Another Local Newspaper in Dire Straits: The Johnson County Graphic in Clarksville, Arkansas

Our Hancock family home was in rural Waushara County and from first glance we were removed from, as I described it as a boy, “the rest of the world”.  I could make the claim because of the newspapers that arrived in our mailbox and all the events that were taking place “somewhere else”.  The daily Stevens Point Journal was the paper Dad read in the evening and where I discovered my boyhood cartoon hero, Buz Sawyer. Mom received a weekly newspaper from Yuma, Arizona, and on weekends the parents enjoyed various sections of the Chicago Tribune, which I brought up from Madison for my weekend visits. Each week the Waushara Argus landed in our home, too. But it was the Johnson County Graphic in Clarksville, Arkansas that made for the most conversations in a multitude of directions as Mom clipped stories and sent them to siblings. She might have several clippings for family reunion days, as well. She was born in Ozone, a mountain-top home in the Ozarks, located about 17 miles from Clarksville.

So, I took note this morning of a news story in my email about the fragile nature of the newspaper that had so impacted our family as mom recounted updates about former classmates or farms that had been sold or new businesses that were starting in the area.  She wrote letters and sent Christmas cards southwards to those who still made memorable impressions decades later. So, it was sad to read this news story located in an Arkansas business mailing I receive once a week.  

From left, Sharla Norris, events and copy editor; Managing Editor Megan Wylie; Promotions and Accounts Receivable Manager Wanda Williams; reporter Stephanie Baker; Advertising and IT Manager Gerald Sanders; and Assistant Editor and Circulation Manager Janis Penix

Megan Wylie, managing editor of The Johnson County Graphic in Clarksville, has been going without a paycheck since January.

She thinks it’s a small price to pay for striving to save the local weekly, one of the oldest businesses in Arkansas, founded in 1877.

Wylie, the daughter-in-law of the paper’s owner, Margaret Wylie, is leading a quest to add $11,000 in monthly revenue to avoid shutting down. Local newspapers, mostly weekly, have been failing at a rate of two a week across the country, and Wylie is devoted to dodging that fate.

In January, The Graphic published a blank front page and an editorial inside, almost an obituary, headlined “The Johnson County Graphic, 1877-2024?”

“Our intent to raise public awareness with the blank front page seems to have made an impact, as we’ve seen an uptick in our subscriptions and advertising and feel like we are continuing to gain momentum,” Megan Wylie told Arkansas Business last month.

The paper hasn’t turned a profit for a decade, said Wylie, who described her family’s involvement with the paper for more than 50 years.

The Graphic’s January editorial urged readers to ponder what the town would be like without a paper, something thousands of communities have faced in the internet age.

“How many of us grew up with clippings from the paper on our refrigerator or on our grandmother’s, or in our scrapbook?” the editorial asked.

Readers want “hyperlocal content,” Wylie said, particularly coverage of public meetings. “We’ve had many people tell us they wouldn’t know what was going on in these meetings if it weren’t for reading it in the paper. They’ve told us they want us to distill it down to the important details and present it in an easy-to-understand, abbreviated way.”

Readers are also concerned about government accountability, she said, and The Graphic has offered residents help with Freedom of Information Act requests.

One lifelong resident who subscribed about a year ago told Wylie he had never felt more connected to the community. When neighbors ask how he knows so much about local issues, he answers, “I take The Graphic.”

Long-form journalism is imperative for a well-informed citizenry. Consider what local television news allows for time spent on a story about city hall or a proposed development. Now consider how much more is gained with background and a fuller perspective on those same news events when reading about them in your local newspaper. There is no way to deny the importance of local journalism. Equally, there is no way not to feel a collective loss when a newspaper, even far away, has financial woes, shutters windows, and turns off the presses.

Walter Cronkite, the former CBS News anchor, known affectionately as ‘Uncle Walter’, stated that his news show only skimmed the headlines, and for the public to get a more complete view of the world they needed to read their morning newspaper.  His idea was sound when he first said it, and just as accurate today.  Newspapers should play an integral part in a citizen’s daily life.  

