A governor is an unlikely candidate to praise newspapers. Getting into that office requires a lot of favors down through the years, and the press tends to report with a critical eye toward conflicts of interest and scandals that such politicos usually carry with them.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is no exception. The son of a wealthy oilman who owns the chain of Pilot stores, the Republican’s first executive order upon taking office was to relax the state’s financial disclosure laws. He made it where members of the state’s executive branch no longer had to divulge how much money they make, only the sources of income.
The state’s newspapers criticized the decision, which seemed to be intended to shield his family fortune from scrutiny. His family also had an embarrassing FBI raid on its Knoxville headquarters in 2013 while he was in office related to allegedly stiffing its trucker customers, coverage of which has drawn out for years.
So Haslam would appear to be the last person to be appreciative of what newspapers do. Yet he is — and his insightful commentary is needed in a screen-mad world.
Speaking at the National Newspaper Association’s convention outside Nashville last Friday, Haslam said, “In my mind what you all do has never been as important as it is today.”
Haslam said with most other media outlets solely focused on entertainment and what to do to draw more eyeballs, there is a great need for newspapers’ balance of community responsibility and insight into hard questions.
With a long reputation of trust in their communities, newspapers are most likely to get the story right because they’re truly interested in the long-term health of communities, Haslam said.
The Tennessee governor’s thoughts once again show that the smartest, most successful people understand the value of strong newspapers — even when the ink isn’t always in their favor.
