March 10: Wanted: More Of the Cooler Heads, Less Of the Hot Air

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Air bags - the kind on television and radio, not the kind in cars - are getting a lot of attention these days.

Air bags like Rush Limbaugh and Randi Rhodes. Air bags like the increasingly verbally militant cast of CNBC, which is supposed to be in the business of reporting financial news.

It's happening at the same time community media - print and broadcast - are struggling through their worst time since the Great Depression. While more people are reading daily newspapers - albeit online and for free - than ever before, those papers are more in danger of going out of business.

However, go back to the first part of that last sentence: More people are reading daily newspapers than ever before. Also, more people are heading to outlets such as National Public Radio and PBS broadcasts for news and information.

That means more people want honest, detailed, fair and accurate information.

So let's put the kibosh on all those people who are saying newspapers or journalism are dead. In this country, where the press is the only profession protected by the Constitution, we don't have that option. We have the obligation to save good journalism. For this country's future, we need cooler heads, not hot air.