HEGWOOD LAWGROUP Trusts | Estates | Probate | Elder Law | Family
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
950 Gemini Street, Suite 6 | Houston, TX | 77058
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1 Is It Safe for Our Kids to Be in School Yet?
2 Streaming Services Change Entertainment
Celebrating Coffee With a Few World-Famous Brands
3 The Truth Behind the 21st Night of September
Flourless Chocolate Mousse Cake
4 An Unforeseen ProblemWith the American Press
THE AMERICAN PRESS HAS A PROBLEM
U.S. president Thomas Jefferson once described American democracy and the Constitution as an “experiment” in an 1804 letter to John Tyler Washington: “No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust ... that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual ... is the freedom of the press. It is ... the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions." Today, if you say the press provides “reason and truth,” you might be met with scoffs on all sides. Issues with the modern-day press, in many ways, have become a surprisingly bipartisan issue. Whether you get your news from print, the radio, Facebook, or even Snapchat — and no matter what your political leaning may be — you likely have so much access to news everywhere that your need for local news has diminished over the years.
Now, over 1,200–1,400 communities that had their own newspaper in 2004 do not have a newspaper at all. The Hussman School of
Journalism and Media explains that half of the 3,143 counties in the country only have one newspaper, which is typically a small weekly that barely covers its various communities. Almost 200 counties in the country do not have a newspaper at all, and those are often the poorest, least educated, and most isolated communities of them all. The biggest challenge of these “news deserts” is creating a journalistic model that can sustain and scale upward in the 21st century. In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black once said, “The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.” And this is truer now than ever. The importance of the press still stands. There are no easy answers, but it is certainly one aspect of the First Amendment to think about on Constitution Day. We hope you enjoyed this little dive into the potential future of small newspapers, and we hope you read one to celebrate your democracy!
This is a problem the forefathers could not have predicted.
HEGWOOD LAW GROUP
4
Published by The Newsletter Pro • www.TheNewsletterPro.com
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online