Local newspapers, in my semirural county in North Carolina, have largely vanished. When I was a teenager we had several that came out at least once a week, and a few that were daily. Our county now has one newspaper, that comes out once a week. I noticed this when I moved back home approximately two years ago and was trying to find good sources of local news. At the beginning of 2024 I began to get involved in local politics, and definitely felt the lack of journalism with respect to local journalism - so I began to research local issues and governance and attend meetings of political and governmental bodies so that I could at least summarize the events.
Here in our county it seems like civic participation, is at an all time low. People don't pay much attention to governance until very close to election season, when they show up to get angry then forget about it for the next two years. Because the level of information is so low bad actors can gain a lot of traction, and it can take a sizeable effort to get rid of them!
Our county has a small group who has repeatedly expressed the goal of taking over local politics and installing a dubious character as the County Sheriff. During this past general election, I and others formed a tri-partisan coalition where we worked, and succeeded in electing a Democrat, Republican, and Independent candidate to the County Board of Education, to thwart the unscrupulous group. This was probably a first in this county.
The fellow who intended to be Sherrif was indicted for felony extortion in 2023, yet the people in this county still re-elected him to the Board of Education in the most recent election! This is the peril of a low-information environment. His trial started last week, and I've been attending it and covering it in a Facebook news blog I started in the spring of 2024. I've also begun archiving some of my blog's coverage here and attempting to point Facebookers over to Hive.
Covering legal proceedings is a bit different than other reporting I've done so I have sought some guidance from local attorneys. It's been rewarding but exhausting. I'm always shocked at the testimony that has been expressed during this trial. The fellow on trial appears to have conducted simultaneous affairs with three different women, while nominally being married, working a full-time job, and serving on the Board of Education. I'm not sure how he did all this and found time to sleep. I'm exhausted just listening to it!
Every day in the courtroom I've wound up taken 20+ pages of notes, and felt like I could have written more. I then come home and try to condense that into a comprehensive summary, that isn't overly long or too scant on details and get that published so people can hopefully read it around 7:00 PM. I'm happy today is the end of the trial!
The process has made me somewhat more sympathetic to journalists who are making an honest effort to accurately report relatively local or small stories. Capturing and relaying an accurate depiction of events in real-time is challenging. Re-reading some of my writing I can see where my own biases, and limitations impact my reporting. Truthfully my writing is probably a hybrid of punditry and reporting, but I'm working towards being more of a neutral reporter. Exhausting!
I'm ready to spend a week just reading Hive posts while sipping coffee, and writing short stories!