Bob's Corner
National Newspaper Week is designated for next week: Monday, Oct. 7 through Saturday, Oct. 13. And I know that for the masses that ranks with National Wine Bottle Week and National Kiss A Toad Week.
But those of us in the Fourth Estate, well, we kind of like the recognition. It doesn’t put more cash in our tills or bigger numbers on payroll checks, but it’s nice to be recognized in any fashion other than irate phone calls and vitriolic letters that often are anonymous.
Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work, The Fourth Estate, made this observation: “In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the Estate General. The First Estate consisted of 300 clergy. The Second Estate, 300 nobles. The Third Estate, 600 commoners. Some years later, after the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, ‘Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all’.”
I know that some in the media have inflated egos and take themselves way too seriously. (I differentiate between the media -- encompassing radio, TV and newspapers -- and the press, which to me is comprised only of newspapers). Chauvinistic, I know, but after some 44 years in the press, what can I say? Anyway, it’s not that we don’t take our work seriously; it’s ourselves we make fun of.
This is not the first time, and it will not be the last, that I will say: Anyone who has not worked at a newspaper will not understand the how and why of what we do. So we do not try to explain to or argue with those who disagree with us on matters of content or placement. We listen, and take the commentary in stride; working to note it sincerely and keep it in mind for future reference.
If we are guilty of actual errors, we print corrections. It’s a fascinating endeavor, putting out a newspaper. You ought to try it. Oh, and Happy National Newspaper Week to all.
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(Editor’s Note: The following is by Steve Haynes, a N.W. Kansas newspaper publisher and president of the National Newspaper Association).
The front pages of our nation’s newspapers are more colorful and compelling than ever. From the smallest weekly to the largest city daily, action shots reach out to draw in readers.
We try our best to help you stay informed, even as you blog, GPS and phone-video your way through the world.
But while there’s plenty of interesting news in the front, I find the back of the paper even more important. The public notices in most newspapers appear in the classified section. In some states, that is because state law considers them classified ads. In others, it’s simply tradition. They’ve been there all our lives. Lewis and Clark used public notices. Most state constitutions were drawn up with the help of public notices.
Now they are so much part of our tradition that we sometimes forget them. They are part of the three-legged stool of democracy: open public meetings, public records, and public notices. They let us know about tax increases, zoning changes and property foreclosures -- when they are allowed to work.
Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire drew attention to these notices this year when she signed a bill requiring her governments -- state and local -- to resume using public notices to inform citizens. The law she signed is a reaction to a state Supreme Court decision involving the owners of a small business whose property in south Tacoma was condemned to make way for a train depot parking lot. The public notice provided by the transit authority was posted solely on its own Website. There it announced condemnation of private property. The property owners never saw the notice. They sued, but the Washington Supreme Court said notice on an obscure Website was enough.
The Legislature thought otherwise. It now requires notices to be mailed to property owners -- and a notice to be put back into the newspaper, where people will see it. As the state of Washington has acknowledged, people have a right to know. And notices are meant to be noticed.
Newspaper notices also help get people back together with something they have lost -- unclaimed property.
In most states, an unclaimed property fund exists in the state treasury for assets in long-forgotten bank accounts, uncollected insurance claims and personal property, all belonging to someone who has not yet found it or laid claim to it. Not surprisingly, some state governments happily sit on these assets. In the days of more vigorous newspaper notices, readers could pore over interesting catalogs of unfound heirs and uncashed checks -- and let their friends know of an unfound bounty. Today, in many states, notice of these funds has shrunk to a Website page buried in a state computer.
A federal judge in California has stepped into that state’s hoarding of these rich deposits. He stopped the state from continuing to rake in the contents of abandoned lockboxes and the like. He demanded a better effort by the state to find rightful owners. (The list of unclaimed property in that case included a Medal of Honor and Navy Cross awarded to a World War II hero buried in Arlington National Cemetery.)
One big problem with California’s program is the lack of newspaper lists of the property. The public’s right to know is served when we can see for ourselves what is going on. Other states should pay attention to this lesson of government accountability: a government Website doesn’t do the job.
The Internet is going to be an important channel for delivery of newspaper information. It also will help newspapers provide broader public notice. But the Internet must not become a tool of secrecy for governments.
Washington’s governor and Legislature understand this principle. The California judge knows visible public notice is important. Newspapers provide public notices week after week where people can see them, not locked away on some obscure Website.
That’s why so many readers are like me. We read newspapers from back to front.
