All news is local

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

By Tom Pinard Retired Owner/Publisher Wrightwood’s Mountaineer-Progress
Reprinted with permission
Published Sept. 2014, in Wrightwood’s Mountaineer-Progress; Victorville Daily Press

Over the weekend the Daily Press reported that a compromise had been worked out by Caltrans and the owners of the historic Mountain Top Cafe, at the junction to Wrightwood, Highway 2 and Highway 138.

So much is being said about “social media” these days, one forgets that community newspapers, from monthly, to weekly, to daily, are the best source for members of the community and those public agencies that serve them, to communicate.

Case in point is the Mountain Top Cafe issue. Efforts in the local community to alert citizens of what the Highway 138 widening issue would do to Mountain Top brought out more and more local interest. As importantly, elected officials at the local, county and state level also read of local concerns. I could add that this same modus operandi worked for Rick’s Cafe in Pinon Hills, just months earlier.

Why is it that the power of the printed word, the local newspaper, is greater than the new “social media” of Facebook and Twitter? It’s because our local papers have local advertising, local news content, local social events/activities and local commentary — the allimportant local editorials and local letters from local people about local concerns.

Social electronic media can be anybody, anywhere, any who. No responsible controls to make sure that the opinions and news stories are accurate and factual.

But here’s the most important point. All our elected officials and county and state agencies make sure they either read or get a detailed summary of what appears in our local and regional newspapers. They keep watch on the community via these news and opinion pages. If an issue stays alive for more than one news cycle, they expand the “file,” and move to address the concern.

So those who have a concern that merits a local, county, state or national elected official or agency to get moving on should keep the issue alive by turning out information on the subject, writing letters to editor on the issue, and hoping we have continuing interest by Supervisor Robert Lovingood, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly and State Senator Mike Morrell.

And it is nice to see the response of Caltrans as well.