Media Watch. Another sign of the tough times in journalism is the closing of the Davis County Clipper after 129 years of serving the citizens of Davis County.
I never worked for the Clipper, but its long-time publisher, R. Gail Stahle, gave me my first real job. I was a college intern in the mid-70s, working a summer for the famous columnist, Jack Anderson, in Washington D.C. Stahle called me out of the blue and offered me a job in St. George, Utah, at his new paper, the Color Country Spectrum.
Stahle published the Clipper, but had recently purchased a weekly paper in southern Utah and wanted to turn it into a daily. So, instead of returning to BYU to finish my journalism degree, I went to St. George as the news editor of The Spectrum. I was paid a whopping $1,000 a month, which was pretty good money in those days for a beginning journalist. I only worked there a year before the Deseret News lured me away.
Stahle was a good businessman and something of a visionary. He saw the potential in St. George before it exploded in growth. He later started a free weekly paper covering the entire Wasatch Front to compete with the Deseret News and Tribune. It was short-lived. He was always very resentful of the joint operating agreement, allowed by an anti-trust law exemption, that gave the two big dailies a major advantage in capturing advertising revenue.
It’s sad to see a Davis County institution succumb to the digital news and information revolution. In only a few weeks, both the Deseret News and Tribune will end their daily printed newspapers and move to mostly digital formats. Both will still print a weekend paper.
I suppose this is progress. It’s much easier and cheaper to deliver news and information digitally to computers and mobile devices than to print it on wide paper and drive it to individual homes and businesses.
But I’m not sure what we’re gonna use to line our parakeet cages.
Utah 17th in Highway Rankings. Reason Foundation, a Libertarian think tank, has published its rankings of highway conditions and cost-effectiveness in states across the country. Utah ranks 17th. It appears to be a fairly comprehensive study, measuring highways in 13 categories, including pavement condition, traffic congestion, fatalities, and spending per mile.
Reader Response. From Astrid Campbell: I feel far more connected with our state now that I have found your website. Keep up the good work. I was heartened by the thought of a Centrist reemergence. I have over the past year written Sen. Romney about this very topic and am thrilled that he has been a part of inching it along. You have a far greater voice than I in politics. Please keep the inching going. I would so much rather my “label” be Centrist than either Republican or Democrat. Thank you so much for keeping us informed.
From Gerry Guay: I enjoy your daily comments and please keep them coming. I am 3 years new to Utah, a registered Republican (not far right), 80 years old, retired and escaped the destructive, costly politics of Liberal Connecticut. And I love Utah. I want to comment on the Politico report about a possible rerun by Trump. Yes, the Republican Party is in a difficult spot and what the party has become is alarming. I guess I’m more of a centrist Republican, if there are any left. I voted for Trump because the agenda of the Left is even more alarming and very concerning. The Party cannot let Trump run again in 2024, he is very destructive to the true Republican ideals and we need to wean him out and his followers need to see the light, if that is possible. I do like many of the things he did in his four years, and what he has done for the economy, the markets, foreign policy among other important areas of importance, but I do not like his mouth, his use of Twitter, shooting from the hip/rash decision making, failure to listen to his top intelligence people and replacing them with “Yes men”, a very dangerous way to operate. I don’t want him to run again representing the Republican Party and I hope the hardline followers stop the conspiracies and become more sensible. I don’t know if that’s possible. I have friends in different parts of the country that believe everything he says. Scary. Keep your commentary coming. I enjoy the UtahPolicy.com morning e-mails.
Parting shot. I get numerous email messages from both sides in the Georgia runoff asking for money. Both sides are framing the election in apocalyptic terms, saying the republic is doomed if the other side wins. Personally, I wouldn’t want to see the Democrats take control of the entire federal government, so I hope Republicans will win at least one of the Georgia seats and maintain Senate control.
However, I don’t believe the world would end if the Democrats took tenuous control of the Senate. It would mean a lot of infighting among Democratic Party factions and, if they did pursue some of their more radical ideas, like ending the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court, they would pay dearly in the 2022 mid-terms. The Democrats’ biggest danger is overreach in passing leftist priorities incompatible with the views of most voters.
If you have a comment, an item you think should be publicized, or just want to tell me I’m nuts, shoot me a message at [email protected].