Too many Americans in the 21st century, however, gave up reading a newspaper and slipped further into intellectual decay. We know from the events playing out in our nation as to why legitimate news-gathering and reporting operations are important and needed now more than ever. There are many reasons to feel sad and nostalgic over losing reporters and column inches in newspapers in our communities. But I wonder if the country can be as strong and educated without the work continuously undertaken by newspaper reporters, and the printing presses that roll out the daily first draft of history?

CNN Wrong To Give Dangerous Candidate Town Hall Platform

I come from the Walter Cronkite understanding of journalism and its purpose in a democracy. Allowing the most absurd and dangerous personalities to have air time, when the mission of the person center stage is to severely restrict democracy and shred our values is not something that should be aired. While such individuals should be talked about and reported on, there is no news value in allowing such a person a program to do verbal stunts.

CNN was wrong to present a town hall with Vivek Ramaswamy, as all they accomplished is what Cronkite, and those like him today, would find and do find, absolutely abhorrent. Helping to legitimize the most dishonest GOP presidential hopeful…..vying with Donald Trump for first place at times….who has spewed dangerous lies and injected poison into the national discourse at every chance he gets, is not in any way the proper function of a news operation. I have been tough on those news operations and reporters who fail the work and purpose of journalism. CNN was supremely lacking in judgment Wednesday night when they allowed this openly fascist candidate and clown on the stage.

This is what CNN’s own on-air reporters and pundits had to say after the racist and crazed responses he gave in last week’s presidential candidate’s debate.

“CNN’s own journalists and commentators roundly criticized Ramaswamy after watching him unleash the firehose of lies at last week’s debate. Anderson Cooper said he delivered a “soliloquy of conspiracy theories.” Pamela Brown pointed out he has a “history of pedaling disinformation.” Abby Phillip underscored the danger of his lies, pointing out that people “have actually killed in the name of” the Great Replacement theory. Van Jones said his rhetoric is “one step away from Nazi propaganda.” Kaitlan Collins noted he insidiously uses a “reasonable tone” to sell sinister lies to people “who aren’t paying close attention” and might think what he is saying “maybe is legitimate.” And CNN’s conservative commentators also roundly criticized him, with Alyssa Farah Griffin describing his rhetoric as “damaging to the country” and David Urban bluntly saying that he promoted every conspiracy theory “but the kitchen sink” at the debate.””

So, by all means, give the Nazi a full program to spew sewage.

I think the best way to expose and explain this vile crap from Vivek is to report and dive into his lunacy. One does not give fascists a platform, but instead do the work that Cronkite and journalists with credentials and credibility did when exposing the likes of Joe McCarthy.

Forcing Election Deniers To Face Reality, Journalism’s Role On Behalf Of Democracy

If it’s Sunday, as the saying goes, it’s Meet The Press. It is also This Week and Face The Nation. Three solid choices for newsmaker interviews and analysis of events shaping our world and nation. Over my lifetime I can recall many a weekend where the shows were somewhat sleepy affairs, but over the recent years, oh, how things have changed. Chaos and utter moronic words and actions from the Donald Trump White House, the attempted coup against the voters on January 6^th, the 91 felony charges against a former holder of the Oval Office, the nearly complete dysfunction in the GOP House, and two wars raging in the world that demand American resolve.  In other words, plenty of reasons to tune in and pour cups of coffee as Sunday morning gets underway.

One interview stood out this past weekend as George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week asked a very easy-to-answer question about the final resolution of the 2020 election. Congressman Steve Scalise, however, simply could not break himself from the half-baked base of his discredited political party and answer it. If you ask how broken is the GOP, here is an answer with more proof as seen on national television. It was simply absurd.

This week one of your former — colleagues, Congressman Ken Buck, a Republican of Colorado, said he was leaving, retiring from Congress. And here’s what he said on his way out.

REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO): Our nation is on a collision course with reality. And a steadfast commitment to truth, even uncomfortable truths, is the only way forward. Too many Republican leaders are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen.

STEPHANOPOULOS: He said that you’re one of those leaders who has been unequivocal in saying it was a clean election, that Joe Biden did not steal the election.

Your response?

SCALISE: Well, Ken, I’ve worked with, on a number of issues, including getting spending under control, getting our economy back on track. He’s talked about that 2020 election as well. You and I have, I think, have talked about that too. At the end of the day, getting our country back on track is our focus…………

STEPHANOPOULOS: Can you say unequivocally the 2020 election was not stolen?

SCALISE: What I’ve told you, there are states that didn’t follow their laws. That is what the state constitution – the U.S. Constitution requires. You know, I’ve seen in my own state where we had to send our elections commissioner to jail years ago for fraud and corruption. And we cleaned up our act in our state. Every state ought to follow the laws that are on their books. That’s what the U.S. Constitution says.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s not what I asked. I said, can you say unequivocally that the 2020 election was not stolen?

SCALISE: Look, Joe Biden’s president. I know you and others want to talk about 2020. We’re focused on the future. We’ve talked about 2020 a lot………

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman, I know that Joe Biden is president. I’m asking you a different question. Can you say unequivocally that the 2020 election was not stolen?

SCALISE: What I’ve told you, and you’ve — you’ve seen this — there are states that didn’t follow the laws that are on their books, which is what the U.S. Constitution says they have to do.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you — so you just refuse to say unequivocally that the 2020 election was not stolen?

SCALISE: So, you want to keep rehashing 2020. We’re talking about the future of (INAUDIBLE) threats this country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I just want an answer to the question, yes or no?

SCALISE: We’ve asked – look, we’ve talked about this before. But, again, will you acknowledge that there were states that didn’t follow the actual state legislative enacted laws on their book, which the U.S. Constitution says they’re supposed to do? Do you know that?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I know that every single – I know that every court that looked at whether the election was stolen said it wasn’t, rejected those claims. And I asked you a very, very simple question. Now I’ve asked it, I think, the fifth time that you can’t appear to answer. Can you say unequivocally that the 2020 election was not stolen?

SCALISE: I told you – I told you there were a handful – there were a handful of – there were a handful of states that didn’t follow their laws. The rest did. The rest followed. And, again, states that Trump won, States that Biden won that did follow their laws, there were a handful of states that didn’t follow the laws that were on the books. They went to secretaries of state to change the rules of the game and then the voters didn’t know what the rules were because ultimately the state laws weren’t followed in those states. That’s not what the U.S. Constitution says. At some point, we should go back to following the Constitution, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The courts have all followed the Constitution. They all rejected the claims you just made. And I just want to say, again, for the record, you cannot say — you cannot say that the 2020 election was not stolen?

SCALISE: Or they said there was no standard. They’re – some of them they didn’t reject some of those (INAUDIBLE) standing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes or no, was the 2020 election stolen?

SCALISE: What I’ve told you is Joe Biden’s the president of the United States…..

Election deniers play to the under-educated part of the Republican Party. We have witnessed what happens when elected party members, who play such dangerous partisan games, pretend they are not aware of the facts, and push lies to further bind the base to them.  Such reckless disregard for democratic norms has turned much of the conservative base of the GOP into doubting the rationale for the grand jury system, the Justice Department, the credibility of the FBI, and a bevy of other institutions and norms in our society. So, it is incumbent on the ones who are tethered to facts and a strong sense of the underpinnings of our democracy to press down and not relent, as in the case of a journalist not giving an inch with Scalise.

It was most evident that Scalise was trying to squirm his way out of addressing the direct question, as he knew the truth that President Biden did win a fair and free election in 2020. (His squirming and trying to add other topics was painful to watch, and as it did not address the directly posed question is not included in the above transcript.) It was also most apparent, that Stephanopoulos was never going to move on to another topic until Scalise answered the unambiguous question, which proved sadly impossible for the shameless congressman.

