In a sea of opinions increasingly shared in real time about nearly every aspect of our public and private lives, the considered, informed voice can feel like a life preserver.
News editorials fill that role by helping us block out the daily noise and refocus on ideas and issues that really matter to us and our communities – even if we didn’t know it. And among the most important community voices of all on those pages is that of the news organization itself.
That’s why it was so disheartening to see The Providence Journal announce it will no longer publish local editorials.
Perhaps PBN should be happy to see another local media outlet shed some of its identity. But we are not, because it is bad for Rhode Island when its only statewide, daily newspaper gives up its local voice.
Linda Lotridge Levin, professor emerita/journalism at the University of Rhode Island, wonders if the move is just the latest attempt by the paper to save money through contraction.
“Newspapers can save a lot of money by getting rid of editorial staff,” she said, but “local papers need a voice.”
As important as a strong mix of community opinions is on op-ed pages, editorials are part of the organization’s – and community’s – conscience. They help set a public agenda by speaking truth to power and advocating for readers they serve.
Whether you agreed or not with the Journal’s editorials, Rhode Island’s conscience has lost a steady voice that can’t be replaced by homogenous news products or national viewpoints.
And public life and discourse in the Ocean State has one less life preserver to latch onto.