Uncategorized

COMMENTARY: As trust in media wanes, I lead a team focused on earning it back in Salem

Les Zaitz, editor and CEO of Salem Reporter.

The lead on the police story was short.

“Jeff Zeir’s trumpet was stolen Tuesday,” the account started.

That was my first news story for Salem readers.

It appeared in my typewritten newspaper called “News Shorts.” I was 10 and the little paper was intended for my fellow fifth-graders at Garfield Elementary School, now an office building in downtown Salem.

That was 55 years ago.

Now, all these decades later, I’m still determined to deliver the news to Salem readers.

That’s why Salem Reporter exists, and why it should be important to you.

My years of journalism in Oregon have covered all aspects, from community journalism and taking photos at McNary football games to tough investigations of Rajneeshees and Mexican drug cartels, done for The Oregonian.

Never in my years has the duty of journalism seemed so vital to the country.

And so challenging.

I’m using every ounce of experience and skill to give Salem what it should have – a trusted source of local news that’s not biased or politicized.

Why?

Simply, people don’t trust the news. Survey after survey can tell you that. Social media screams it. People just don’t know who or what to believe.

That’s partly the fault of journalists. As a group, we got too smug, too self-important in the years following Watergate. We tended to talk to, not with, the people we serve.

The diminished trust also is partly the fault of society. We’ve turned to the internet, believing content that should never be considered while increasingly dismissing as fake the news from traditional sources.

And fault rests as well with opportunistic leaders in government and politics. Spin – the distortion and manipulation of the truth – is a practiced art. Too many leaders are too ready to point blame at the press, deflecting their own accountability.

I can’t do much about leaders or society, but I can affect change in journalism, in a small way. Through Salem Reporter, I aim to rebuild trust through relentless accuracy and fairness. The community deserves and needs such journalism.

In Salem, citizens can’t engage if they don’t know what’s going on, if they don’t get facts they trust.

People are left to wonder when and how important government decisions were made.

They find out too late to speak up to favor or oppose matters from zoning changes to school boundary shifts.

To my bone marrow, I believe the typical Salem resident does want to know what’s going on around town, does want to know how to influence local decisions, does want to know why something happened.

The journalistic engineering behind Salem Reporter is intended for just that sort of Salem reader.

When we started in 2018, we deliberately chose not to put out a print product. There is no expensive printing plant that needs to be funded, no unsteady delivery system and no costly overhead.

We went all digital. It’s a rare soul that doesn’t have a cell phone. And laptops and other devices are ubiquitous. The news goes out when it happens, not when the printing press fires up. And for readers, the news is there when you have the time to give it a read.

But the most important engineering we did was to focus on facts and truth. Our team of reporters – Rachel Alexander, Troy Brynelson, Saphara Harrell and Jake Thomas – were picked for their ability to deliver a high quality and professional news service.

We decided against editorials and other political or issues commentary. I wasn’t interested in online food fights that make a mess but rarely a point.

I closely manage the work, bringing to the task decades of experience that stretch back to “News Shorts.” My standards are demanding, my ethics are strong, and my determination to give Salem a compelling news product is unwavering.

The first edition of “News Shorts,” a newspaper produced in 1965 for a fifth-grade class at the former Garfield Elementary School in Salem.

But I can’t do this without you, the reader and subscriber.

Subscribers sustain us. Those monthly fees, modest as they are, add up so we can hire professionals you can trust.

But subscriptions aren’t about me or the reporters or our digital service.

They are about ensuring Salem doesn’t lose what across the country is too much at risk – local news produced by local people.

This is about having someone question city officials about cost overruns.

This is about digging into why so many students struggle in local schools.

This is about sharing the successes of your friends and neighbors doing good things for Salem.

Without subscribers, none of that would happen.

You subscribe and we’ll deliver. Won’t you act right now to sustain this Salem effort?

Les Zaitz, a two-time Pulitzer finalist, is editor and CEO of Salem Reporter. Email: [email protected]