Reporters and journalists nationwide have a duty to hold true to our democratic foundations and ideas. Not relenting on a fundamental question as to the 2020 election not having been stolen goes to the very essence of who we are as a nation. If officeholders can not and will not lift themselves up to the level of honesty and credibility demanded of those who sit in power, then reporters have a professional duty to show the nation the partisan absurdity.

I grew up (starting at age 12 when we had a television in our home) with Walter Cronkite. He not only had the voice and demeanor of a newsman but also, as I was to discover over the years as I read books about him, and explored the nature of news in our country, that he spoke a fundamental truth.

Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.

George Stephanopoulos was doing the very work that Cronkite championed. America says thanks. Even though the result from the Republican election denier was painful to watch.

Did CNN Have Duty To Be Responsible To American Democracy?

The fallout over the decision by CNN to place Donald Trump in a town hall session has continued to reverberate in media circles and among politicos.  It seems fair to ask why a major news network felt it was first newsworthy to air such a broadcast, and secondly wise to place on the national airwaves a person who created and led the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol and continues to stoke and to spew dangerous lies about the 2020 election.  Growing up in the era of news anchors such as Walter Cronkite and reporters such as David Brinkley I was aware when young the role of journalists in pursuing and broadcasting a story of national importance. But I also came to understand that standards meeting the needs of a democracy must also be observed and abided by.  

I recall in an interview decades ago Cronkite was asked if he and his brethren in the television broadcast world along with the editors of the major newspapers in the nation set the list of events and topics that then became the top stories of the day.  He said that the events of the day either in our nation or worldwide earned their own merit for attention by reporters and then the public. In other words, news is news.  It happens and it is reported.  The fact that CBS or The New York Times reports on a plane crash or a senator taking a bride does not make the story weightier or more important to people needing to know the safety concerns of airlines or the character of elected officials.

But what happens when a news operation creates an event and presents it as important knowing that in the mix of the broadcast, everything from ratings and ad buys to a tidal wave of competing frothy political sentiments and emotions will result from the self-generated mix?  Additionally, the center of attention to the created event is known to lie and use media outlets without regard for reason or common sense.  Even to the extreme of using media to further an insurrection and seditious intent.  At that point, would any news operation wish to be a conveyance—a national loudspeaker, if you will—to such a person who has proven to act in violation of the national trust?

For the record, I did not watch the CNN spectacle, knowing that news broadcasts and the morning papers would allow me the background on what transpired.  It was not shocking to learn that Trump made several outright lies and pressed down on them, allowing the viewing public another opportunity to be misled via the public airwaves.  I am reminded that a denial never has the newsworthiness of an accusation.  Trump is a master at the bald-faced lie, and news operations, by their very mission, should not allow themselves to be manipulated by such a demagogue. Worse, creating the event themselves!

The counterargument that has been expressed by those wishing to rationalize the CNN decision is that the viewing public is capable of watching such a manufactured broadcast and making up their own mind about what unfolded.  That is poppycock, as there is an entire ‘news’ network catering to conservatives which amply proves daily—hourly, in fact—that when people are provided red meat and heavy rhetoric in lieu of facts there is nothing to be gained but a foundation of biased views. 

Did CNN have a duty to be responsible to American democracy? Or should they be viewed as just another entity with a bottom line that needs to be fed and a bevy of personalities who need to be stroked?   As a staunch supporter of reporters and journalists, I ask these questions in a serious way. I contend there must be a national hard-nosed dialogue on this matter. Reporters and news operations need to confront in their board meetings and editorial gatherings what responsibility they must shoulder so a demagogue cannot undermine our democracy due to some in the press willfully cooperating to the damage.

I am most confident about what side of the divide Walter Cronkite would ask us to find ourselves on with this matter. He would argue reporting and democracy are linked tightly together.  The Fourth Estate is required so a strong democracy can continue.  Autocrats and demagogues who threaten democracy will also lead to a weakened place for reporters to do their jobs.  

