NewsLanc is both heartened and excited about today’s issue of the Sunday News due to: (1) The in-depth coverage of the nature and the issues surrounding Lancaster City’s surveillance cameras; (2) The announcement of an “Inside Story Unit…to report on issues of broad public concern, shedding light on controversial issues, exposing wrongdoing and providing solutions to community problems.”
The news articles by Mary Beth Schweigert and Chip Smedley were both thorough and balanced. Clearly they were the result of many times the usual amount of preparation.
And the concept of the “Inside Story Unit” is remarkable only in the sense that this is the work that newspapers in democracies throughout the world had traditionally performed. And, if the local print media is to survive, it is a path that The Lancaster Newspapers and others must again follow.
Many have recognized that the news articles, features and commentaries at NewsLanc are far more relevant to what concerns Lancastrians, as contracted with the newspapers that take the easy and cheap path of crime reporting. (NewsLanc now averages well over 5,000 readers a week, with current figures estimated around 7,000 thanks to newsletter distribution at the Barnstormers games. Our success is largely due to our many contributors. NewsLanc is as much of a public forum as it is a news site.)
As much as we welcome a commitment by The Lancaster Newspapers intent to turn to serious investigatory reporting, we are skeptical that, under advertising, social and current leadership constraints, they will be able to do it.
Will they objectively report on major advertisers?
Will they criticize and possibly send to jail friends and acquaintances with whom they have grown up, socialize, and serve together on so many community organizations?
Are they prepared to shine a light on their own unethical journalistic behavior over past years?
If NewsLanc owned The Lancaster Newspapers, we would immediately put Ernie Schreiber and two journalists capable of reporting (rather than just writing down what they are told) on a team and set them loose, with a promise of no holds barred. But first we would print a front page editorial apologizing for past biases and conflicts of interest, and vow to avoid them in the future.
Would this be altruistic? Heck no. It would be to breathe life into a dying institution and once again make it relevant for subscribers and advertisers. If the papers continue in their current cost cutting and bland direction, none of them will exist in another ten or fifteen years.
For the well being of our community, that is a prospect we hope never takes place! Rather, we want The Lancaster Newspapers to regain the prestige and glory of past stewardships.
Bulls—.. These aren’t balanced articles at all, and LNP is incredibly conflicted given its financial backing of LCSC and the Convention Center. Very little mention of any opposition–it read like a marketing piece for LCSC.
I beg to differ with your evaluation of these stories. With some exceptions, they read like a promotional piece for the LCSC. These articles appear to be nothing more than an attempt to convince the general public to support the surveillance cameras.
I agree with Anonymous that this is a commercial for LCSC. Just the way they describe the capabilities of the cameras,”License Plate or Wisps of Smoke from a Fire” how about what book you’re reading, or exactly who you’re with, or where you enter, or which rebellious T-shirt you’re wearing, or what CD you just bought. They also forgot to mention the last part of the 1967 Katz-vs-US, What one seeks to conceal as private, even in an area accessible to the public, can be constitutionally protected, by the 4th amendment. Any invasion of privacy these cameras are abusing, they would not reveal. This is serious, because the rest of the country will soon fall under this specific type of surveillance if we do not get them taken down now! Protest 8-29, 1:00, Farnum Park.
The bottom line is that anyone/business that is capable of purchasing advertising in the paper or can benefit LNP will not have any real investigative reporting.