Journalism matters. 

A reporter in Brunswick, Georgia, has reminded us all just how much it matters. 

Sometimes the truth is not on the surface.

Sometimes news reporters have to dig a little. 

Sometimes, they have to dig a lot. 

Reporter Larry Hobbs of The Brunswick News dug a whole lot and kept pushing for answers until he got some in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger hunted down by three men, then shot and killed in the street.

Initially, police didn’t want to tell Hobbs anything other than the mere fact someone had been shot in the Satilla Shore neighborhood. 

Law enforcement agencies must abide by the law, and in Georgia, the state’s open government laws require that all initial incident reports, including the details, be made public in a timely manner. 

Hobbs kept pushing, kept asking questions and kept making public records requests. That’s what journalists do. 

The Brunswick News is a small newspaper with a small staff but that did not deter its dogged pursuit of the truth. 

The three men involved in the murder of Arbery have been convicted and the family is crediting the local newspaper for its part in bringing the truth to light. 

Hobb’s rightly said he was just “doing his job” but he did it well. 

He was curious. He asked questions. When things just didn’t make sense, he asked more questions. In his own words, “I was thinking in the back of my head he’s a Black guy — we don’t always mention Black and white or race in stories unless it’s an issue — but why was there a 25-year-old man dead in the middle of the street and then they’re saying, ‘We’re hearing that it might have been a burglary?’ OK, with a burglary you shoot somebody at home. No, this is somebody shot dead in the middle of the street? It wasn’t adding up.” 

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, during a news conference credited the newspaper for gathering more information than she had been able to receive regarding her son’s death. Arbery’s aunt, Theawanza Brooks, said “I think that with the media getting involved, it helped circulate faster throughout the world. Most times when the media isn’t involved in cases, they can easily be tossed to the side and no one cares. The media helped shed light.” 

Would these three men have gotten away with Arbery’s murder without the media?

Imagine Brunswick without a newspaper. 

Imagine any community without a local newspaper. 

Sadly, news deserts now exist in parts of our state and throughout the nation. 

Since 2004, about 1,800 newspapers have closed in the U.S., according to the Poynter Institute and the reason is clear. Since 2006, Pew Research data shows a huge drop in newspaper advertising revenue, an estimated $49.2 billion in revenues in 2006 down to just $8.8 billion in 2020. Subscriptions to print newspapers have dropped significantly across the nation as well. 

When there is no local newspaper, there is no one keeping an eye on the authorities, on local government or on the public purse. Corruption and taxes rise and accountability declines. 

It is important for communities to support local journalism by subscribing to the local paper, purchasing single copies and advertising goods and services. 

Journalism matters. 

Larry Hobbs and The Brunswick News have reminded us all why it matters so much.