Humor is a vehicle that has remarkable effectiveness at delivering an important message, but it takes considerable talent, intelligence and creativity to pull off comedic commentary.
If you are not familiar with comedian John Oliver, you should be.
Last week he took to his show on HBO, “Last Week Tonight,” for a piece about the state of journalism, specifically the newspaper industry.
While some of his remarks were rash, his premise was something that I have been arguing ever since I joined and fell in love with this business.
It is no denying that newspaper resources have been dwindling significantly over the past 10 years with slower advertising revenue. The business has changed significantly since I got into it just over eight years ago as the digital age has come into focus.
In the newspaper business digital advertising has grown by nearly $2 billion dollars from 2004 to 2014, but lost $30 billion in print revenue.
Oliver pointed out that newspaper journalism is important work that other media often latch onto as their own, saying “The media is a food chain that would fall apart without newspapers.”
My greatest fear for this community is who will do the journalism when there are no reporters left? Who will cover the town board meetings, point out Open Meeting Violations and call out politicians when they blatantly lie?
As Oliver says, now is a very good time to be a corrupt politician. Between buyouts, layoffs and news-hole reductions, there's hardly anyone paying attention at many local and state government meetings.
“Not having a reporter at a government meeting is like a teacher leaving her class of seventh graders alone for the day,” Oliver stated. I agree with this point 100 percent.
Another great point is that throughout the country many digital platforms and television stations are just repackaging the work of local newspapers. So what happens when that option is not available?
Newspaper reporters still provide the bulk of true journalism in the country. It’s not always fun or clickable or what people want, but it is important.
So thanks, John Oliver. We here in the print trenches appreciate the props, even if some of them stung a little.
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Joseph Brown is the editor and publisher of The Star-Herald. He can be reached at jbrown@starherald.net.
