Jeff Whitten

Local Columnist

The results of a rather sobering survey from the Pew-Knight Foundation by way of Editor and Publisher Magazine popped into my email inbox the other day.

In short, it said only 8 percent of Americans “say people have a responsibility to pay for news.” I am not surprised.

The survey, by the way, involved more than 3,500 people of various ages and education levels, political stripes and so on. College graduates and upper income folks were more likely to think news should be paid for, with 14 percent saying Americans have a responsibility to do so. Eleven percent of Democrats said the same, while only 5 percent of Republicans felt it was important.

In the meantime, 92 percent of us Americans, as represented by the sample of 3,500 people anyway, gave various reasons for why they don’t think there’s a responsibility to pay for news. Someone reportedly said news isn’t privileged information. If it is important enough to report, i.e., important enough to be called news (fake or real, one assumes) then it should be freely available to all.

While I find all that stuff interesting enough, not being a bean counter having to worry about paying for stuff, what really stood out to me was Pew research that showed more than half – 52 percent – of folks in the study are “worn out,” by the amount of news coming at them. I include myself in that number. At the same time, many believe it’s important to both stay informed and make sure the news they’re getting is accurate.

Seems most of us have more confidence in our ability to do that than we do in other’s ability to do the same.

And while it isn’t necessarily related, I recently read that 1 in 5 adults, or 20 to 23 percent, in the U.S. experience mental illness every year.

I personally do not think any of us are sane, except for maybe that 20 to 23 percent.

**** A buddy of mine wants to rename Richmond Hill to Cement City. I am not opposed. For one thing, it sort of encapsulates what’s happening to the place.

For another, it sounds better than Toad Suck, which is a real place in Arkansas, and there was a Cement City in Washington at one point, but it has since been renamed Concrete. So there’s precedent.

Also, according to some free sites online, Michigan has some odd names for some of its towns: Colon, Brown City and Flushing. Gracious. I think somebody up there should name a town Commode. Or Burrito. Or both.

And, the other day I saw a giant skink climb a tree. At least I hope it was a skink.

**** I will never get elected to anything because I am funny looking. So are most politicians, I’m afraid, but they tend to have the gift of gab. I do not have the gift of gab.

I do have an enormous head, and it used to be smarter than it is now, or think it was, anyway.

Nowadays, I am convinced only that I know about as much as a bug-eating newt.

But I do think we might ought to rethink this nonsense where we let people who want to be in office have a crack at it, since anybody who wants to be in charge is probably up to something they shouldn’t be.

So why not empanel what is in essence a giant grand jury of experts in various fields every year to look at issues and projects and things that need to get done and let them get it done? This could work at the national, state and local level, I believe.

Sure, there are details to be worked out, but anything at this point would be an improvement over what we’re getting force fed nowadays.

****

I am reading “The Earth is All that Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the Last Stand of the Great Sioux Nation,” by Mark Lee Gardner. It’s a great book, though profoundly sad. One thing I have long thought, despite all my complaining about people moving down here and clogging up traffic, is that the only folks who really have a right to gripe about transplants are Native Americans. The rest of us are basically descended from illegal immigrants.

Funny how things change. When I was a kid I used to pull for the cowboys in those western movies and TV shows some of us older folks watched. These days I find myself rooting for the Indians, especially since I know how it turns out.

**** Thanks to those of you who do pay for news. It helps keep the lights on. Newsrooms face an uphill battle on multiple fronts, one of which is attrition and shrinking resources. When I started at the BCN back in 2006 we increased the news staff to three reporters, two freelance sportswriters and there were two ad reps and the great Woody Hansford, the legal clerk, receptionist and in my mind conscience of the paper. She kept me straight.

Now, there are two full time employees at the BCN. Editor Andrea Gutierrez and ad rep Jada Strickland. And that’s it. Everything else falls to freelancers. At the same time, the community has probably doubled (tripled?) in size.

Now retired, Whitten is a former editor of the Bryan County News.