No Professionalism in Journalism: The Corydon "Democrat": Why not call it the Tea Party News?

Look at our local newspaper, which for historical reasons calls itself "The Corydon Democrat", but is little more than a repository for Republican and Tea Party ideas. Why not call it the "Corydon Republican" or "Harrison County Tea Party News"? They said they recently won gold ribbons in journalism. From who? The Koch Brothers? If not, we would hate to see what rags they lost to.

Is it professional at a journalistic level that two of the reporters actively like facebook pages of local Republican elected officials and then say they are "objective" reporters on issues involving them? Most newspapers would say no, but this one seems to say yes. Reporters for the Courier-Journal do not like individual candidates they cover on facebook, so why this newspaper? The lack of journalistic ethics is staggering. Maybe their journalists should start attending Republican meetings? No, wait, one already has. Any wonder why this paper is a GOP rag?

For a newspaper that had such local icons as Jackie Carpenter, Randy West, and Denny Huber, this paper is turning into a true rag. One has to wonder whether Frank O'Bannon is rolling over in his grave if he could see what his paper has turned into. In his years in Indianapolis as Senator, Lt. Governor, and Governor, he long had to put up with slanted coverage from the then far-right Indianapolis Star. Could it be that far right slants are now coming from the newspaper he worked to build for most of his life? What a sad state of affairs there. We hope to keep up pressure to stop this.

The people that call themselves "journalists" there have information that would be not so favorable on at least three of the Republican candidates for office running this year. They have been provided this information or offered it, but they either refuse to print or investigate. We have learned this through the new feature on our website for things this paper refuses to publish, for fear of hurting the GOP. Investigative journalism involves more than printing press releases from local Republican officials or printing their exact words without seeing if they are true. Remember the famous misleading headline that the county budget is in the black, but failing to mention it was only after the County Council bailed out the budget?

Since it seems they won't look into these issues and candidates, we will have to. Stay tuned for a lot of breaking news. Sad that we have to do so, instead of our local newspaper. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Harrison County Democratic Party!

Let's hope the new year brings us a better next election in 2016!