As I read yesterday’s well-written, detailed, sympathetic article in the News-Gazette entitled “Champaign County no stranger to economic disparity and despair,” by Shelley Smithson and Pam G. Dempsey, I had to double-check my browser to make sure I was reading the right paper’s website. Close on the heels of their slanted, hostile coverage of the Safe Haven tent community, Sunday’s piece included the following:
Champaign County is home to a world-class university, chic new downtown lofts and more than 350 restaurants. It is also home to more than 58,600 residents – nearly one in three – who are impoverished or near poverty, according to 2007 Census Bureau data.
And this as well:
A lost job can turn into an eviction and mounting credit problems, ingredients that force many into homelessness or to seek shelter at pay-by-the-week motels, where weekly rents can range from $200 to $250, depending on the number of beds.
One more:
“We feed people who have decent jobs, who drive decent cars, yet who are having a hard time making ends meet and need help with food,” Bradley said. “They live paycheck to paycheck and if something unexpected arises – medical bills, car repairs, spousal loss of job or hours – it upsets the delicate balance. We see many people who are embarrassed that they need food.” She said nurses and construction workers have been pantry clients.
Now, those are the type of context and underlying causes that would have been helpful to cite in any number of N-G reports over the past months and years. Why now? Then, toward the end, the murky waters clear:
Today, The News-Gazette and the University of Illinois Department of Journalism begin a project to engage citizens, educators and other media in an ongoing examination of poverty and its related issues in Champaign County … The project is funded by the Marajen Stevick Foundation, a News-Gazette community foundation; a matching grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a journalism foundation based in Miami; and contributions from the University of Illinois.
OK, well that makes more sense. At least the coverage exists, and it sounds like there’s a website and other interactive tools coming in the future as part of this project. Hopefully their own editorial board will read some of the articles in this series.