Let Freedom Ring

In support of my friends who created RadioFreeRockHill.com, I wrote this thing. It may be the first of many, or it may be a one-and-done. Only time will tell.

As a middle-aged businessman and family man, time is one of my most precious commodities. I am sure many of you can relate.

I do make time to watch the world around me, and to ponder it. Not long ago, if something got stuck in my craw, I wrote a letter to The Editor of the local newspaper.

I was one of those dummies who continued to pay for the paper long after I stopped reading it. After I finally let my subscription die an over-due death, I did not feel right about writing to The Editor.

I was also a very late subscriber to Facebook. My friends and family badgered me for years to sign up before I finally bit the bullet and sold my Internet soul to Mark Zuckerberg.

For a time, it was nice to catch up with far-flung friends with whom I had lost touch, to post photos of my cats, to re-post silly memes, and to “Like” a never-ending stream of other people’s posts.

Then, something changed. My Facebook friends got mean. It seemed like everything I posted set somebody off on a rant against me, and every other thing in my newsfeed set me off on someone else.

Eventually, I figured out that this was probably by design. Facebook’s algorithms seemed to intentionally antagonize me, so that I would “engage” more with their “platform.”

It reminded me of stories I’ve heard from the old days, when a group of men would surround a couple of kids who were friends and keep pushing them into each other until they would fight. Then the men would wager on the fight.

I still subscribe to Facebook, reluctantly, but I do not “engage” with their “platform.” I like to think I am that kid surrounded by those men, but I stubbornly refuse to throw a punch at my friend, even after he hits me.

As for joining any other social media platform, like Instagram (FB-Lite), Tik-Tok (Hi Xi!), Twitter (280), Truth Social (Trump), or Nextdoor (Good Lord), my interest level is less than zero. Facebook ruined the whole social media experiment for me. Plus, it is boring and full of ads.

If social media is the future of journalism, then we are destined for a world full of lies, and doomed to be stupid and angry at each other. Talk radio and cable news are not much better. The state of our journalism is sick because our democracy is sick, and vice versa.

Whether or not you believe this statement, the writing is on the wall. According to the Pew Research Center, weekday newspaper circulation in the U.S. was about 41 million in 1940; 62 million from 1970 to 1990; and less than 25 million in 2020.

If these numbers are startling, then remember that the U.S. population was about 132 million in 1940, and 331.5 million in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. So, newspaper readership dropped by almost half while population more than doubled.

Of course, newspapers are not the be-all, end-all of journalism, but most people recognize that they are a central component to our traditional media landscape, as well as to any healthy democracy.

There were about 74,000 newspaper newsroom employees in the U.S. in 2006, and just shy of 31,000 in 2020 (Pew). Newspaper advertising revenue reached nearly $50 billion in 2005, and fell to under $10 billion in 2020 – about where it was in 1976 (Pew, again).

If you know anything about business, or just have common sense, you know that these numbers are not good. The 1^st Amendment guarantees our right to a free press, but according to the first law of capitalism, if people are not buying what you are selling, your business is toast.

As a former business reporter for The Herald (Rock Hill) in the late 1990s, and The Daily Courier (Prescott, AZ) in the early 2000s, it pains me to see newspapers in such a death spiral, or at least an existential reckoning.

Which leads us back to RadioFreeRockHill (RFRH). What is it? Well, for right now, it is free. Everyone works as an unpaid volunteer. It is a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) operation, put together by long-time locals dedicated to making our community and our world a better place.

What is it selling? Local news, ideas, opinions, information, photographs, videos, and more – a  forum for the truth, Rock Hill-style.

What will it become? Who knows, only time will tell. As for right now, it is free, and we are free. RFRH does not have to worry about making money because it is not trying to. As for our “freedom,” or liberty, it is always there for our taking, but it is also ours to lose. We take it for granted at our peril.