Comforting the Afflicted

This week’s announcement of the 2009 Pulitzer Prizes showed how when
the journalism business suffers, the public suffers.

One of the winners is the East Valley Tribune, a paper up in
Mesa, which garnered a prize for Local Reporting. Specifically, Ryan
Gabrielson and Paul Giblin won the honor “for their adroit
use of limited resources to reveal, in print and online, how a popular
sheriff’s focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigation of
violent crime and other aspects of public safety.” That “popular
sheriff,” of course, is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

It’s a good thing the Tribune did that crucial journalism
work when it did, because chances are, it would not be done today.

You see, Paul Giblin no longer works for the Tribune. Nor
does Patti Epler, the editor who directed the five-part series. They
have been laid off by the Tribune, which slashed its staff,
distribution and publication schedule (from daily to four days per week
and, as of next month, three days per week) due to the malaise hitting
the media biz that’s being spurred on by the horrible economy.

Yeah, daily-newspaper companies brought much of this malaise on
themselves by slashing costs to keep profit margins sky-high and by
failing to innovate—and they’re suffering as a result. But the
public’s going to suffer, too.

In any case, congratulations to Gabrielson, Giblin and Epler. And
while sending along well-wishes, I’d like to wish good luck to Epler
and Giblin with their new effort, a fledgling online news Web site
called The Arizona Guardian (www.arizonaguardian.com). As the
Pulitzer Prize demonstrates, the public needs talented journalists like
this doing what they do.

This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2009.