To the Editor,
Because I had a long career in newspapering, I bring, I think, a different perspective to this continuing brouhaha over what some suggest is The Swarthmorean publishers’ insufficient commitment to racial/social justice. To the publishers’ detractors, I would ask these questions: Do you know of any instance when the publishers prevented the editors from covering a news event in Swarthmore — a march, a vigil, a library talk, a council resolution — that centered on the issue of racial/social justice? Have the publishers, in their newspaper or in any public forum, questioned the importance of racial/social justice? Regarding the publishers/editors meeting after which both editors resigned, the accounts of what was said diverge. Are you confident you know whose account is more accurate?
At the heart of this matter is a debate over the role of the community paper. I have lived in Swarthmore for 21 years and read the paper frequently. It is exactly what I expect of a small weekly with a small staff. A look at last week’s issue is instructive; here is some of what we found in our town paper: a news feature on the new Borough Council president, another feature on a local entrepreneur, an article about what folks need to know about the Tree Committee, an article about a community quilting project organized by a Swarthmore College student, editor Rachel Pastan’s farewell letter, an obituary for a prominent Swarthmorean, the calendar of events, and an announcement of Rotary and Scouting awards.
This is news writ small, but news, nonetheless. It is the lifeblood of the paper, not simply the “fun stuff” that one departing editor deridingly called it.
Some readers (and former readers) have a much more expansive view of the newspaper’s mission. They see the paper as an engine for social change — The Little Paper That Could — but that, I think, is way too heavy a lift. Does the paper have an obligation to use its reporting to promote racial/social justice? Absolutely. The paper’s recent series on Covid among people with disabilities is a good example of that. But all of society’s ills can’t be laid at the doorstep of a newspaper with an admonition to do its duty.
How is the paper’s obligation different from that of a school, a church, a business, a charitable organization or a governmental agency? Or what about our own personal obligation to racial/social justice? Isn’t that the most important of all? Let’s work on that one first. Then, when we have satisfied ourselves that we have met the challenge, we will be on firmer footing when we criticize those who haven’t.
Don Wuenschel
Swarthmore
