The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 22, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 29, 2003 Page: 2 of 28
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Hemphill County Area Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Hemphill County Library.
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THURSDAY 29 MAY 2003
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W/io owns the news?
By Jaiiee Briesemeister
WHEN THERE'S A FIRE, a political scandal,
or an election in your area, where
do you turn for information? If you're like most
people, you turn to your hometown newspaper or a
local television news station. You depend upon these,
sources to give you all of the information you need on
the stories, both big and small, that affect you and
your neighbors.
You probably also count on the newspapers and
TV stations to keep tabs on your local government,
businesses, and even on each other. This is the pub-
lic service we have all come to expect from the
media.
But in Washington, D.C., the Federal Communi-
cations Commission (FCC) is moving towards
changing the rules that protect the quality and local
ownership of your community's newspapers and
television and radio stations. If these rule changes
are enacted, as the FCC will do on June 2, the news
that you rely upon could change drastically.
The multiple, contrasting news voices you hear
now in your area may be reduced to one dominant
news voice with a few weak alternatives. The domi-
nant owner could influence what local content to pro-
RECORD
INCORPORATED FEBRUARY 1998
USPS 087-960
P.O. BOX 898, CANADIAN (HEMPHILL) TX 79014
TELEPHONE: (806)323-6461 FAX: (806)323-5738
E-MAIL: canadianrecord@canadianrecord.com
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
$25/Year in Hemphill County
$30/Year in adjoining counties
$35Aear elsewhere
Periodicals postage paid in Canadian, Texas.
Published weekly
in Canadian, Texas, by Nancy M. Ezzell.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Canadian Record, Box 898, Canadian, TX 79014
BEN EZZELL Editor & Publisher 1948-1993
NANCY EZZELL Editor & Publisher
LAURIE EZZELL BROWN, Editor
editor® canadianrecord. com
TONYA FINSTERWALD, Advertising Manager
advertising@canadianrecord.coni
CATHY RICKETTS, News & Features
news@canadianrecord.com
MARY SMITHEE, Office Manager
circulation© canadianrecord. com
Design & Production: KIM McKINNEY
Cover Design: TONYA FINSTERWALD
photography LAURIE BROWN, CATHY RICKETTS
SETH DAVIDSON
MEMBER
2003
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
I WASN'T REALLY SURPRISED by the letter to the editor I re-
ceived this week charging me and my staff with a failure to properly ac-
knowledge the academic achievements of Canadian High School
students. I wasn't surprised because Sue Tubb, organizer of the high
school's first academic awards banquet this year, had leveled the same
charge just two weeks earlier in a Wednesday afternoon phone call
during which she attempted to tell me what to put on the front page of
this newspaper.
The phone call began pleasantly enough, but ended badly when—af-
ter several minutes of listening to her ask repeatedly when she could
expect to see "academics" on The Record's: front page—I suggested
that she could buy the newspaper and put whatever she wanted on
Page One. It was not a serious invitation, but it did open the door.
In this week's letter, Mr. Edwards accuses us of deeming unimpor-
tant this community's commitment to academic excellence because, if I
understand correctly, we did not attend the evening banquet at which
the end-of-year academic awards were presented. While he applauds
our coverage of other awards banquets—none of which did we at-
tend—he finds the report of those academic awards lacking.
Edwards correctly pointed out that the banquet took place on Tues-
day, May 6, and was not reported until Thursday, May 22—three edi-
tions later. The delay is attributable to two factors: l)the difficulty of
gathering information for a report in the short time before our
Wednesday news deadline (the first week), and 2)the presence of a
team of DEC auditors at Canadian's public schools the following
week—during which administrators understandably preferred not to
disrupt class schedules for a photo shoot.
We were able to photograph the students awarded "Who's Who" in
various subjects the following week (week three), and devoted a full
page to a report of all students who received "C" awards during the ac-
ademic awards banquet. The achievements which earned "C" awards
have also been reported throughout the year as they occurred. An at-
tempt to photograph National Honor Society inductees failed when the
subjects left before the photographer arrived.
An easy 3) would be the preponderance of school news which we
handle in the last 6-8 weeks of the school year—news which has domi-
nated our pages, strained our limited staff resources, and demanded a
great deal of our attention. That has resulted in what I believe is a defi-
ciency in reporting other news of this community, for which I apologize.
On average, school news fills about a quarter of The Record's pages in
any given week. In the last few weeks, you could easily double that.
Here ends the official editorial response to Mr. Edwards' inquiry.
Now for the personal, which really has no place in this discussion, but
which Mr. Edwards elicited when he, suggested that "maybe, just
maybe, it is time to sell the paper."
Mr. Edwards, sir. I have long admired and respected your teaching
skills, having known of them through my son and his friends, and
through the students who have been my personal friends. I have not
been in your classroom, and do not know personally what your work en-
tails, what it demands of you, what pressures or frustrations you expe-
rience, what rewards you find. I would not presume to know when you
should retire from teaching, nor would I publicly suggest that you do
so.
The newspaper is a privately-owned business. Granted, much of
what we do is quite public, and so, exposed to public criticism. I have no
problem with that.
However, the suggestion that perhaps we have not done enough,
have not fully honored our responsibilities and commitment to covering
the news of this community—and particularly this school system—is a
specious one. The suggestion that because you believe we have failed in
some way to fully address our responsibilities it is time to sell the news-
paper is a personally insulting one, as I believe it was intended to be.
It deserves a personal response.
I have lived with this newspaper for 50 years and counting. It has al-
ways been a predominant part of my life—good and occasionally bad.
In my first five years as Record editor, I attended every football game,
every awards banquet, every meeting of every public entity. I did it all.
I drove the newspaper to Perryton to have it printed every Thursday
morning. I drove it back and helped insert and mail it. I took the photo-
graphs, wrote the news stories and features and editorials, kept a
weekly column going, and occasionally went home to an empty house,
where the laundry and bills awaited.
At some point, I realized that I would have to make some choices
about what events I attended, and what events I covered from a dis-
Continued on Page 3
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Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 22, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 29, 2003, newspaper, May 29, 2003; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220581/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.