This month will mark an anniversary for The World-Herald: On Aug. 24, it will be 133 years since Gilbert Hitchcock founded this newspaper.
The succeeding years have brought enormous change to our state and nation, including to newspapers. Production at The World-Herald has gone from venerable, old-time linotype through a series of changes to today’s Geoman press at the Freedom Center. And now we also devote great energy to our digital product.
Some Americans increasingly brand the press as a negative force in our society. President Donald Trump has come to regularly describe the press as the “enemy of the people.” Journalism, as with any endeavor, certainly is open to criticism. We acknowledge upfront that the nation’s press is a human institution. We sometimes make mistakes.
But The World-Herald stands foursquare in underscoring and defending the enduring importance of the press in the life of our nation. America’s founders understood the need to safeguard freedom of the press — they placed strong protections for it in our Constitution’s First Amendment. History has demonstrated, time and again, the importance of journalism in shining a light on government and explaining key issues confronting communities and our nation.
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A free press allows a range of voices to be heard, including those supportive of an administration as well as those critical of it. Look abroad, and you’ll see that one of the first things authoritarian governments do is choke off freedom of the press, closing newspapers and broadcast media and coercing those that remain into becoming obedient lapdogs for those in power. That is the state of things in present-day Turkey, Venezuela and China, to name just a few.
These days, there’s far too much political finger-pointing and declaring fellow Americans as enemies. Robust political debate should be part of a free society, but our nation would benefit greatly if the public and our elected leaders devoted more energy to seeking cooperative solutions instead of hurling cheap insults at each other. The Nebraska Legislature, where Republicans and Democrats find it necessary and constructive to work together, provides a positive example: State senators often have to reach across the political aisle to get things done. In the process, they find that those in the opposite party aren’t such terrible scoundrels, after all.
The World-Herald has a history of standing up for the First Amendment. In 1975, we joined with eight other Nebraska news organizations in legally challenging a gag order imposed by a Lincoln County judge in the case involving Erwin Charles Simants, who was convicted of mass murder. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the challenge to the gag order.
In the 1980s, then-World-Herald Publisher and President Harold Andersen strongly defended the independence of newspapers and broadcast media overseas as president of the World Press Freedom Committee.
In-depth coverage of Omaha and Nebraska remains our central focus, whether it’s big-picture reporting, human-interest stories, sports coverage or editorial comment. Just a few examples: Our 2007 series, “Omaha in Black and White,” reported on local poverty and opportunities to address it; in 2017, staff writer Henry Cordes revisited the issue and reported on local progress. In 2014, Todd Cooper’s series about repeated miscalculations in prison sentencing spurred major changes by the state.
The World-Herald book “The Better Half,” by Matthew Hansen and Sarah Baker Hansen, brings together stories of humor and inspiration from across the state. The Huskers have long been a key part of Nebraska culture, and our sports team delivers detailed coverage of the latest developments.
Readers can turn to The World-Herald for detailed, ongoing reports on local and regional issues that matter to our communities. For example, when the state announced it was going to intervene to help the schools in Schuyler, we sent reporter Joe Dejka and photographer Kent Sievers to that Nebraska community to report the story in depth. Our focus on Nebraska water issues goes back to the 1930s, and last Sunday we editorially examined the need to address major water quality concerns in parts of the state.
America benefits greatly from a free press. Our newspaper, firmly rooted in our community, remains dedicated to serving our readers and carrying our traditions into the future.