Letters to the Editor

Gwyn Lurie’s Editorial, “Wreck-Quiem for the Santa Barbara News-Press” (MJ August 3-10) should be required reading for every high school Civics class in the land.

It captures the infinite value of “The Third Estate” (sic), as journalists and newspapers were once called. It describes in fearsome detail what happens when there are no gatekeepers watching over the local happenings – the polluted drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, being a perfect example.

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I had also read the article in The New Yorker about the McCurtain Gazette, in Oklahoma, “A small-town paper sizes up the county sheriff.” I applauded its courage and determination to get to the truth of a story and the ugly croneyism/ corruption that would have gone undisturbed had it not been for this amazing short-staffed local paper. And I wonder about the deceit, the duplicity, the human-interest stories, the “shared set of facts,” that hundreds of towns have missed without a daily paper.

Mr. Buckley notes that the failure of a newspaper is a matter of indifference. It’s much worse. It’s a matter of ignorance with years and years of underfunded public education! Critical thinking, that invaluable skill of an educated person, is not only rare, but is now under attack! Too many people are simply unconscious of what is lost when their news is what they read at the end of a 30-second thumb scroll. And too many are perfectly content to submit to the masses of misinformation that flood the internet. Depth of content, fact-based analysis, and nuance are increasingly rare commodities.

When my family arrived to Los Angeles in 1947, one of the first things they did was to subscribe to The Herald Express and to the South Gate Press, in a suburb of L.A. At age 9, I don’t remember reading much more than the funnies, which was a great way of learning English, but I remember my parents reading these papers daily when their English language skills were far from proficient. It was understood that you couldn’t learn to become a citizen without being informed, even before they became citizens!

I hope Mr. Roberts’ guarded optimism about post-daily newspaper organizations comes true and that honest journalism, critical thinking, and a more informed citizenry can still emerge. I fervently hope that the “dangers of living in a world where power goes unchecked” does not come to pass.

Josie Levy Martin

For years, Santa Barbara News-Press had a regular Guest Opinion commentator. His long columns appeared frequently, except last year’s when the opinion section of the paper was only on Sundays. His opinions dealt with politics be it local, state, national, or international, and always leaned heavily to the right. I read his opinions and mentally always disagreed.

One column dated December 2014 dealt with Michael Brown and Eric Garner and obedience to government authority. This time, I wrote a letter to the editor strongly disagreeing with his logic. OMG! A few days later, he wrote a long essay questioning my wisdom and patriotism. He also involved my husband and used our names freely. My friends and family thought it was amusing and I was going to reply, but my husband said, “Do not pick a fight with someone who buys printer ink by the gallon,” so we just canceled our subscription that we had since 1970.

Danute Handy Santa Barbara

Journalism is a guardian of the public interest. ‘Nuff said.

Maybe the former News-Press building can be converted into a combination transition center for the homeless and an “annex” office for the police department? Hmm... Crazy, no?

And maybe both the Journal and the Indy can hire the Press’s veteran reporters to fill the void in local news, and as a result become a twin-liaison reaching out to the larger