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Show CDITOniAU Lccaincoc And The World A recent Issue of Publisher Auxiliary carried aa editorial that make common sense to us. It makes common sense to us because we see eye to eye with the type of journalism it preaches, preach-es, and after all when anyone agrees with you that seems to make sense. Anyway Publishers' Auxiliary takes a look at local news, and in words that would have been considered blasphemous by weekly newspaper editors a few short years ago, and incidentally a few today, define local news in the light of what local means in this atomic age. Here is what the Auxiliary says: "Successful Farming magazines, maga-zines, of Des Moines reported recently on a survey covering a cross-section of 6,000,000 American Ameri-can farmers, disclosing that 52 per cent of them had never heard of the Marshall Plan. And of the 48 per cent who had heard about it, only 11 per cent had an entirely correct conception. "It isn't fair to place full responsibility re-sponsibility for this situation on the heads of weekly newspaper publishers, because modern farm-era farm-era are also exposed to daily papers, radio and magazines. JfeYertheless the survey does open op-en to honest question the attitude atti-tude prevalent among too many weekly editors that their papers should be concerned solely with what they call "local news." "Just what constitutes 'local news?' In a fast moving, highly technical age when events in Washington and abroad send their echoes instantly to several thousand Main Streets, can it be stated truly that the day-to-day surface affairs of community life constitute the only source of local lo-cal news? "How about high Federal taxes and their influence on local economy? Or the Marshall Plan's effect on agricultural production produc-tion in your country? Or food rationing, housing legislation, farm subsidies, export controls ad price controls can you as an editor assert honestly that there isn't an important local angle in stories on any such national na-tional or world subjects? "When polls like that of Successful Suc-cessful Farming reveal such a tragic lack of public understanding understand-ing about major issues, it very naturally and rightfully reflects discredit on the press of America. Ameri-ca. We're not doing our job, and it's probably because we expect newspaper readers to do for themselves the task of interpreting, interpret-ing, analyzing and bringing into i personal focus such develop-, ments as the Marshall Plan. "We had better start remembering remem-bering that the average reader is by nature too indifferent, or else too busy, to bring such abstract ab-stract issues into personal focus. Our opportunity and duty is to do it for him," The economic and social life of rural communities communities com-munities like Roosevelt and ten thousand more is no longer gauged by the hcJghth of a neighbor's fence or the conversations conver-sations that take place along Main Street. Every move in the nation s capitoi, ana many moves in other capitols of the world have a direct bearing upon what the dwellers in rural communities communi-ties will be doing tomorrow. And although we should like to believe be-lieve that the most important news is the fact that Mrs. So-and-So had a severe cold last week or that Mr. Whoseit's new Holstein cow had a calf days before yesterday, we cannot kid ourselves into something that we know is not true, in this an age of world shaking events. The day when a rural community commun-ity grew from the fertile soil of a local economy and thrived because be-cause of an energetic local social life is as dead as the dinosaurs that once lumbered across the Uintah Basin. So we agree with Publishers' Auxiliary, that "events in Washington Wash-ington and abroad send their echoes Instantly to several thousand thou-sand Main Streets." And although al-though everyone of these events take place several thousand miles from the corner of Main and Lagoon Streets the certain effect ef-fect that they will have on the local folks is to us "local news." |