All the News That's Not

Remember the old riddle: What’s black and white and red (read) all over? Answer: the newspaper.

I’m old enough to remember when the Roanoke newspaper was indeed black and white. And, while I didn’t read The Roanoke World-News all over, I read most of it. Back in the day, stories were in-depth. Pictures usually didn’t take up half a page, and if they did, they were photos that helped explain the story. The stories started with a lead—the who, what, where, when, how. You knew from that first sentence what the story was about. The reporter didn’t tell how the news he was reporting made him feel. (Lest any readers think my previous sentence sexist, most reporters in the 60s were male.)

The afternoon World-News was absorbed by the morning Roanoke Times several years ago. Now the newspaper sports a coat—er, page— of many colors, and it's no longer "read all over" by me. I don’t read much of it because there’s not much to read anymore. The illustrations might take up a half page or more—and they’re often drawings, not photos. Much of the “news”—and I’m using the term loosely here—is watered down, warm-fuzzy stuff. Usually the front page and the front of the Virginia section have four or fewer stories. But they do have previews of what’s inside today (like I won’t open the section unless they tell me to?) or what will be in tomorrow’s paper.

The RT used to have a lot more items from the Associated Press. It still has some AP stuff, but it’s days old. Odds are good I’ve already read the items days earlier online.

Many of the warm-fuzzy stories are reprinted from Real Simple magazine or another newspaper, and they're geared to younger readers. However, and I’m sorry I can’t cite the source, I’ve read a survey that most newspaper readers were in their 50s or older. More than half of today’s Extra section—a story about cozying up your guest room—was reprinted from the Washington Post.

The RT used to have some excellent columnists, too. I miss local columnists Monty Leitch and Joe Kennedy. And I really miss Dave Barry’s humor and James J. Kilpatrick’s attention to language, but I guess syndicated columnists are a luxury the RT is unwilling to pay for. I miss local writer Beth Macy’s well-written in-depth reporting, but at least she still writes an occasional story.

Thank goodness the paper still has well-written columns by Liza Field (“Field Notes”) and commentaries by Ray Stubblefield. And well-written news stories by reporter Mike Allen.

The RT has increasingly numerous errors that grate upon my English teacher nerves—pronoun case errors, misplaced modifiers, lack of agreement between pronoun and antecedent, rambling unfocused sentences, passive verbs when an active one would work better (and with fewer words). Doesn’t anybody edit anymore?

This photo, on the front page of today’s RT, is captioned, “Patrick Henry High School students make their way to their cars in the parking lot Thursday afternoon.”

Photo taken from the Roanoke Times website, probably in violation of copyright. However, I'm using the photo for sort of an educational purpose and I lifted less than 10% of the page content and I'm citing the source, so I might be OK under educational use. If they object, I'll remove the picture.

Uh no, they’re making their way onto a main street in the area, The black PT Cruiser is actually exiting the parking lot, which would be to the right—out of the picture.

The front page used to be reserved for national news, or at least important news. Since the above picture and story uses over a third of the front page, are we to assume that it is the most important story in the entire paper? More important than the ice storm in the Northeast, more important than the economy or Obama’s plans?

The Virginia section used to be for stories of state and local importance. The cover story (over half the page) in today's Virginia section is about a guy proposing to his girlfriend at a ballet performance.

When I noticed the fire on Smith Mountain a couple of Saturdays ago, I thought the next day’s RT would have a story about it. Nope. Not a mention. Here's a picture I took of it (I can see it from my house!):


The recent fires that have killed people in Roanoke, Vinton, etc., have at least gotten a bit of press.

Sunday’s RT issued a call for volunteers to contribute to an up-coming “editorial page readers panel” on the opinion page. Essentially they’ll use unpaid volunteers to write opinion-content.

I recently received my invoice for my RT subscription. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth subscribing again. I’m paying more and getting less than I used to. What I’m getting isn’t much. Plus I don't even read all of it. For instance, here are two photos of the parts of the Sunday paper that I don’t read. The first was taken two weeks ago and the other last week.



I don’t read the classifieds (I’m not looking for a house or job). I read grocery ads and one or two other ads, but I don’t read most ads (I’m not looking to buy stuff). I don't read the sports sections because I’m not interested in reading about sports that I never played.

I’m not reading more than I am reading. Here are the parts of the Sunday RT that I did read two weeks ago:


Usually I subscribe for a year—or at least six months—in advance. Not this time. I’ll go with the three-month minimum and hope the RT doesn’t fold before my subscription is up.

Or maybe I should just write my own news.