Quote: vbfg "I'm not sure. They still provide a service of some kind, but the very last thing they do is speak truth to power, and you could argue that is the main beneficial side effect of a free press. I don't have much experience of other local newspapers so I can't say how much similar sized newspapers repeatedly fail the communities they serve in the same way the T&A does.
I'm almost tempted to argue that nobody pays for journalism anymore, and that a small paper like the T&A doesn't have much choice but to parrot council press releases on the major issues affecting the city. I'm not going to argue that though because they've been pulling this nonsense since at least the 80s, if not earlier, and people did pay for journalism then.
If the council has a hairbrained scheme to get people to come from Japan and look at things vaguely Bronte related so they can put the occasional 50p the way of some sweet shop in Haworth then the T&A will spend column inches on it. If there are no plans at all for attracting investment into the city despite hoards of missed opportunities for doing so, stupid giveaway land deals concerning prime real estate being signed or obvious and blatant incompetence / corruption then they are nowhere to be seen. Worse, if they are seen at all they are telling us not to worry, there really is a plan, and everything will turn out alright in the end. Whether they do this for "never talk Bradford down" reasons or whether they do it because they themselves are some combination of incompetent and corrupt I do not know. I know what I think, but I don't know the facts.'"
You're correct imo. The T&A was tabloidised (if there is such a word!) long before it changed shape, and since it became part of a mega media group it seems to be run with far fewer reporters than previously. It's hardly surprising there is little investigatory stuff and a plethora of council press handouts. Pretty poor.
