The Press and Economic Development (Editorial)

What’s this? The governors of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi admonished attendees of the Tri-State Press Convention to be careful to get their facts right when reporting on economic development.

We know of no newspaper (save a few available at the grocery store checkout lane) that sets out to print wrong information on economic development or any other matter. In fact, we question whether newspapers are the problem.

Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Phil Bredesen of Tennessee and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas were part of a discussion on “Jobs and Economic Development in the Delta: How Newspapers Can Help.”

“If there is proprietary information and it gets released, it often destroys our ability to attract business,” Huckabee was quoted in The Commercial Appeal of Memphis. “The reality is, if you pull the dish out of the stove before it’s cooked and you serve it to the public, they might not get a sense of how it should taste because it’s not done.”

Huckabee has apparently taken to talking about food rather than eating it, but what we’d really like to see is evidence of any economic development projects that fell through because newspapers reported something wrong. Or something right, for that matter. Is this really a problem?

State officials want to cloak negotiations with business prospects in secrecy, while newspapers carry the responsibility of reporting what’s going on in their coverage area. There is conflict, but, Governors, you need to know that it isn’t a conflict of interest. Newspapers love new businesses (i.e., new subscribers, new advertisers), and they want to get the story right.

And for our own governor, as you begin to campaign for proposed Amendment 2, which would allow our legislators to obligate hundreds of millions of dollars in state money to attract super projects without a vote of the people, it will be the newspapers that help voters decide its merits.

While we endorse the measure and believe it’s needed to help the state land super projects such as an automobile manufacturing plant, newspapers will still keep a close watch on matters. That’s our job.