News Is Something With Value, Dang It; You Can Order Free COVID Tests–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Sept. 26, 2024

Indy Digest: Sept. 26, 2024

Once upon a time—before the internet came along—people thought news had value, and they’d even pay for it.

If you wanted a newspaper, you subscribed, bought one from a vending box, or purchased one at a store or a newsstand. (People who couldn’t pay, or didn’t want to pay, could go to a library or a bookstore.) If you wanted information from a cable-TV news outlet, you called your local cable-TV provider and started paying a bill once a month. Yeah, you could get free news on broadcast TV or on the radio, but unless you got a VCR or a cassette tape involved, it was ephemeral—once you watched or listened, it was gone.

Then came the internet … and news providers apparently lost their gosh-darned minds, because they started putting all their news online for free.

If you wanted to read a story from The New York Times, or the local daily, or any other newspaper, all you had to do was type in a web address or do a search, and it appeared on your screen … no charge! If you desired a report from, say, CNN, all you had to do was head to CNN.com—no cable bill necessary.

Over time, these news providers finally came to their senses, and said: “Holy hell! We’re idiots! We need to start monetizing our news again!” They started selling digital ads, but they sold for a mere fraction of what those old print ads did—and there was a lot of competition for those ad dollars, from social media companies and Google and so on. So they eventually started putting up paywalls and asking people to pay … but by then, it was too late.

They’d trained people to think that news should be free.

As a result, we have idiotic situations like one earlier this week in a local Facebook group. People on this group and in others had been talking about the closure of a Palm Springs restaurant that was once beloved, but has been in a cycle of reopening and then closing again in recent years. So an enterprising reporter for The Desert Sun went to work.

He pored over bankruptcy filings. He called up attorneys involved in the case. He interviewed various people, including a former manager at that restaurant who wants to take it over. He then wrote a story, explaining what has been going on over the last few years at the restaurant.

Finally, that reporter posted a link to the piece in the aforementioned Facebook group. “There has been a lot of talk both on this page and around town … so we at The Desert Sun looked into it. Here is what we found out,” he wrote.

At that point, did the information-hungry members of that group thank the reporter? Well, some did (including the group’s moderator), but a lot of others did not. In fact, they expressed disdain and even lashed out—because the story was behind a subscribers-only paywall.

“Please don’t post if it sends us to a paywall,” one person said. “Can’t read because the Desert Sun wants money first. Please don’t post these if there are conditions to view the post,” said another. “Maybe someone can post a summary for those of us that can’t read the article!” said yet another. And, finally: “Democracy dies behind a paywall.”

Sigh.

Folks, I know this is a topic that has been addressed many times before in this space, and I realize I’m preaching to the choir, to some extent, but … quality news coverage costs a lot to produce, and news organizations are under no obligation to give you their stuff for free.

This is not to say that news organizations couldn’t and shouldn’t do better. Ideally, newspapers would offer a way for someone to pay per-piece—for example, The Desert Sun could have a method for someone to pay a couple of bucks to read a piece if they don’t want to fork out for a subscription (which costs $1 for the first year, and $16.99 per month after that, as of this writing).

I HATE paywalls. They’re annoying. They drive me crazy. That’s one reason why the Independent’s model has always been to offer news for free, and to earn revenue in other ways. But just because we do things that way, that doesn’t mean all news organizations need to do things that way. Businesses have the right to charge for their products. If I went into a restaurant, and demanded a free cup of soup because I found it interesting and wanted to know more, how do you think that would go?

Well-reported, well-written news is not easy to do. It takes a lot of time and effort and, yes, money, to produce and distribute. IT HAS VALUE … and you are not automatically entitled to it.

—Jimmy Boegle

Support the Independent!

Now would be a good time to say: Hey! If you find value in the Independent’s no-paywalls, always-free coverage, please consider clicking the button below, and showing us some support. Thanks!

More News

• The state is mandating that schools restrict cell phone use. The Los Angeles Times says: “Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a bill into law that will require California school districts to restrict or ban student cellphone use, thrusting the state with the largest K-12 population in the nation into the forefront of a growing movement to get distracted students off their devices in the classroom and focused on learning. The law, called the Phone-Free Schools Act, requires California’s 1,000 school districts, charter schools and county education offices to draft student cellphone policies by July 1, 2026. It leaves it up to local schools whether students should be banned from using cellphones altogether. But the law requires schools to restrict phone use in order to ‘support pupil learning and well-being.’”

• KESQ News Channel 3 offers a sobering reminder that child trafficking is real—and it’s happening close to home: “Disturbing details are emerging from the U.S. Border Patrol as multiple cases of suspected child smuggling and trafficking were discovered near the Coachella Valley. News Channel 3 anchor Karen Devine spoke with Gregory Bovino, the chief Border Patrol agent from the El Centro Sector about how they were able to determine three young children were in trouble in the last two weeks and get them to safety. Bovino said, ‘Sometimes we encounter criminal actions so horrendous they defy human decency.’ He’s referring to the case of a 4-year-old child given sleep aids so he couldn’t call for his mother or speak to agents.”

• Today’s recall news involves … pet food! USA Today reports: “ANSWERS Pet Food is voluntarily recalling several of its products ‘out of an abundance of caution’ due to potential salmonella and listeria, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The dog food was recalled after the FDA tested samples of the brand’s pet food, which tested positive for salmonella and listeria. ANSWERS’ Detailed Beef Formula for Dogs, Straight Beef Formula for Dogs and Straight Chicken Formula for Dogs were recalled. So far, no illnesses related to the recall have been reported, according to the press release published by the FDA.” The pet food was sold nationwide.

• If you drive a Kia, you should read this piece from Wired: “A group of independent security researchers revealed that they’d found a flaw in a web portal operated by the carmaker Kia that let the researchers reassign control of the internet-connected features of most modern Kia vehicles—dozens of models representing millions of cars on the road—from the smartphone of a car’s owner to the hackers’ own phone or computer. By exploiting that vulnerability and building their own custom app to send commands to target cars, they were able to scan virtually any internet-connected Kia vehicle’s license plate and within seconds gain the ability to track that car’s location, unlock the car, honk its horn, or start its ignition at will.” Eek.

• A group of Haitian immigrants is working to have Donald Trump and J.D. Vance criminally prosecuted for their false statements that have turned Springfield, Ohio upside down. NBC News explains: “Guerline Jozef, a co-founder and the executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, filed the charges on behalf of the group ‘Over the last two weeks, both Trump and Vance led an effort to vilify and threaten the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio,’ Jozef wrote. ‘Together, they spread and amplified the debunked claim that Haitians immigrants in Springfield are eating cats, dogs, and wildlife.’ The group’s attorney, Subodh Chandra, cited inaction from a prosecuting attorney in asserting Jozef’s right to file the charges as a private citizen. Ohio law allows private citizens to file affidavits charging people with crimes. However, the law requires hearings to take place before the affidavits can move forward. ,,, Trump and Vance were charged with disrupting public services, making false alarms, complicity, telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing in the filing, which asked Clark County Municipal Court to find that there is probable cause and to issue warrants for Trump’s and Vance’s arrests.”

• And finally … have you ordered your government-provided COVID-19 tests yet? The Associated Press says: “Americans can once again order COVID-19 tests, without being charged, sent straight to their homes. The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov. The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week. … The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine and their yearly flu shot.”

Read this Indy Digest at CVIndependent.com!