Doing My Part

Doing My Part
by Marilyn Mackenzie


I'm doing my part for the environment, saving forests and saving trees. I've stopped buying the daily newspaper.

My parents always got the daily paper. I'm sure they still do. During different stages in their lives, during varying parts of their life journey, they read different sections first. As senior citizens, the crossword puzzles, obituaries and advice columns interest them more than world news.

As a young adult, I didn't want to be a carbon copy of my parents. Rather than just skimming front page headlines and reading the sports pages and women’s section, I read the entire paper from front to back. Yes, I even read the employment ads when I was secure and happy in my job. And I read about homes for rent or sale, when I had no intention of moving. I became quite a resource for friends. Often, I'd call a girl friend to tell about a job description that seemed designed and created with her skills in mind. Or I'd phone a guy friend to tell him about the 1966 Mustang for sale not far from his house.

All of that is in the past. I stopped reading the newspaper so thoroughly after working for the local daily newspaper.

Many have been disheartened by having the nightly TV news change and become more like entertainment than news. But prior to working for the local newspaper, I was naïve enough to think that front page news was important. I assumed a front page story was at least in the top five or ten most important news stories of the day. I found out that wasn't necessarily so.

It surprised me to find out what factors help decide front page news each day. I never imagined that what appeared on the front page might depend on which reporters finished their stories first or whether or not the photographers had taken good pictures. I truly thought that the front page was reserved for the most important news story of the day.

Now that I'm no longer a part of the news media, I receive headline news by e-mail, then either log on to CNN’s web site or turn on CNN news on the TV. The local newspaper has a web site I can visit if I choose, as do the larger papers in Houston and Galveston.

Having learned how the news is gathered, I've stopped buying the daily paper. I'm doing my part to help save the forests.