Connecticut is the third smallest state in the country, area-wise, with a total population less than half that of New York City. In this respect, Connecticut news is always local, and the Hartford Courant, with an average daily circulation of 130,000, is the biggest paper in the state.
It is the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper. The paper has won two Pulitzers in its history. It may win a third with its coverage of the Newtown massacre.
Even as its readership and revenue declined, as budget cuts decimated the newsroom and increasing amounts of its content was supplied by wire services or syndicated articles (the Courant has been owned by the Tribune company since 2000) — as the Courant fell victim to those familiar news industry woes — it stayed a fixture on my family’s breakfast table, the best place to find out what was going on in our neighborhood.
As bigger outlets from all over the world swarm Newtown to cover an unfathomable tragedy and as legacy outlets and prolific Tweeters alike spat out misinformation and rumors, the Hartford Courant had the best account I’ve seen so far. Its coverage continues to be excellent: patient, accurate, and compassionate. As recent Connecticut transplant Megan Greenwell wrote: “You cover something differently when it’s yours.”
If you want to know what’s going on in Newtown — what it was before, how it’s coping afterwards, and the closest we may ever get to why — you’d best start with the Courant. I wondered if it would be able to step up to the challenge of covering the second-deadliest school shooting in US history. It has.
I’m so sad for my state. I’m so proud of my newspaper.
I can't help but feeling helpless in regard to the tragic that has befallen CT.
I am willing to spend my time and or money. If anyone out there knows a
way I can help in ANY way, please advise.
#1 Posted by Todd Krejci, CJR on Mon 17 Dec 2012 at 10:08 PM
This posting and the excerpt from The Hartford Courant are singular. Particularly telling is the reference to Lanza's penchant for "graphically violent video games." The blood of these children is on tghe hands of the video game industry and the hands of your sainted Christgopher Dodd who has every excuse under the sun for the violenced in movies and his hand-maidens, the MPAA. The NRA shares with these Hollywood yokels the fault.
#2 Posted by Mike Robbins, CJR on Tue 18 Dec 2012 at 03:57 PM
Yes, I'm delighted Sara Morrison has picked this up because I found myself reading the Courant in detail also.
It's so horrible. Obama made a fine speech Friday. I liked his focus on love, inthe broader sense. A columnist next day in L.A.Times picked that up and said, by comparison the gun lobby has ice iin their veins as they plan to fight against common sense and decency. It's like the tobacco lobby before it was finally defeated.
We're not going to forget this easily. Modest example; I was walking out of my church Sunday, as the families were coming in for the next service.. There were lots of kids. I looked at one couple with two kids and suddenly chocked up, turned and said to a stranger next to me: "They're the same age." She nodded, then, shaking her head quietly said 'Yes."We instantly knew what theoither was thinking. May there be more kindness in this world. Is it possible?
#3 Posted by John Morris, CJR on Tue 18 Dec 2012 at 10:18 PM