Just my opinion for BJ

The Beacon Journal has asked readers to let them know how the BJ has touched their life and what advice they have the the new owner. Here’s mine:.

From my earliest days of newspapering, I was told:

"The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

The famous quote is about a hundred years old and can be traced to the work of Finley Peter Dunne, one of the great journalists of the day, who wrote in the voice and persona of an Irishman named "Mr. Dooley."

"Th newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward."

Contemporary journalists have twisted Dunne's original argument that the power of newspapers was out of proportion, that they exerted influence where they had no legitimate business. They even had the arrogance to think they can afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

It is true that the worst journalism comforts the comfortable and afflicts the afflicted. It worries more about profit than newspapering. That is a breach of duty. We need journalists to get at the truth and to keep watch against greed and abuses of power.

Harry Liggett
March 1995 News Desk retiree

I hope fervently that the new owners will honor their bargain with us and mantain our current health benefits.

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