One thing I learned knocking on a thousand front doors while getting my signatures for the February primary was the incredible frustration many area residents feel about their local newspaper. A sizable percentage of voters recognized me from my columns in the Herald News over the last 5 years. Of that number, I’d estimate 90 percent took the opportunity to express a great deal of anger and frustration about the state of “their” newspaper. The word “their” is an apt choice. A lot of people in this area have been reading the Herald News for so long, they feel like they have a relationship with it. And let me tell you, a lot of them feel like that relationship is strained to the point of writing the paper off as bland, light on content and, worst of all, unessential reading.
Without going into my own litany of things I think are wrong with the paper, let me say I share much of the frustration expressed to me at so many local front doors. A case in point came to my attention in the last couple of weeks. While the main page section has been full of daily stories about Drew Peterson and his apparent penchant for eliminating marital problems in a very permanent way, an important piece of local legal news has been completely ignored for several weeks:Joliet resident and native Bob Dow was recently appointed a U.S. federal court judge by President Bush. The lifetime appointment is a huge accomplishment, not least of all because Bob is still in his early 40s.
As a lifelong reader of the Herald News, it disappoints me that such a major accomplishment by a Jolieten hasn’t been publicized to our community. Interestingly enough, Bob’s wife is running for the same office I am, albeit on the Republican ticket. But so what? Bob is a younger classmate of mine at St. Ray’s and Joliet Catholic, and he is also a friend. I happy and proud when anyone from my school and city community makes good. The Herald News has got real problems if it can’t see the value in bringing a story like Bob’s to the community in a timely fashion.
Last week, I sent the following letter to the Herald News. Whether it will be published is anyone’s guess. But I offer it to you in this forum:
