Yes, It's Real News

The most important news to you might be the birth of a child, but you know it won't make the front page of the TimesDaily. If the stock market should crash to unprecedented lows, it would certainly be the headline of the New York Times, but it might not be of great significance to you. That's pretty much the reason we have newspapers devoted to the stock market, movies, or music. Just because it's not what you want to read, that doesn't mean your next door neighbor won't pay some big bucks to subscribe--either in print or online.

The Quad-Cities Daily is one of two online newspapers/magazines now operating in the Shoals on a daily basis. Yesterday the QCD broke a dramatic story about alleged impropriety by a Sheffield youth/music minister. We felt the news was so important that we immediately linked it here. No, we didn't expect the TimesDaily to report on the story for several reasons. There have been no criminal charges filed against the Methodist minister and there may be none for several days, or even weeks. Was it important to break the story before actual charges were filed?

We would answer a definite yes to that question. Obviously, rumors were already rampant in Sheffield, and the QCD presented the known facts in a fair and unbiased way. Yet one poster on the Tennessee Valley Talks forum commented he would still consider it all rumor until it appeared in the TD. Sadly, some things never appear in our local rag, or if they do, you've already learned the details elsewhere. That's the nature of today's ever changing media. In 20 years, you can expect to wake to both your morning coffee and your hand-picked news stories presented to you by your home's computer system.

Until then we hope you'll take a look at The Quad-Cities Daily and Pen-N-Sword (formerly The Connection) in order to obtain a balanced look at the Shoals. The story the TD chooses not to cover may just be the one that could change your life.

Related post: Local News: A Lost Cause

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