Perspective: 50 years ago, a local newspaper dominated the story of the Kent State tragedy. Could that still happen?
And although the Beacon Journal’s work was sometimes contested, it was accurate. The midsize daily won a Pulitzer Prize the following year for its spot-news reporting. Filo’s photography, including the famous image, won a Pulitzer Prize for the Valley Daily News and Daily Dispatch of Tarentum and New Kensington, Pa.I asked Giles, who later became the curator of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, if such exemplary and commanding local coverage would be possible today.
Of course it would, he said — if a news organization had the resources that the Beacon Journal then had. Owned then by Knight Newspapers, which was known for its commitment to quality work, the newsroom had a robust 150-member staff, and the advantage of editors with deep knowledge of their community.
“We were really prepared for something like this,” Giles said, particularly because the state editor, Pat Englehart, had such an extensive network of sources. He was assigned to run the immediate daily coverage of the shootings.But Giles, who lives in Traverse City, Mich., says he’s cognizant of what’s happened to much of local journalism in recent years.
Still, he said, the importance of local journalism is underscored now as an even more polarized nation faces the current health and economic crisis caused by the“It’s become a sad time,” he said. “The virus has demonstrated the need for authoritative reporting on the local level,” even as the economy’s downturn is delivering a brutal blow to news organizations, with only a few exceptions.Even amid the rampant polarization and turmoil, “people do want to gravitate to truthful information.
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