By Andy Hachadorian

In 1990 there were 56,900 full time journalists at U.S. daily newspapers. In 2015 there were 32,900. Do the math. Those are not good numbers.

That is unless, of course, you are a member of the population that hates the media. Sort of the kind of person who tells the joke: “What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start…”

But reporters and journalists are not unlike attorneys — you hate them until you need them.

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And who needs them?

Who needs coverage of municipal meetings, planning commission meetings, meetings of zoning hearing boards?

Who needs photos of kids at Little League games, new business groundbreakings?

Who needs coverage of local government, state government and the federal government including members of Congress, the Senate and yes, even whoever resides in the White House?

Who needs them to write stories about police seeking the guy who drove a pickup truck and who murdered an innocent 18-year-old last week?

Well, frankly, you do. I do. We all do. Let’s forget all the talk about “fake news,” about CNN, about Donald Trump.

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Republican or Democrat, we all need a healthy news media and for all kinds of reasons we need it now more than ever.

Read this:

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

— Thomas Jefferson

“The liberty of the press is essential to the security of the state.”

— John Adams

There is a reason we call them our “founding fathers…”; They knew the importance of a free press.

The media is not perfect. It never was and it never will be. And there are some journalists who aren’t doing their jobs for the right reason.

But I believe that number is the smaller number and not the bigger. I believe reporters and journalists want to do a good job – whether it’s CNN, Fox News or here in Chester County at the Daily Local. Each has a job to do and each is doing the best they can with limited resources and under tight deadlines.

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So as citizens of such a great country as ours, let’s respect that we have differences of opinion. Let’s know that no one in the mainstream media is churning our fake anything.

Journalists are trying to do their job which is to keep a populace informed of what is happening, where its happening and who is making it happen whether it’s in Washington, D.C., Chester County or in your local neighborhood.

Some say being a reporter is the worst job you could have. I would argue it’s the worst job that you love.

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Andy Hachadorian is the former Editor of the Daily Local News

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