The CNN town hall is worthy of a very robust national discourse. Both in the press and among the people.

SpaceX Rocket Explosion Sad, Elon Musk To Be Thanked

I am sad to see this news. But thankful for Elon Musk for his determination to challenge space.

The SpaceX Starship explodes after launch for a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023. – The rocket successfully blasted off at 8:33 am Central Time (1333 GMT). The Starship capsule had been scheduled to separate from the first-stage rocket booster three minutes into the flight but separation failed to occur and the rocket blew up. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

After liftoff, SpaceX’s Starship exploded midair on the first launch attempt. The most powerful rocket ever constructed was uncrewed. Yes, I get the reason some feel a puckishness about Elon Musk’s social media giant, and thus why some are saying, well, what we know they are saying over the past several hours. But not at this desk. I champion space exploration and cheer advances in discovery no matter from what quarter it comes. I have done so since a boy when the Apollo crews were my heroes, back in the days when heroes acted like heroes. I recall as a boy I even tried to walk with that certain gait seen as astronauts took their proud steps to the capsule entrance for their mission.

I believe that Musk has the thirst for answers about space that many share, but he gets rebuked about his space plans due to the fact he has the means to experiment and ponder things on an actual launch pad. In the glare of public success or failure. Such abilities often foment jealousy. Musk could just hide his money and not perform a greater benefit to the world, but instead has anted up and demonstrated a willingness to challenge space.

While fully aware that space exploration has always had dangers and setbacks, we always plowed forwards, and I know this today will be seen as a learning moment, too. I can hear Walter Cronkite if here to see this turn of events today, say something akin to this last line of the post. The darkness of space will be lit by humans with our curious natures and determined drive to overcome today’s event.

Walter Cronkite As Radio Show Actor In WWII, Reporter Showing Journalism’s Push For Democracy

One of the joys of this blog is to divert off the front-page headlines of the morning newspaper into a topic that warms my heart.

From Chapter Seven of Cronkite, Douglas Brinkley’s perfectly-toned biography about ‘Uncle’ Walter comes this nugget.

Cronkite and legendary Edward Murrow remain heroes to me. The nostalgic history of radio and the role it made for itself with news reporting from Europe during World War II is among the best pages to be studied from the late 1930s and into the 1940s.

The role of radio broadcasters in the war zones was as much about giving the American public the facts of the military campaign, but also to bouy the mood of the public. Driving home the need to understand reporters were helping uphold democracy was also stressed.

That was the role Cronkite added when he played a part in the radio series Soldiers of the Press.

Here then is Program #27: United Press syndication, World lateral transcription. “Dry Martini”. U.P. correspondent Walter Cronkite’s story from a U.S. bomber base in England.

Ronald Reagan’s Patriotism No Longer Part Of Republican Party

As we approach the first anniversary of the insurrection and rioting at the United States Capitol, which was fomented by Donald Trump and his strategists and carried out by his thuggish supporters, I thought about another political event from the Republican Party.

Though it occurred in 1980 and was vastly different from the January 6, 2021 events of death, bloodshed, and attacks on law enforcement shown on national television, it does lend itself to better understanding the gravity of the situation today. Our democracy is under attack.

I recall the excitement from July 1980 when CBS’ Walter Cronkite interviewed former President Gerald Ford. There was an electrifying buzz that reached from the convention hall to the home in Hancock where I was thrilled by the unfolding political drama. It was broadly speculated that Ronald Reagan had selected Ford as his vice-presidential running mate. The constitutional questions were talked about among correspondents and guests concerning Ford reportedly wanting more authority than any other vice president had ever been given.

That episode remains the most exciting convention moment of my life, which also underscores the diminishing role such gatherings play in the presidential nomination process.

That memory, however, also serves as a reminder of what the Republican Party once was, the timber of the people center stage who wished to serve and be elected. No one doubted the patriotic mindset of Reagan, the moderate and process-minded character of Ford. So much since then has changed in the Republican Party that it now can be reported with a vivid image of what that party now represents.

