"I miss having real news."

Sheila Kennedy has a great column online today on Why the Absence of Journalism Matters.

This Indianapolis Observer, a longtime journalist, remembers what it was like when The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News fought tooth and nail to cover the issues that matter to Central Indiana (and picked up a Pulitzer or two along the way taking close looks at the Statehouse and City Hall).

In these Gannett days, all we get are the Colts, the Pacers and the Kardashians.

Critical coverage of statehouse shenanigans (the "debate" over the marriage amendment comes to mind), not to mention Gov. Pence's refusal to allow the federal government to pay for healthcare coverage for lower-income Hoosiers, the abysmal snow removal efforts in Indy, the escalating homicide rate -- heck, even the kind of petty thievery that occurs in broad daylight in Westside restaurant parking lots -- nothing. Instead we get such banner headlines as "a vegetarian survival guide to Devour Downtown" and "did Leaf conspire to assure Colts took Manning".

As Kennedy says, "I don’t know about you, but I’m curious about all the stuff we don’t know."