The Soloist

Watching this DVD last night, it reminded me of all that's being lost in community journalism. Once upon a time(when newspaper ads were not being decimated by the internet) it was possible to do the kinds of community, human interest stories that could help people. As a beat reporter in Monterey, I would often get assigned what I thought of as sob stories--non-profits down on their luck, elderly tenets facing eviction because of rent hikes, heart transplant patients who couldn't get medicare coverage for the medicine. After these pieces ran, I would always get dozens of phone calls and emails from people who wanted to help--and often donated time or money for the cause.

But these sorts of stories (and the kind that Steve Lopez wrote in the LA Times, which formed the basis of the movie) are fewer these days, as newspapers shrink and readership dwindles. It's the real tragedy of the death of newspapers.

What's taken the place of columns, are blogs(like this one) that are about the minutia and inner-thoughts of every day people. But, where are the voices of people who don't have access to technology and whose voices are being lost?

Now I don't want to point fingers at any of my reader(s)--but CN maybe you can think of a way of giving back some of what's been lost. Maybe the internet providers who are actually making money, while redirecting(I won't say stealing) newspaper readers can form a non-profit to help out folks in the community where they are based. Or maybe the non-profit can help fund reporters who still want to tell these sorts of stories.

Reader(s), if you have ideas on how CN or other internet tychoons can help with this issue, please send them to me and I'll post them.