This is how The Economist framed the issue.

The Republican Party has been consumed by grievance politics–recall how conservatives once used that term on liberals and swore to be above such behavior? The modern GOP also has proven to have a stunning degree of swallowing capacity for conspiracy theories.

True to form they have continued to attack Jews, be it George Soros or an outlandish notion of space lasers used by Jews to start forest fires. In the process, the party has catered to a base of voters not concerned with institutional norms, and let’s be frank, not the ones completing the reading assignments in civics or history classes.

The issue at hand, the survival of our democracy, should not be a partisan contest. Tax policy, education funding, and transportation infrastructure can and should create partisan coalitions. But the procedure for counting Electoral College votes, the availability of places to cast a ballot without undue burdens, the need for an end to gerrymandered political districts, and not placing in statutes undemocratic restrictions to fundamental rights should all be broadly accepted.

But, as we sadly are all too aware, they are not.

The Big Lie about a ‘stolen election’ that Trump spawned and continues to repeat has found a wide range of converts within the GOP. The threat of more violence in the years ahead from those who might lose an election is a very plausible possibility. Especially, if the laws and penalties for taking such actions, like that occurring almost a year ago, are not put into effect.

There was plenty of room to argue with Reagan in the 1980s over policy moves regarding unions, tax cuts, and massive defense spending. But no one doubted for a nanosecond that Reagan was not immersed in the love of country and abiding faith in democracy. When was the first time anyone accused Trump of being like-minded?

Today, the Republican Party has reversed course on many philosophical underpinnings that were at their core (free trade and international alliances), and instead openly and deeply embraces an autocrat who shuns morals and openly cheats and lies. How far removed the Republican Party is from the days of Ronald Reagan.

Let us be honest, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford would find it hard to even be elected delegates to a national Republican convention today. Much less be national nominees.

And so it goes.

Space Travel Takes A Most Important Step, Thank You Jeff Bezos

What a grand day in our nation. Jeff Bezos did what he said he would do. He went into space in a short journey of 65 miles in a spacecraft that was built by his company.

For history buffs and lovers of space this was a mighty fine date to have this happen.

On July 20, 1969, two American astronauts landed on the moon and became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface.

This morning a rocket, while not really resembling the ones which launched my childhood heroes into space, still produced that deep sense of awe within me. Today’s rocket and capsule were called New Shepard after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. The connection of the dreamers of today with those who helped pave our original thrust into space is a sign of respect. But also a grounded determination to make great strides likes those brave men who climbed on top of rockets of flame in the 1960s.

We have all heard the constant carping and backbiting about Bezos and his company, Blue Origin. We have heard the litany of reasons that we should scorn the man for being rich, or using his money to exert ourselves into space with a commercial edge. While I have read and listened to such commentary for a long time, I simply disagree. After all, I was reading as a teenager the reasons why space program dollars should have been used for a list of other purposes. Such arguments were wrong then, as they are today.

Human nature is to explore, to learn, to know.

I applaud the decades-long effort of Bezos to reach upward and out and into space. I am confident his work will be a real stepping-stone to advancing our further exploration of space. As a boy who lived the pretend life of an astronaut in 1969, and watching over the decades since as satellites and rovers expand our reach I can say with enthusiasm how thrilled I am today.

I am filled with pride in our nation for producing a private citizen like Bezos, who was schooled to know that unlimited dreams can come true. I also feel deep optimism this is but another step in our desire to be space-bound. What happened today will engage others and drive our curious nature further to better know and understand the heavens.

The same lift of spirit and imagination over the space program that impacted me as a boy (thanks to Walter Cronkite’s narration) surely has struck many a kid today who watched in homes around the country as New Shepard made a dandy performance. That infusion of hope and wonder is priceless for the country.

We are all winners today. Even if some can not acknowledge it.

And so it goes.