I started my reporting career near here, at the Whidbey News-Times, and being a nosey Washington native, I came to know something about Skagit County.
For example, I know the residents here need the La Conner Community News as much as they need parks and clean water. And I’ll give you two examples of ways they could lose those assets without the flashlights of local journalism.
A decade ago, the Kent City Council nearly sold a ten-acre park to a developer without proper notice. Two small papers had folded, which meant reporters weren’t watchdogging the city meetings as much. Neighbors spotted a sign at the park and blew the whistle to what was essentially a two-person newsletter. Then the story spread to The Seattle Times, and the sale was stopped.
Decades ago, a reporter at a small paper in rural North Carolina heard complaints about the area’s drinking water. She dug into it and discovered evidence of unhealthy levels of carcinogens in the water system. Local officials had known about the danger for years. After publicizing it, she ran into resistance. Some business leaders tried to silence her. But on the streets, many others praised her. I talked to her after her newspaper received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and I could see why they won it.
Small community newspapers are shirt-sleeve operations, owned and staffed by sacrificing professionals, short on cash and long on dedication to their community and the craft. Sadly, they are more fragile these days, with papers in general dying at a rate of two a week. A recent Medill School of Journalism study found that more than 3,500 have folded in the last twenty years, stranding fifty million people in news deserts, which are communities without local media.
Don’t be a news desert.
Your paper is a non-profit gift to the community, with its civic and sports coverage, stories about kids, event calendars, police blotter, notifications of snow geese arriving and tulips blooming, planting tips, guest articles, and advocacy for everything from neighborliness to better parking.
Having worked the territory, I know the value of a community paper, as a mirror, watchdog, drop box for complaints, bulletin board and bullhorn. And in times of disaster, a potential life saver. I moved on to larger venues, ending my career as a national reporter. But I never lost my roots, or my mantra, “I am only just today learning how to do this job, and tomorrow I’ll get better at it.”
Journalism is a partnership. We, the readers and journalists, teach each other. For decades I remained an optimist because of all those people who brought us information, demanding change, and getting it. To cite a few examples, they blew the whistle on poorly built oil tankers, dangerous plutonium plants, and a U.S. Senator who was drugging and molesting women.
Great journalism saves lives. Real journalism is properly vetted and propaganda is invented. Compare the legacy of The New York Times versus the right-wing mouthpiece known as Fox News. The New York Times has won 145 Pulitzer Prizes. Fox News forked over a record-breaking settlement for defaming Dominion Voting Systems with false claims about the 2020 election.
I’d say the La Conner Community News is in good hands. Throughout my career I was helped by talented writers like Kari Mar, this paper’s editor and publisher. In a partnership with the readers, a resource like hers can educate and knit a community together, both sides of the Swinomish Channel, the rich and the poor, tribal or recent.
I recall a time when the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner displayed the photographs of Wallie Funk, my first mentor and boss, the former co-owner of the Whidbey News-Times. He deeply understood his community and was a legend for using that knowledge to mesmerize people and lace them together.
I wish the same for Kari. Give her a hand, and financial support. It’ll be a bargain.
Eric Nalder along with colleagues at the Seattle Times received Pulitzer Prizes in National Reporting (1990) and Investigative Reporting (1997) and were finalists in Public Service (1993). He worked at the Whidbey News Times, Lynnwood Enterprise, Everett Herald, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times, Seattle Union Record, San Jose Mercury News and Hearst Newspapers. For most of his career, he was an investigative reporter.
