ARCHBOLD WEATHER

NEWSPAPERS – THE ORIGINAL COMMUNITY FORUM


 

 

This is National Newspaper Week, the time each year when we celebrate the importance of the press in our society.

Of course, there are those who say newspapers don’t have a role anymore. They argue our role is now taken over by social media.

Social media is basically an unregulated, unmitigated free-for-all, where anyone can say pretty much anything without fear of repercussion or reprisal. Want to say someone eats dirt and howls at the moon? Social media is the place to do it.

Newspapers can’t simply make stuff up, because they work within the confines of the laws of libel. Saying someone eats dirt and howls at the moon in print is a sure ticket into a courtroom. What you read in the newspaper has to be backed up by basic reporting.

What does that mean? It means what you read in print can be trusted to be a fair report of what happened in a particular incident, not somebody’s flippant comment or uninformed remark.

You can trust what you read in print. Can you do the same in social media?

Support your local news. In return, it will give you news you can trust.