A Response from Merritt’s Media

MERRITT – Wednesday, citizens in Merritt complained that the local news media routinely overlooks and underreports some news stories and have subsequently now lost some credibility among their readers. Thursday, two local media outlets were asked to respond.

The first newspaper asked for a response was The Merritt News, a weekly publication with a circulation of 5,100. Steve Thornton, the editor for the News, admitted he had only been on the job for a few weeks and was still trying to play catch-up with both his job and news events in the community.

“In the frenzy of having a new editor, a new reporter and the biggest news story to hit this city in a long time – yes, perhaps some facts got dropped,” Thornton confessed. Thornton has over 20 years of journalism and writing experience and only very recently accepted the job as the editor of the Merritt News.

Thornton was responding to the specific comments made by a local citizen Wednesday that a series of gas station robberies had occurred in recent days that had not been reported in any of the local papers. This same citizen also claimed this was “business as usual” for the Merritt newspapers, charging that they had also overlooked other big stories that go on at the annual music festival in town.

Thornton said he was genuinely happy to hear such criticism. “I am glad to hear that feedback, I sincerely am,” he said during an interview Thursday. “I have no reason not to cover stories and not to try my hardest to cover them.” Thornton explained that one of the challenges the News faces is the fact they are essentially a staff of five – a publisher, an administrator, a designer, an editor and one reporter.

“So, yeah, it’s hard to cover stories sometimes, but it’s not impossible,” Thornton continued. “Our reporter, Phillip, is not even thirty years old and still has the energy to run after stories all day long if he can find them. The problem is he’s new too and it’s a problem of not knowing enough about what’s going on around town.”

Merritt’s other local newspaper, The Merritt Herald, has been around a lot longer than the News and publishes twice a week. And unlike the News, the Herald is not a free paper, it costs $1.05 to purchase. The editor of the Herald, Heather Thomson, refused to go on the record for this article saying, “We can’t be quoted by other media outlets.”

But in a brief conversation, she stated that she understood not everyone was happy with the local media coverage, and she was aware of some of the complaints. And in response to the citizen’s complaint that an incident involving a truck running over a tent at the Merritt Mountain Music Festival, Thomson claimed that the Herald had in fact reported on that story.

She also said it was hard for the paper to write about stories they did not know about. Like the News, she has a small staff that consists of only one reporter but said that had always been enough to put out the paper twice a week and keep the paper’s website updated. Thomson also said the staff actively listen to police scanners and feel they are generally aware of things that go on in the community.

The publisher of the Merritt News, John Morash, said that local media tries to do their best, but in a town of only 7,000 people, the job can be kind of complicated. “We’re not turning a blind eye to things,” Morash said, “but we’re also not chasing ambulances and covering car crashes either. We have to be sensitive to the people that live here. And you know, some people must have found value in our stories, because a lot of the bigger newspapers picked up our stories and many people told us they thought we had done a great job covering the recent tragedy.”

There is an added challenge in that it has been an unusually busy time for Merritt media. With a recent triple homicide, an arson and a controversy surrounding the Mayor, local journalists have worked long days to keep the people of the city informed. But, for the small town of Merritt, this is an exception rather than the rule.

“Frankly,” Morash said, “normally I find it amazing we have enough news stories to fill a newspaper with.”

In Issue #257 of SCN: An in-depth look at The Merritt News