Spring cleaning

Spring is a time of renewal, new hope and new ideas. It’s also a time to shake up our existing notions of how our communities operate.
Let’s start with your local newspaper, and let’s look at a notion that may need more “shaking up” than most. We believe the public realm lacks curiosity. Our public discourse these days is filled with certainty. Politicians and civic leaders (not always the same thing) make forceful statements that seem intended to reassure us, but may just confuse and obfuscate.
Even newspaper letter writers (and editorialists) do it. How many weeks-long battles have played out on these pages, with passionate letters and commentaries declaring that the hospital/airport/development/project/candidate is unassailably good or unbelievably bad?
Declaring emphatically that some new thing is bad (or good) might help us make sense of the pace of change, but it doesn’t encourage critical thinking and other points of view.
And, at this newspaper, we are endlessly curious about your point of view. It’s our job. If you imagine a scale, with certainty at one end, surely curiosity must be at the other. Finding the right point on that scale, finding the proper balance between curiosity and certainty, is the work of all of us, especially newspapers.
It’s our job to ask questions, and we know that we can be annoying, with our long memories and insistent queries.
But, who else will ask if building the new whatever (or tearing down the old whatever) will be good for the community? Who else will ask about the impact on the neighborhood? Who else will ask if it will help students learn and excel? Who else will ask about the cost to the taxpayers?
And, who else will explain it to you in a few hundred words, on a few dozen pages, week after week?
We live in that balance between certainty and curiosity. Every question, every story, every editorial, has to bob along in the river of curiosity (How else are you going to find out about the skeleton in the closet?) and then face the demand for certainty (we have to get this right!) that our readers expect and deserve.
Our spring cleaning ritual – examining our notions and challenging our assumptions – has to happen every week, and we invite you to join us.
What idea do you have about this newspaper that might need to be shaken a bit? Do you think we oppose that local government, institution or idea that shows up on the front page more than its leaders want? We don’t oppose it, but we see it from a different perspective than those who support it no matter what. That scrutiny can feel uncomfortable, but it’s necessary.
Do you think we’re pro-growth, or anti-growth? We’re neither, but we’re asking questions: what does this mean? If it’s approved (or denied), then what? Who will benefit? Who will be damaged? Why does it matter?
Are we pro-anything? Does our chronic curiosity blind us to the fun and fancy of small towns? Nope. Check out the Easter egg hunts, youth sports and community celebrations in this week’s paper. Community journalism is – at its best – a chronicle of its community as well as a watchdog, and we embrace both roles.
There’s a memo that we hand to every new reporter and editor who joins our team. The first paragraph reads like this: “As reporters, we are expected to be able to perform high quality work on tight deadlines covering a wide range of topics and juggling many tasks. Reporters are expected to be many things, but most significantly, all reporters need to be reliable, accurate and observant.”
Our spring cleaning never stops and it focuses on keeping ourselves and our communities honest, always balancing curiosity and certainty.
— Ray Holley