Illinois Valley Times

We suppose it depends on what the meaning of “is” is.

Is the Illinois Valley Times a newspaper or isn't it?

That's the question asked – and answered incorrectly – by News Tribune senior reporter Tom Collins in an article headlined “It looks like a newspaper, but it isn't.”

“Did you get an unsolicited copy of the Illinois Valley Times in your mailbox?” Collins asked last Saturday. “It looks like a newspaper, doesn’t it?”

You'd think a senior reporter – or even an unpaid intern, for that matter – could recognize a newspaper when he saw one and not have to subject it to forensic analysis, but Collins was obviously flummoxed. In fact, he was so completely perplexed that he felt the need to solicit the opinion of experts in the identification and classification of newspapers. Surely they would know, and then he could cite their authoritative opinion to buttress his suspicions.

But the experts weren't much help. They couldn't tell what the Illinois Valley Times is either. Or maybe, like so many experts (a cautious lot), they were just hedging their bets, being wary of providing a straightforward answer and running the risk of being exposed as nitwits or frauds.

“The Illinois Press Association isn’t sure it really is a newspaper,” Collins confided; “they think it might be a political advertisement and are interested in finding out who’s behind it.

“Don Craven, general counsel for the Illinois Press Association, said throughout the campaign season he was alerted to a series of publications crafted to look like newspapers,” Collins continued.

“Crafted to look like newspapers”? That's pretty crafty. Maybe even crafty enough to actually be what they “look like”?

Collins described the Illinois Valley Times as “an advertising vehicle disguised as a newspaper” and dismissed our sister publications as “ faux newspapers.”

“The Illinois Valley Times clearly shows an editorial bias toward Republicans,” Collins emphasized, noting that our syndicate head acknowledged in an interview 12 years ago that “he was a Republican and that he was advancing a political agenda.”

Perhaps Collins can't recognize the Illinois Valley Times as a newspaper because he doesn't know what a newspaper is. Almost every newspaper is “an advertising vehicle.” Advertising revenue is what pays the salaries of guys like Collins who don't understand that their journalistic masterpieces are mostly filler, something to entice readers to pick up the rags they write for and see the ads.

Collins also seems not to know that all newspapers have editorial biases. Granted, many of them go to great lengths to conceal and deny those biases, but they all have them, and the honest ones acknowledge them.

Collins seems to have forgotten about something called “freedom of the press,” a Constitutional right enshrined in the First Amendment and not subject to violation because of editorial biases.

We've got some questions for Collins.

Is the News Tribune a newspaper, or just “an advertising vehicle disguised” as one?

Are you a reporter or just a gin cocktail?

Who's this expert of yours? Is Craven his real name or just a descriptor?

Last question, and this one's serious: Do you really believe that either of you have the right to decide what is or isn't a newspaper?