You are already in public relations. You make it sound like you work for the people of Lancaster County. Think long and hard about that. Everyone has an agenda. LNP is a business with fingers entangled in far more than just selling newspapers. There is nothing wrong with that but if you don't admit it than you are living a lie and is there any wonder that you are losing readers?

Having a newspaper business be in charge of distributing information does not work anymore. Politicians can buy them off, they can be involved in other enterprises counter to the public good, and they notoriously embellish stories because the goal is always to sell more papers.

I have friends in the journalism industry and i agree with much of what you said, but the local paper has to become more personal and real if it is to survive.

Far too many otherwise excellent "journalists" reflect their employer's agenda.

I've known Dave Pidgeon for almost as long as he has written for the paper. He has always been honest. I haven't always agreed with everything he's written, however it has been consistently well written, fair and balanced.

True news articles are not opinion pieces. They are not about what has happened to you, the reporter. Often as reporters you're sent in to write about something you don't agree with, or would never participate in (yes stories are most often assigned). Still, your job is to report it in a way that informs people what happened, without your own agenda taking precedence.

While its true that reporters are at the mercy of their editors they are also at the mercy of the public. No matter what you do as a journalist someone will always try to label you as being "too something". Still true journalist's thrive on that and love to prove people wrong about their preconceived notions. The only thing that most journalist's are is "too attuned" to everything going on around them.

Dave it has been my true pleasure and honor to know you. You are a journalist of the old school and to that I tip my hat to you.

So is this your opinion or is this fact?

Here is my opinion. There is no fact. There is only opinion and theory and personal experience. And that is the issue. Postmodern society does not accept that facts exist, especially not through an appointed gatekeeper calling themselves a reporter.

The internet allows us to read as many different perspectives of a story that we want. There is not much else here in lancaster to read besides LNP but there is always talkback and the perspective section, which if i recall correctly is the most read section of the sunday news.

Worldview is shaped over a lifetime of personal experience. You might learn more about the Iran election reading the dialogue between salty and ceejay than reading MSNBC as long as you recognize that you are not reading truth but it is no less 2 very real perspectives that effect how the world is looking at the conflict.

I was reading an old NY Times just today. From the 1800s. And I've done research on other old newspapers. The thought that 'in the old days' we had reporters without personal prejudices, agendas, and tendencies to reflect those who owned and those who read the papers is hogwash.