Here’s the donate link: https://www.dailytarheel.com/page/tar-heel-townies
As someone who has covered almost all of our local governments as a beat reporter and spent a couple of decades in the struggle to keep local news a thing, there is nothing more comforting in the world to me than seeing a Daily Tar Heel reporter checking in live from a town council meeting or a school board meeting or from some marathon country commissioner hearing.
I love the DTH for a lot of reasons, but this one is personal. Being in the room to experience the tension at a public hearing, a backgrounder on some policy shift, a frank exchange about the horrible condition of whatever and just looking the electeds in the eye and letting them know you’re paying attention is really damn important and it’s being lost everyday somewhere probably not far from here.
The regional papers don’t send people to meetings anymore and they tend to cherry-pick local stories, the stuff that’s controversial or weird, but not the dull grind of government doings that really affect our lives. We’re losing the fine grain reporting that truly informs local discussions and can lead to better decisions and better outcomes.
Even if you’re turned off by the process of government or tuned out to local news, you benefit from that coverage. When the press is in the room the circle of people informed and engaged widens and more of us are at the table.
The DTH continues to perform this invaluable service for our community. They could have backed off like the others, but instead they’ve made a commitment to coverage. I suggest it’s time we return the favor and I’m writing today to ask you to help their reporters continue to be where the action is.
It’s long past time for folks in this community to get over the idea that the DTH is just a student thing. Other college communities have recognized the importance of local, student-run press in their media ecology, but there’s a lingering old-school townie attitude about the DTH that is mostly just an eyeroll. Time to put that to rest, y’all.
This is an actual newspaper covering where you live. Honor that.
If you haven’t followed the paper’s work of late, pay a visit to the City & County section, where you can sign up for the weekly OC Report newsletter. The current staff recently picked up several awards including recognition for a special issue on abortion and access to reproductive health in our community and for reporting on abuse allegations at a local church.
If you’ve followed them regularly, you know they’ve been doing important investigative work year after year like exposing the university’s backdoor dealing over Silent Sam and the extent of lead contamination on campus. Their editorials are fearless and a testament to the paper’s independence.
So, I’m asking you to send some money to the Daily Tar Heel and I’m especially calling on all you townies. The DTH is our newspaper, too, and we ought to support them more than we do. I set up a link to make it all very easy.