Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1392398
4 UCW JULY 14-20, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Keyuri Parab STAFF WRITER Audrey Hogue REPORTER Jeff Thompson MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Pitt Dickey, D.G. Martin, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Crissy Neville COVER Cover illustration by Dylan Hooker. Photo courtesy Day of the Cowboy. –––––––––––- Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200- FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Army Airfield, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. PUBLISHER'S PEN The First Amendment and Freedom of the Press by MARGARET DICKSON 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU JUL 15 FRI JUL 16 SAT JUL 17 SUN JUL 18 MON JUL 19 TUE JUL 20 91 72 91 71 91 72 90 72 90 71 89 71 Thunderstorms Thunderstorms Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Mostly Sunny Association of Community Publishers We Americans are proud of our First Amendment — a guarantee that govern- ment at any level cannot restrict free- dom of speech in the United States — and we should be. It safeguards our own individual speech and that of the "press." Originally the press was defined by our primary news and opinion medium — newspapers — but today translates to "media," encompassing print and digital platforms, ones common to me and those I have never heard of and will likely never use. But I am nervous about our First Amendment and particularly, the freedom of the press. As you and I speak with millions of different voices and opinions, local media is speaking less and less. at means we know less and less about what is happening in our own communities. e press, which began with relatively few voices, has long since morphed into millions of voices with a versatile range. From television networks with distinct points of view and unrestricted social media comments to individual blogs and podcasts representing every viewpoint and experience under the sun, a lot is being said. We are all free to partake of as much or as little of this as we please. We can and do read, watch and listen to voices that agree with ours, relaxing with our own choir in an echo chamber that preaches only to us and those like us. Successful politicians of all stripes know to keep their friends close and their enemies closer. Otherwise, we have no clue what others are thinking and doing. It is as if we are living in the tower of Babel, an existence dangerous indeed. Dangerous as well is the consolidation of media throughout our nation. Gone from most places, including Fayetteville and Cumberland County, are locally owned and operated news outlets, in- cluding newspapers and radio and tele- vision stations. Cape Fear Broadcasting, a local media company that carried local news and broadcast editorials, was sold to a publicly traded corporation 20 years ago. e Fayetteville Observer is now owned by a national newspaper chain. With such consolidation have come "synergies," which translate into fewer local jobs and much less local news. Estimates vary, but e New York Times reports that 1 in 5 newspapers in the U.S. have shut down. Researcher Penny Abernathy at UNC-CH's School of Journalism and Media puts the number at about 1,800 since 2004, roughly 100 a year. Actual closure of local broadcast- ing outlets is not as dramatic, but the existence of fewer newsrooms and re- porters is taking a toll. Local news media are shadows of their former selves, and many U.S. communities are now local news deserts. So why should we care that news outlet voices are decreasing and that less local, state and regional news coverage exists? We should care because how else will we know what our local and state elected officials are up to? What is Fayetteville City Council doing with downtown development? How are our law enforcement agencies handling di- versity issues? What is the Cumberland County Board of Education doing to help students recover from a year away from in-person classes? How is the General Assembly going to fund the UNC and community college systems? Unless you plan to attend every meeting of every elected body, you will be unaware that local media coverage is absent. Don't even think about trusting random social media posts for accurate local news. To read more on this, see the Brookings Institute 2019 report "Local Journalism in Crisis: Why America Must Revive Its Local Newsrooms." omas Jefferson, Frederick Douglas, Patrick Henry and other earlier Ameri- cans who saw a need for eternal vigi- lance to preserve liberty could not have imagined today's cacophony of voices. at we struggle to agree on basic facts about our nation would astound them, but that is our present state. We do not have to agree with much less like the views of other people and news outlets, but we ignore them at our own and our nation's peril. It is up to us to protect our precious First Amendment by keeping ourselves informed as best we can, even about events, ideas and points of view with which we disagree. Especially about those with which we disagree. Editor's Note: is Essay on Liberty by Dickson first appeared in the July issue of Women's View magazine. MARGARET DICKSON, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200.