A well-educated trader friend of ours, a few years back, announced suddenly that he would no longer be reading books.
“Why waste your time?” he rhetorically asked a group of us. “I just read book reviews.”
We thought of his declaration while answering questions from one reporter after another last week. Each of them wanted to know more about The Record’s relationship with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
But none had done so much as scan over a story or two from our newspaper.
And why would they? The big time Washington Post had already completed a cursory speed read of The Record before coming to its conclusions for everyone in the media community.
Reading and forming one’s own opinions can be such a waste of time.
To be clear, the Chamber has indeed invested in The Record. But our local writers and editors have full editorial control. Our paper wouldn’t be worth much if they didn’t.
Our mission is a straightforward one: to cover the thousands of major civil lawsuits filed in Madison County, filling what we believe remains a gaping void in regular mainstream media coverage.
Most Metro-East news outlets just bop in here when something really big happens. When they do, it is more often than not to cover the more salacious and colorful criminal stuff.
This paper comes in response to serious demand from attorneys and executives starved for information from what is arguably the most-watched state jurisdiction in the U.S. That the stories-- often filled with local names, places, and companies-- make for great copy serves as an editorial bonus.
It's a novel concept. But in an America where courts, judges, and lawsuits play a larger and larger role, we’re betting tort-focused legal journals like The Record will become commonplace.
The Record is here to report on Madison County’s civil lawsuits from start-to-finish. Only and objectively. Nothing more, nothing less.
So how should you trust that we're doing just that? With your own eyes, of course.
We report, you hold us accountable.
The media may not be able to discern between valuable public information and 'propaganda.' But we at The Record know that our regular readers have no problem seeing the difference.