And, just finally, you have done it in a difficult moment in journalism,” Brooks continued. “When we have had to be fair to everybody, be neutral and objective, but at the same time not be morally neutered, not react when morally outrageous and cruelties happen.

And it's been hard to walk that line, but I have admire the way you have done that.”

From my 40 years in journalism, Judy Woodruff is the norm and not the exception, although she may be at the head of the class.

“You are such an avatar for the profession,” Capehart added. “You're someone who — you're inscrutable. There's no one anywhere in the country or the world who watches you who can tell what your views are. But I want people to understand that folks who — I'm on the opinion side. David is on the opinion side. Our job is to tell you what we think. Judy is on the news side. Her job is to tell you what is happening, and why it's happening, in the context of history and the context of the moment. Her job is not to tell you what she thinks. And so, if you don't think, for real, that news side journalists don't take that job seriously, then just look at Judy Woodruff and her work, not just at PBS, but when she was at CNN and other places.”

It’s the frustration I live with every day that so many people do not believe that.

It’s true.

It was our north star every day.

If you don’t believe that, if you don’t even want to consider it, we are truly lost.

Comedy club

Being out on New Year’s Eve in downtown Glens Falls was a reminder of how far this community has come.

There was a 5 p.m. hockey game at the Civic Center, two comedy shows at the Wood Theater (7 and 9 p.m.) and the restaurants and bars seemed to be doing a good business.

As we left the Wood Theater after the second show, it was nice to see people out on the street and seeing Glens Falls looking so beautiful.

Jan. 10 event

While you are putting up that 2023 calendar, you might want to note that I will be speaking and signing books at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at the Kingsbury/Fort Edward Senior Center at 78 Oak Street in Hudson Falls. Had a great turnout at this event last year. Looking forward to it again.

Stay tuned, I will also be appearing at Glens Falls Senior Center and Moreau Senior Center this month.

Jan. 14 event

I will also be speaking to the Adirondack chapter of the American Association of University Women on Saturday, Jan. 14 at Glens Falls Country Club.

The public is welcome for the noon lunch. Anyone that would like to attend needs to RSVP by Jan. 11 to Connie Bosse at aauw.adirondackny@gmail.com. The lunch is $20.

Today’s Poll