« Courts - "SCOTUS Justices Offer Receptive Ear to Business Interests" | Main | Environment - Gas station UST leak renders house in Hobart uninhabitable »

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Ind. Gov't. - "Sylvia A. Smith has worked at The Journal Gazette since 1973 and has covered Washington since 1989. She is the only Washington-based reporter who exclusively covers northeast Indiana."

But alas, no more.

Ms. Smith writes today at the end of her Sunday column:

After about 1,000 Sunday columns for The Journal Gazette over 22 years, I’m retiring from the paper and heading off for adventures in the world of editing. Thank you for the many years of feedback you have given me. You’ve offered me much to ponder, and I will miss your notes and e-mails – both the challenging variety and the generous, supportive ones.
Ron Shawgo of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette writes today under the heading "JG’s Capitol Hill reporter retiring." From near the end of the long story:
Journalism’s watchdog role is diminished without a Washington presence, even with information overload in the Internet age, [Smith] said.

“What a journalist does in any area, but particularly in this area, is distill lots of information, synthesize lots of information, try to put it in a coherent package and not take all of your time doing it,” Smith said. “I don’t think a democracy can function without information about its government, but it’s unrealistic to think that citizens have enough time to adequately educate themselves to everything that’s going on.”

On a personal note, I will greatly miss Ms. Smith's reports.

And I admire her definition of "what a journalist does" so much that I am adopting it as the mission statement of the ILB:

"Distill lots of information, synthesize lots of information,
try to put it in a coherent package and
not take all of your time doing it."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 19, 2010 12:16 PM
Posted to Indiana Government