A gentleman journalist in academe

Sam G. Riley

Riley is a professor of communication at Virginia Tech.

In 1981, newly arrived as communication department head at Virginia Tech, I was visiting The Roanoke Times & World News to meet the publisher, editors, columnists and reporters.

One tall, distinguished-looking fellow I especially enjoyed meeting was editor of the commentary page and writer of a delightful column I had greatly enjoyed reading. “How’d you like to come teach a journalism course with us?” I asked.

He looked pleased but replied that he didn’t think he could do both his job at the paper and teach, too. “Well,” I said, “just keep it in mind. Maybe later.” I had no idea that his family had owned the paper, Channel 7, etc. I knew him only through his column. When someone described Bob Fishburn’s background, I thought, good grief. No wonder he didn’t want to teach.

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A heart for Roanoke

 Bob Fishburn’s family owned The Roanoke Times, but his legacy also reflects his love for the arts and education.

Bob Fishburn had a deep affection for Roanoke, its newspaper, the arts and education. He expressed that love, not just in eloquent editorials, but through his limitless energy and enthusiasm.

“The first word that comes to my mind about Bob is that he was so incredibly generous,” said Mike Mayo, former editorial writer and book page editor for The Roanoke Times. Despite the enormous influence Fishburn had on the Roanoke Valley, Mayo said, “He never wanted to take center stage for any of it.”

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A Sept. 11 editorial of unmitigated gloom

I am writing to express a deep disappointment in your Sept. 11 editorial “Assessing the legacy of 9/11.”

You take this opportunity to detail a litany of failings on the part of the American government and people. No doubt there is at least some truth in these concerns. But on this day you can find no space, not one line in the entire editorial, to remember those who have perished or to say anything positive about the many, both inside and outside government, who rose to the occasion, made many sacrifices and were shining examples of the best in humanity and in our land.

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Letters bring focus to the community

Christina Nuckols

Nuckols is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.

My friend Margaret Edds was just three years old when her mother died of rheumatic fever. She can barely remember Sara, but Margaret came to know the warm, witty woman who gave her life through 300 letters that had been lovingly preserved by her father and Aunt Eleanor.

When I read “Finding Sara,” Margaret’s book about that experience, I felt lucky that my mother is also a letter-writer. But I also was saddened to think how few daughters will have the opportunity to peer into their mothers’ lives through hand-written letters.

Letters have largely gone the way of eight-track tapes and horse-drawn buggies. Emails, tweets and Facebook posts from Mom may hang around on the Internet forever, but even if you can find them out there in the ether, they don’t carry the same sentimental value.

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The Federal Communications Commission has issued a mammoth research report into the state of local news reporting titled  “The Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age.” The findings are grim.

As newspapers in recent years scaled back their workforces in the face of increasingly popular digital sources of information, coverage faltered.  The result was predictable and is well summed up in the report itself:

Yet, in part because of the digital revolution, serious problems have arisen, as well. Most significant among them: in many communities, we now face a shortage of local, professional, accountability reporting. This is likely to lead to the kinds of problems that are, not surprisingly, associated with a lack of accountability—more government waste, more local corruption, less effective schools, and other serious community problems. The independent watchdog function that the Founding Fathers envisioned for journalism—going so far as to call it crucial to a healthy democracy—is in some cases at risk at the local level.

The full report is below, or you can go straight to the pdf. The whole thing is 478 page.

Cnet has a good story about the report. So does The New York Times.

How about it, RT readers, has the quality of local and state news coverage declined?

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Sheriff Ewell Hunt responds

Ewell Hunt

Hunt, the sheriff of Franklin County, released this statement in response to events that occurred on Memorial Day.

The recent article in The Roanoke Times which used illegally leaked information is not accurate. The “CAD” sheet, that was leaked, records time from the point at which the information is entered, and not from when it actually occurs; and, it is a summary of information relayed through dispatch, rather than what actually transpired.

Therefore, the times and information reported on this CAD sheet are incomplete. And because this is an ongoing murder investigation, I am limited in what information I can provide at this time. And, I will not do anything that compromises this investigation.

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Please, write!

Leesa McGregor

McGregor, of Roanoke County, is a former member of the Voices of the Valleys panel, a member of the Roanoke Symphony Chorus and a volunteer on the Friends of the Library Board for the Roanoke County Libraries.

Has anyone but me noticed the changes occurring in Roanoke? I don’t mean the advent of summer with its warmer temperatures and festival weekends. I’m talking about the changes in the Sunday edition of The Roanoke Times.

No more letters to the editor. No more Voices of the Valleys. Both sections have been replaced by editorials that either appeared throughout Virginia during the past week or in previous editions of the morning and afternoon Times.

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Short takes

Quick views on some of the week’s news.

You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!

The state Senate has passed a bill (SB 757) taking away the power of local governments to prohibit the shooting of air guns on private property. As long as shooters use “reasonable care” to ensure projectiles don’t leave their property, they would be able to fire away if the bill becomes law. …

Guns and alcohol don’t mix, except in Virginia

Virginia is anything but reasonable when it comes to gun laws, though. Last year, the General Assembly decided it would be fine to allow people with concealed carry permits to bring guns into restaurants that serve alcohol — as long as they don’t imbibe while they’re packing. But Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Richmond, was disturbed by a rather large loophole that law exposed: It is perfectly legal to carry openly in a bar while drinking. …

A golden story for eagle buffs

This past week, a crowd gathered round Harvey’s Knob Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway as a golden eagle was released back into the wild. This event afforded folks in these parts an unexpected glimpse of a bird rarely seen and of which little is known. …

40 years later, Pentagon Papers to be declassified

The National Declassification Center of the National Archives confirmed this week it is working to declassify the Pentagon Papers — the contents of which were published 40 years ago in U.S. newspapers. …

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Our voice is only one part of the mixture

Dan Radmacher

Radmacher is Roanoke Times editorial page editor.

From the RoundTable blogFrom time to time, we hear from readers suggesting that The Roanoke Times should have a more conservative editorial board to better reflect the community we serve. A recent e-mail along those lines got me thinking about what we do here on the editorial pages and why we do it. I thought it might be worth sharing some of those thoughts about where I see our editorial voice in the mix of commentary and opinion we present on our pages.

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Allow college papers to sell alcohol ads

Constitutionality aside, the ban is poor public policy for Virginia.

As Gov. Bob McDonnell continues his increasingly quixotic quest to privatize liquor sales, maybe he can spare a moment to undo another of the commonwealth’s alcohol hang-ups. Virginia still bans college newspapers from running advertisements for booze.

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