Last night I posted an item about how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing cigarette smoking in the rest of the world, going so far as to invoke trade agreements to overturn national laws that discourage smoking.
Today a number of major health-related companies, including the Health Care Service Corporation, the Steward Health Care System of Boston, the Indiana University Health System, and Anthem, one of the biggies, were upset to learn what the Chamber of Commerce is doing to promote smoking, a habit all of them are fighting. Today’s article in the business section indicated that changes are coming in response to that article.
Obviously officials from those companies didn’t read my blog. They read the article in the New York Times, same as me. They did not see it on Fox News, or MSNBC, or the Huffington Post, or Slate. They did not see it in a video onYou-Tube.
The information in that Times article took time to research, involved funding, needed support. Even regional newspapers devote reporter resources to in-depth stories. The Allentown Morning Call explained the Wolf veto the the Republican “Corbett” budget. The Lehighton Times News has done a good job on the Homanko case in which a police officer, acting like a cowboy, caused the death of a friend of mine.
I get so tired of people who announce: “I get my news from the internet. I don’t subscribe to a newspaper.” When newspapers are gone, and they do seem to be going, the American public will be even dumber than it is now. A lot dumber, if that’s possible.
I agree. People need to read newspapers. They take the time to do in depth reporting and asking the tough questions that need asking. TV news and the computer world just don't do as good a job as papers.
ReplyDeleteWe subscribe to two papers, I couldn't imagine not reading them. I think many people are just to lazy or can't be bothered by taking time to read. Good journalism is extremely important to democracy! Read papers and get educated and not just the celebrity junk.