Village Squire, 1978-08, Page 42P.S.
Good news is no news
BY KEITH ROULSTON
There's an old expression about no news
being good news but when it comes to
small towns and the big city press, it seems
to me that should be "good news is no
news".
I was struck recently once again by the
feeling that many people in small towns
have: that the only time anybody pays any
attention to them is when something nasty
is happening. This time it was a headline in
the Toronto Globe and Mail that read "The
Good Book versus good books" and was of
course about the battle in Huron county
over whether or not certain books should
be used in high school English classes. The
Globe had sent up one of its top paid
writers to cover the event.
That of course was one of the few issues
that can get attention for people here in the
countryside. Suddenly when there was
something to make fun of, Huron county
became of national importance with
mention in the media all across the
country.
About the last time this area got so much
attention was with the Stephen Truscott
case. In between, of course we've made
interesting copy for arena closings,
hospital closings, school closings because
of teachers strikes and the odd winter
storm when everything was closed.
A television crew from the C.B.C. was
through the area last summer scenting out
juicy tidbits after it heard that there was a
lot of hooliganism and vandalism by young
people due to their boredom with small
town life and apparently the crew was
disappointed because it couldn't find any
riots to film.
I guess you could accuse me of being a
little paranoid on the subject. I think I
caught that bug when I lived for a few
years in the town of Clinton. The people of
Clinton after the endless controversy over a
long period about the Truscott murder case
had gotten to the point when they
shuddered to see a television camera crew
or a big city newspaper reporter arrive in
town. It meant bad news for sure they felt,
and almost always it did.
Big city media types seem to feel that all
small towns are little Peyton Places, full of
crime, passion and political corruption.
The whole mess is seething there below the
surface, just waiting for some reporter to
expose it. And everybody knows that small
town people are bigoted and not too
intelligent, slightly more modern than
hillbillies, but only slightly.
So when the people of Clinton saw the
big-time media arrive they got uptight and
usually their worst fears were realized as
somebody tried to build a story, sometimes
out of thin air. When a second murder
case involving a young teenager happened
PG. 40. VILLAGE SQUIRE/AUGUST 1978.
in Clinton 10 years after the Truscott case
reporters from the city where a murder
happens at least once a week, talked about
two murders in 10 years as if that made the
town murder city. They tried to find
connections between the two even when
the link was tenuous.
And of course all the bad things that ever
happened in Huron county go into the
thinking of reporters when they come to
town to report on something like the great
book debate. Here are the people who get
upset with dirty words on one hand while
they have all this crime and passion and
corruption on the other hand is the
message that comes out from between the
lines in stories.
Now all this would be fair play if some of
the good things were reported but when it
comes to good news about rural areas, the
big time media doesn't seem to be too
interested.
For instance, while there was some
mention about the fact that rural areas
were hit hard by the arena closure orders,
there wasn't much attention paid to the I
tremendous efforts these communities
expended in rebuilding those arenas.
There was a real story to tell, a really
happy, inspiring story of people working
together showing all the best qualities of
the rural lifestyle, but nobody seemed
interested.
And while the big city media was
interested enough to descend on Huron
county in droves when they could poke fun
at the backyard locals for their lack of
sophistication over the book debate no one
seems interested in the fact that tiny,
backward, redneck Huron county also
supports two professional theatres and has
been the birthplace for many writers and
artists who rank among the tops in their
fields in the nation.
While the travel budgets are plenty free
when a newspaper wants to send a reporter
to cover the book debate, suddenly when it
comes time to send a reviewer from the
Globe or one of the other big city papers to
cover a locally written and produced play,
there just isn't enough money or enough
time, or enough space.
It's just as well, of course. Seeing some
of the good things about small town life
might ruin all the preformed ideas the
reporters have and they'd never really be
able to dig into a good "Peyton Place"
story again.
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