Dennis Culloton, President and CEO

At the risk of sound like my father, I told you so!

I’ve bemoaned in this space before about the decline of newspapers and the media in general. While the media has certainly been a thorn in the side of various clients over the years, the value of journalism at it’s best is the Watchdog role. The movie “Spotlight” portrays the dogged efforts of the Boston Globe investigative team to unearth the scandal in the Catholic Church. Watching those reporters operate circa 2001-2002 seems anachronistic today.

Today’s Poynter column by our friend Jim Warren asks the question: What if a vigorous media had covered local government in Flint, Michigan, where families and children were exposed to lead-tainted water for nearly a year? But the massive changes visited upon the news media by technology and the economy have decimated local news coverage.

It’s heartening to see investigations by new digital media concerns like Buzzfeed, but this commitment is the exception not the rule. It’s not too late to save ourselves folks. Support your local news media. That means paying for your content on-line or in this thing called a newspaper. Freedom isn’t free.