SMALL TOWN NEWSPAPERS LONG AGO SOLD OUT THEIR COMMUNITIES

Political Propaganda Is Not Limited To Big City “Journalism”

This writer worked for the school newspaper when I was in grad school.  I still remember something the editor told me:

“You will always have more information than newspaper space allows.  The most important facts will be those that you choose to leave out.” 

What she meant by that remark was that an article can be colored by the facts that are put in and by those that are left out.  For example, if the writer wants to portray a person as bad, he omits the fact that the person adopted two special needs children.  If the writer wants to paint a person as good, he leaves out his two felony convictions.  If the “journalist” is dishonest, it is real easy to manipulate the facts.  The media has been doing this for as long as I can remember, and with each succeeding year they have become ever more dishonest in their mission to promote Democrats and Democrat policies, regardless the harm this causes. 

It has long been obvious, very obvious, that the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the Oregonian, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, and virtually every big city newspaper is horribly biased, hiding facts to help Liberals, pushing Democrat propaganda and lying about Republicans.  They provide "news" through the lens of whatever the Democrat narrative of the day is.  But, what about small town newspapers?

ARE SMALL TOWN NEWSPAPERS AS BIASED AS BIG CITY NEWSPAPERS?

In the not-too-distant past, small town newspapers were owned by human beings who actually lived in the community, cared about the community and wanted the best for their neighbors.  For most small towns that era is long gone. 

Small town newspapers, especially in Blue States, are now owned by big corporations, headquartered miles away, usually in another state, and they behave like a public relations firm for Democrats.  Editors are not free to make their own decisions.  They must follow the dictates of their corporate bosses.  This bias manifests itself in many ways, some very obvious but some hidden, such as omitting facts to color a story or create a false narrative. 

ELECTIONS BRING OUT BLATANT DISHONESTY

Our little beach community is in the Third Congressional District of Washington State.*  Our long time GOP congresswoman, Jaime Herrera-Beutler, lost the primary, mainly because she voted to impeach President Trump.  There are two novices competing for her seat:  Republican Joe Kent and Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez. 

The only newspaper in our community, the Chinook Observer, has published numerous articles about this race.  They don’t even pretend to be fair and neutral to the candidates.  The articles fawn all over Perez and spew out the standard manure about Kent: “white supremacist,” “extremist,” “racist,” blah, blah, blah.

In July, Joe Kent held a town hall here.  Despite the fact that there was no advance notice in the newspaper and no fliers, 30 people attended.  I asked the editor why he didn’t send a reporter to cover the event and publish an article.  His response:  “Campaign stops of this nature are little but efforts to generate free publicity.  I don't   .   .   .   . consider them sufficiently newsworthy.” 

HOWEVER, in October the Democrat candidate held a town hall here.  Not only did the Chinook Observer print advance notice, they sent a reporter who then wrote an article about it.  Based upon the photo printed in the newspaper there were no more than 15 attendees.

Kent returned to our community last week, and held two more town halls.  Unlike how they helped the Democrat candidate, the newspaper did not provide advance notice.  Nevertheless, the town hall this writer attended had about 50 attendees, far exceeding attendance at the Democrat’s town hall.

It is not my intention to rag on the Chinook Observer.  I am merely using it as an example of why & how many small town newspapers no longer serve the needs of their local communities.  Corporate media is mainly interested in pushing their political agendas, from their executive suites hundreds of miles away from their small town readers.**

WRONG QUESTION: ARE YOU A DEMOCRAT OR AN AMERICAN? RIGHT QUESTION: ARE YOU A USEFUL IDIOT, AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE OR AN AMERICAN?

*Washington’s Third Congressional District consists of the southwestern counties bordering the Columbia River: Pacific, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, Skamania & Klickitat, as well as Lewis and a very small part of Thurston.  It stretches from two rural counties east of Vancouver, the largest city, to the Pacific Ocean. 

** My husband & I moved to this small beach community in Washington State in December 2020; therefore, 2022 is the first election year we have lived here.  I have become acquainted with the editor of the local paper, the Chinook Observer, because I research and write articles about Lewis & Clark, and he has published some of them.  L&C are a BIG deal on this peninsula because they arrived at the Pacific Ocean here in 1805.

The Chinook Observer and the Daily Astorian (just across the Columbia River in Astoria, Oregon) are owned by EO Media which is headquartered 157 miles away in Salem, Oregon.  EO Media owns 15 small town newspapers in Washington & Oregon.  I first noticed the bias in both newspapers in the way they deal with Letters to the Editor.  I had never seen such nastiness.

If the Letter writer's thoughts run counter to the Leftist agenda, censorship is applied.  There are three ways this is accomplished: 1) The Letter isn't published.  2) The Letter is published with massive edits that delete the facts which back up the writer's opinion.  3) If it is published without editing, there is an editor's note at the end that suggests the writer is an idiot or liar.  This embarrasses Letter writers and discourages non-Liberals from freely expressing themselves.

Some of EO Media’s current verboten topics:  2020 election irregularities-when presented with FACTS they can’t run away fast enough.  Critical Race Theory.  Transgendering children.  Mild criticism of Biden's POLICIES is allowed, but one may NOT mention the money he has received from China, Russia, Ukraine, etc.  Calling Trump a Putin puppet IS allowed, however.  Columnists & Letter writers STILL maintain Russia stole the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. Ha! Ha!

This writer grew up in the Wenatchee Valley (in Washington State) on the banks of the mighty Columbia River.  As a teenager, my cousin worked for the Wenatchee World newspaper part time.  At that time, it was owned by a family that lived in the valley.  The Wenatchee World is now owned by Wick Communications, a corporation headquartered 1,527 miles away in Sierra Vista, AZ, on the Mexican border.  This corporation owns 27 newspapers in 11 states, but just this one in Washington State.  What, oh what, do the executives on the Mexican border know about Americans living in the Wenatchee Valley??