美国国家公共电台 NPR Digging Deep Into Local News, A Small Newspaper In Rural Oregon Is Thriving

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In Oregon, a small rural newspaper is bucking¹ an industry trend. Circulation at the Malheur Enterprise has surged over the past few years. The paper's even won several national awards. This weekly paper covers a part of the state that strongly supported President Trump², who of course has been lashing³ out at the media. Here's more from NPR's Tom Goldman.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE⁴: It's Wednesday morning, delivery day for the Malheur Enterprise.

SHEILA SCHRODER: All right. Now if I can remember where I'm going, we are off.

GOLDMAN: Seventy-four-year-old Sheila Schroder eases her white Dodge⁵ Ram⁶ pickup⁷ onto the streets of Vale. The tiny eastern Oregon town, population 1,900, is where the paper is headquartered. She'll make stops at the county courthouse, a nursing home, a flower shop. The Dodge Ram crammed⁸ with papers certainly is an upgrade from when she started doing this over 20 years ago.

SCHRODER: That's when I had my grocery cart, and I (laughter) delivered papers with my grocery cart full of papers.

GOLDMAN: And what did people say to you?

SCHRODER: People called me the bag lady (laughter).

GOLDMAN: Now a grocery cart would be pretty tough. On her Wednesday rounds, Schroder logs about a hundred miles throughout Malheur County, Oregon's second largest. Schroder's increased workload⁹ is one of the effects of a newspaper that has boomed in the past three years. Les Zaitz is the Enterprise editor and publisher.

LES ZAITZ: Our overall revenue is more than triple what it was three years ago. Circulation is probably double, and we're profitable. And there's not a lot of papers in the United States that can say they're profitable.

GOLDMAN: Zaitz largely is responsible for this, although he'd rather smack¹⁰ you with his humor than admit he's the reason for the turnaround.

ZAITZ: That's a damnable lie.

(LAUGHTER)

GOLDMAN: No, but seriously, it's really the truth. Zaitz, now 63, was a longtime award-winning investigative reporter for The Oregonian, the state's largest newspaper. But he's always had a serious passion for small town papers, which is why in 2015 he interrupted retirement¹¹ plans and bought the Enterprise with family members. Then it was almost out of business and filled with gossip and press releases. Now it's a serious award-winning newspaper.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED BROADCASTER: Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the news at 6. We begin tonight with a development in the case of a Napa man accused of killing¹² two people last January.

GOLDMAN: The Enterprise's in-depth coverage¹³ of that case, the killing of two people in Malheur County allegedly by a man released from the state hospital after claiming he faked his mental illness - that coverage earned the paper a prestigious¹⁴ national Investigative Reporters and Editors award this year. It's the first time the IRE prize went to a weekly.

JAYME FRASER: Remind me again exactly which smoking gun we're looking for.

GOLDMAN: Twenty-eight-year-old Jayme Fraser has been working full-time¹⁵ on the state hospital story. She's one of three reporters in the Vale office. Another, Pat Caldwell, has been a journalist for 22 years. He says Les Zaitz has transformed the way he works.

PAT CALDWELL: It's all about details - just detail, detail, detail. You know, and why, why, why, why? You know, why are you doing this? Why is that happening? Who pays for it?

GOLDMAN: Zaitz pushes, and he teaches. Here he talks about a school funding story with reporter Kristine de Leon.

ZAITZ: And tell me what I can do to help you break this down in a way that doesn't seem overwhelming...

KRISTINE DE LEON: Right.

ZAITZ: ...'Cause it's a lot - 'cause this stuff is not easy.

DE LEON: I guess like - so what should I do first?

ZAITZ: That is really sort of the foundation of the Malheur Enterprise these days - is that sort of in-depth aggressive coverage that you normally do not see in rural America.

GOLDMAN: What you do see a lot in rural America is people supporting a president who regularly attacks journalists.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And that's why 33 percent of the people in this country believe the fake news is in fact - and I hate to say this - the enemy of the people.

(APPLAUSE)

GOLDMAN: Donald Trump won nearly 70 percent of Malheur County votes in the 2016 election. And for some, that support extends to Trump's anti-media message.

STEVE PAULSEN: I don't watch national news because it is biased¹⁶, I feel.

BOB BEMENT: I feel like they give their opinion instead of just the facts.

GOLDMAN: Steve Paulsen and Bob Bement are members of an early-rising group that meets most mornings at the Lucky Cup in Vale.

(SOUNDBITE OF COFFEE GRINDER WHIRRING)

GOLDMAN: There's coffee and kind of mean farmer jokes.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You know the difference between a puppy and a farmer? A puppy grows up and quits whining¹⁷.

