So, what do you all think about this editorial? (excerpt posted below)

My opinion is that without local media - as in our hometown weekly newspapers - we as residents would be sunk when it comes to our issues. (However, bloggers deserve street cred too for that matter).

Local papers, and local reporters like Sam Strike, Cheryl Allison, and Rich Ilgenfritz give us our voice, often when no one else will. (NOTE that bloggers will often report facts and an opinion, reporters report just facts, and local reporters don't often write editorials unless they feel quite strongly about something.)

If the issue grows enough legs, other media, as in television, radio and regional print will drop in and check the scene. If the issue gets really HUGE, you might get a national sound byte or several as was the case with SAC and eminent domain.

I think with this Radnor stuff, much like when Lower Merion is misbehaving, lots and lots of media means the citizens might just level the playing field a little. Karma likes the Camera if you will. (I almost wish the local cameras would start attending Lower Merion meetings again, truth be told.)

All media serves a purpose, but do our hearts belong to the locals who remember us day in and day out, or the rest or all of the above?

What do you think out there? What do local reporters do that the bigger cats don't and what do the bigger cats do that the locals don't?

I guess my question is what do you all perceive the role of media is?
Main Line Suburban Life > Opinion
Get your story straight
Published: Saturday, March 7, 2009 9:57 PM CST
By Sam Strike

I always know blood is being spilled around here when I see the Philadelphia television news stations’ vultures circling.

They love a fresh kill, and the scandal over the removal of the township manager of Radnor Township is deep red sanguinary fodder.

Here’s my disclaimer: I have the utmost disdain for local network “news.”

I haven’t watched Philadelphia news programming for years, and seeing CBS 3 Walt Hunter’s report from Thursday evening is all I need to ensure that I don’t watch for the rest of my life.

The report by Hunter, once a Main Line Times managing editor, was rife with errors and sensationalism.

True, I do not like seeing Radnor and all of the people I know personally in this negative light. And while I am certainly not denying that we have some serious issues here in Radnor, the way they are reported, in general, by television reporters is indicative of the problems that befall you when you are only given a minute to report a complex story.

Television is a powerful medium that has the ability to communicate in profound, touching ways. Local “news” programs don’t seem to take advantage of that.

Here was the Walt Hunter CBS3 report on Radnor

Here was the Valerie Levesque CBS3 report on Radnor

And here was WPVI report