The Chautauqua Institution has a series of lectures based on a theme. For instance, The Evolution of the Modern Presidency was the theme in week 1, June 22–29.
For week 5, when my wife and I were there, the topic was Our Greatest Challenges (That We Can Actually Do Something About). All of the events were at the amphitheater.
Monday: “Scholar, cultural critic, and staff writer at The Atlantic Thomas Chatterton Williams surveys the current American conversation on race, shares how he has evolved in his conception of race and societal division, and provides his perspective on creating a space for productive conversation and bridge-building. “
He was an organizer of what many called the Harper’s Letter, “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate” in 2020. It had several prominent signees, including Noam Chomsky, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Garry Kasparov, and J.K. Rowling. It attempted to address what is loosely called “cancel culture.” (The Atlantic called it A Deeply Provincial View of Free Speech.) Openness, Chatterton Williams notes, is “a necessity in a free society.”
He also spoke on racial identity. His 23 and Me genetic test notes he is 59.6 European. His father had always been defined as black, but his daughters are so fair that they could pass in Stockholm as Swedish. As long as society imposes racial and other categorizations, he believes we are limited in terms of how we can truly communicate with each other. (I don’t know what that looks like, but that’s for another time.)
A free press
Tuesday: “Margaret Sullivan, the Egan Visiting Professor at Duke University, award-winning media critic and groundbreaking journalist will… evaluate the state of local journalism; offer models for re-establishing this critical community institution; and share ways that individual and community action can create solutions.”
Like many of a certain age, she was inspired by the reporting of the Watergate scandal. She started as an intern at the Buffalo News and eventually became its first female editor-in-chief.
At the time, newspapers were wildly profitable because advertisers had few ways to target their potential customers. But competition, first from Craigslist, hurt the bottom. Eventually, Facebook, Google, and others circulated the expensive-to-create news content for free and this gutted newsrooms.
This is most unfortunate. Sullivan cited the two Buffalo News reporters who broke the story about the root causes of the 2009 plane crash near Buffalo after the national press came, reported the incident, and then moved on to the next story. That type of investigative digging costs money and time.
The decline in regional news coverage means local officials are often not held accountable, and corruption is more likely. Also, when local cultural criticism is gone, replaced by wire services, what’s lost is the fabric that ties a community together.
Good news
The good news is that some entities, such as the Daily Mississippian, which often shares stories with dailies and weeklies in the Magnolia State; ProPublica, Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest; and others, are attempting to fill the breach.
Still, Sullivan, who has also held significant roles at the New York Times and Washington Post, suggests that the audience follow and pay for local news and contribute to “free” investigative sites such as the Guardian, et al. Read about Rebuild Local News.
Most importantly, she called people to be “engaged citizens at the local level. You can make sure you vote… If everyone who still believes in a reality-based press were to pitch in, I think we can restore the foundations of local journalism.”