(LAUGHTER)

GOLDMAN: Generally, there's not a lot of talk about politics or media, but there is quick praise for the Malheur Enterprise. Paulsen and Bement, who distrust the national media, trust the Enterprise. So does local attorney Carol Skerjanec.

CAROL SKERJANEC: We're pretty intelligent people, so we don't need to be told how to feel about something or what direction to take or what stance to take. Just tell us what the facts are, and we'll make our own decision. And I think that's what Les is doing.

GOLDMAN: Zaitz is a fierce defender¹⁸ of journalism¹⁹, but he can understand the disenchantment with cable news, even with reputable major newspapers like The Washington Post and New York Times. Zaitz says he has friends at both papers, but he thinks they may go too far in their Trump coverage - for instance, dissecting²⁰ every early morning tweet.

ZAITZ: What that sort of incremental²¹ coverage does is it just overwhelms the important reporting. And I think it dulls the American public's appetite for what's happening in Washington.

GOLDMAN: He knows there's an appetite for good reporting. He says during a recent week, a third of Malheur County's roughly 30,000 residents read the Enterprise online. Zaitz has earned a lot of trust not just through his journalism but also because he's one of them. His hands are thick from bucking hay and fixing barbed wire fences on his ranch²², but being on the inside doesn't mean he panders²³. Zaitz has written editorials criticizing U.S. Republican Congressman²⁴ Greg Walden who's quite popular in the area. His paper's reporting has angered local politicians. Some still don't talk to Zaitz or his reporters.

AL CROSS: And that really is the ideal community journalist - the ideal rural journalist.

GOLDMAN: Al Cross directs the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky.

CROSS: A person who is in the community, of the community, but isn't afraid to hold up a mirror to the community that may look unflattering.

GOLDMAN: Les Zaitz hopes this kind of reporting spreads.

ZAITZ: Rather than worrying about what's going on in journalism at the national level, let's turn the periscope²⁵ around and let's rebuild from the small guy up. And I think that's going to have more influence in the long run.

GOLDMAN: In Malheur County, they're building reporting and trust one week at a time. Tom Goldman, NPR News, Vale, Ore.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 bucking   

v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的现在分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• a bucking bronco in the rodeo 牛仔竞技表演中一匹弓背跳跃的野马
• That means we'll be bucking grain bags, bustin's gut. 那就是说咱们要背这一袋袋的谷子，得把五脏都累坏。 来自辞典例句

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 lashing   

n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The speaker was lashing the crowd. 演讲人正在煽动人群。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rain was lashing the windows. 雨急打着窗子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 dodge   

v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计

参考例句：

• A dodge behind a tree kept her from being run over.她向树后一闪，才没被车从身上辗过。
• The dodge was coopered by the police.诡计被警察粉碎了。

6 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

7 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

8 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

9 workload   

n.作业量，工作量

参考例句：

• An assistant one day a week would ease my workload.每周有一天配一个助手就会减轻我的工作负担。
• He's always grousing about the workload.他总是抱怨工作量大。

10 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

11 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

14 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

15 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

16 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

17 whining   

n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚

参考例句：

• That's the way with you whining, puny, pitiful players. 你们这种又爱哭、又软弱、又可怜的赌棍就是这样。
• The dog sat outside the door whining (to be let in). 那条狗坐在门外狺狺叫着（要进来）。

18 defender   

n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人

参考例句：

• He shouldered off a defender and shot at goal.他用肩膀挡开防守队员，然后射门。
• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。

19 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

20 dissecting   

v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的现在分词 )；仔细分析或研究

参考例句：

• Another group was dissecting a new film showing locally. 另外一批人正在剖析城里上演的一部新电影。 来自辞典例句
• Probe into Dissecting Refraction Method Statics Processing under Complicated Surface Conditions. 不同地表条件下土壤侵蚀的坡度效应。 来自互联网

21 incremental   

adj.增加的

参考例句：

• For logic devices, the incremental current gain is very important. 对于逻辑器件来说，提高电流增益是非常重要的。 来自辞典例句
• By using an incremental approach, the problems involving material or geometric nonlinearity have been solved. 借应用一种增量方法，已经解决了包括材料的或几何的非线性问题。 来自辞典例句

22 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

23 panders   

v.迎合（他人的低级趣味或淫欲）( pander的第三人称单数 )；纵容某人；迁就某事物

参考例句：

• He panders to her every whim. 他对她的性子百依百顺。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Panders were warned or arrested in the anti-prostitution campaign. 在打击卖淫的运动中，老鸨们有的受到警告，有的被逮捕了。 来自辞典例句

24 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

25 periscope   

n. 潜望镜

参考例句：

• The captain aligned the periscope on the bearing.船长使潜望镜对准方位。
• Now,peering through the periscope he remarked in businesslike tones.现在，他一面从潜望镜里观察，一面用精干踏实的口吻说话。