Blei Bids Farewell to Joe Knappen, the Last Local Editor of a Once-Local Newspaper…

Posted on 22. Jan, 2009 by in Daily Dose of Door

Well, it finally happened, as announced the last time we visited our local newspaper predicament on this Web site. They (Corp. Gannett) finally took down the last newsman standing, Joe Knaapen, the only reason to pick up a copy of the dying Aggravate at all the past year. And now the county is truly left with no news, no real news-people, nobody in charge who knows a damn thing about the county, including its history, past and present (the corporate publishers/ managers–sitting on their arses in Gray Bay and Appolonia, wondering why no one is buying their colorful crap); their so called ‘news’ paper, reduced to—well, don’t buy it, just take a look at it. Try not to laugh or throw up.

It no longer meets even the minimum standards of floor covering, garbage wrap, or paper to line a bird cage. And, yes, there’s another sacrificial lamb in the editor’s chair, this time a woman. All things being unequal, Corp. Gannett no doubt figured they could save a bunch in salary by hiring a woman of limited journalistic experience to ‘edit’ three papers, (summarize information) from god knows what location. Well, it never seemed to matter with the Gannett Aggravate where the editor resided anyway, since no real news was their kind of news, minutia they could stick between the ads. Yes, another new ‘editor”… let’s see, how many has that been in the past 10 years? Can you name them? Can you recall what each contributed to making the Aggravate any better? Have the ex-editors all been kicked either up the ladder or out the door? (How about an Aggravate ‘Who/Where Are They Now?’ story.)

Enough. My regrets that I did not have the time to do the interview with Joe Knaapen that I intended upon his departure from our local paper. But — I will, if he’s still open to it.

In any event, his piece below is a solid reminder of just how good he was in the Aggravate, how much he is missed… not to mention how rarely he received the plaudits he, any conscientious journalist deserves, whether you agree with him or not, like him or not. Journalism is not a popularity contest. A good journalist never asks to be loved. Only to be read and understood. Locally, he/she’s our county watchdog. And nobody’s doing that for us now. Joe’s mission was always clear: to cover the local news, tell us what we need to know. Get as close to the truth, as accurately as possible.

We owe this man our thanks for keeping the faith of local news If you don’t think his absence from the Aggravate isn’t a huge loss to us all… take a look at what passes for responsible reporting in the born again and again Aggravate. Try and find the news.

Click to read… Inauguration Night, Jan. 20, 2009 by Joe Knaapen as featured in Nornb Blei’s Door County Times.

  • circus

    Oh, my. I’m all for bemoaning the sad demise of local papers — but let’s not romanticize Knappen’s impact just because he was the last man standing. Sure, journalism is not a popularity contest — but professionalism does breed respect. There’s a reason why Knappen generally is viewed as a reason the Advocate did *not* serve the public. He had an unrestrained bent toward sensationalism. He traded his objectivity at the door a long time ago in favor of a penchant for expressing his political views, not in labeled columns of opinions, but in general news items. If you truly felt as though he was a warrior advancing stories of local interest, you never tried to tip him off to a feature involving local students or anyone or anything that wasn’t germane to his limited experience of Door County. That’s why it was especially ironic when he would choose to write himself articles he obviously chose to pursue — anyone remember that three-times-too-long missive about Knappen’s Bakery closing a few years back? — and routinely would refer to himself as “this reporter” in such articles. As a matter of fact, Knappen’s “reporting” is a prime reason I gave up on the Advocate a long time ago — and a collection of Letters to the Editor throughout the last decade suggests many others did the same. Maybe this isn’t an act of a corporate behemoth insensitively downsizing so much as a concerned employer letting go a lousy reporter.

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