Newer World

Editor Samantha Swindler

Small daily and weekly newspapers are  often not as aggressive as their big-city counterparts when it comes to holding accountable those in power but the best ones are, and under Editor Samantha Swindler’s leadership, the Times-Tribune of Corbin has been one of the best.
Swindler, who is leaving Corbin for the Oregon coast, gave the city commission a good spanking before saying good-bye.
At a crowded meeting, the commission cut the position of Main Street manager to part-time while donating $50,000 to the industrial development program, which Swindler said, has little to show for the money it has received, while the Main Street program has done quite a bit to enhance economic development.
“I wasn’t particularly surprised with how Corbin city commissioners voted Monday night because, like all major decisions, it was made long before the public meeting,” she began her column, “The Beauty of Community; the Ugliness of Politics.”
That got my attention because, as a longtime community journalist, I know that’s how many local governments operate — even though it’s illegal and wrong.
She then went on to tell that the commissioners couldn’t be heard because they refused to speak into their mics, and wouldn’t let people in the audience speak — although when there’s hardly anyone there, they routinely open the meeting to discussion.
She urged the people of Corbin to continue to attend the meetings and ask questions, because that “is how politics is supposed  to work,” she said.
“Public servants are supposed to represent the will of the people, not take it as a personal affront when the public actually shows up to a public meeting.”
Thanks to Samantha for reminding us not only how politics, but also community journalism, “is supposed to work.”

Read what former Courier-Journal political reporter Al Cross wrote about Swindler’s parting shot on the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues’ The Rural Blog.

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