Finding clarity in the Tower of Babel; condolences

Doug Fisher's Blog Robert G. Picard's Blog Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare

By GRAHAM OSTEEN
Editor-At-Large
graham@theitem.com

This summer, The Item staff has enjoyed the presence of a large man with a Macintosh laptop roaming the building, asking questions, revealing secrets, clarifying mysteries, editing stories and generally just being the skilled and prolific journalist and teacher that he is.

My good friend Doug Fisher, a professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communications, reminds us all why we got into this business in the first place. We're curious, we like to try and figure out how the world works and we like to tell stories. Simple really.

With the emergence of the Internet and a limitless amount of information available at our fingertips, our jobs have expanded exponentially. There's more information than ever, but it's still our responsibility as journalists to know what's out there, how it affects our lives and how to explain it to our readers.

That's what the entire Item staff did this summer with Doug's guidance – we started learning more about how to find information, report on it effectively in new and different ways and guide readers to it all. It's all about achieving journalistic excellence in the digital age.

Put another way, we started assembling tool bags that will help us keep our democracy strong while making sure our advertisers' customers know who and where they are in order to keep the cash register ringing.

It's a big job, and The Item has been doing it since 1894. We remain committed to that, and I think everyone here, from the ad department to the newsroom, learned something important about how to do our jobs more effectively.

Information is evolving faster now than at any time in history, and there's no slowing it down. The genie is out of the bottle, and we're all along for the journey whether we like it or not. As Doug says, newspapers must ultimately be the “Sherpas” of information, and that's what The Item is doing.

Read more about our own “Big Sherpa” at www.commonsensej.blogspot.com.



A man named Robert G. Picard is one of the leading media analysts in the world, and here's his take on the state of newspapers:

U.S. newspapers are in a mature industry with low growth potential once recovery from the recession occurs. Most companies will perform reasonably well after the recovery, but certainly some companies will have difficulties because of imprudent strategies and choices. Nevertheless, the industry as a whole will remain in place producing revenue for many years to come.

It will do so because more than 45 million people are still willing to purchase a paper daily and retail advertisers still gain better results from newspaper advertising than from broadcast, Internet, and other forms of advertising.

Read more from him at www.themediabusiness.blogspot.com.



If you want to understand why the Obama health care plan is struggling, check out Peggy Noonan's column this week titled, “Common sense may sink ObamaCare.”

She breaks it down to this:

So this might be an unarticulated public fear: When everyone pays for the same health-care system, the overseers will feel more and more a right to tell you how to live, which simple joys are allowed and which are not.

Americans in the most personal, daily ways feel they are less free than they used to be. And they are right, they are less free.

Who wants more of that?



Inconsolable grief is the darkest and most unavoidable part of the human condition, and there's no understanding it. Faith can be comforting, but it doesn't take away the pain.

No one knows exactly what to say to those we love and care about who are dealing with profound tragedy and loss, so we're left to grieve with them and try to somehow just get on with our daily lives.

There's a lot of grief in this town right now, and a sorrow that runs as deep as anything we've ever experienced in my circle of friends and family.

It is a debilitating pain, a collective shock and a sorrow and sadness that will haunt us forever, especially those who grew up here and have personal connections, memories and life experiences that go back for generations.

The chapters of life are simultaneously joyful and brutal, and we don't get to choose exactly how the story unfolds.

What's most important to remember, I suppose, is that we have to put aside our own sorrow and figure out how to embrace the Brabham, Spencer and Sheridan families in a way that gives them the strength, will and faith to just carry on. One day at a time.

Graham Osteen is co-president of Osteen Publishing Co. and Editor-At-Large of The Item. Contact him at The Item, 20 North Magnolia St., Sumter, S.C., 29150; graham@theitem.com, or call (803) 774-1352.