‘Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations’
This observation is often attributed to Orwell, but it’s likely a misattribution.
Whatever its provenance, it’s an observation with a good deal of truth to it.
Locally, so much of what one reads is, in the end, just public relations, often poorly-written and thinly-disguised. The effectual difference between the Gazette, Daily Union, and Banner grows smaller each year. In a time of solid journalism, this convergence would have been to the Banner‘s credit; in our time, it’s to the detriment of the Gazette and Daily Union.