Steve Lopez: The staggering body count as California newspapers flounder, and democracy loses
LOS ANGELES_The body count is staggering.
In my 43 years as a journalist, armies of trained bloodhounds have been run out of newsrooms where I've worked, victims of layoffs, and buyouts, and battle fatigue. I've lost so many hundreds of colleagues, I can't keep track of where they ended up.
These were smart, curious reporters, photographers and editors who told stories that defined place and time and made us all know each other a little better. They covered the arts and the local sports teams. They bird-dogged city councils, courts, law enforcement, school districts and other agencies that spend our tax dollars, bearing witness, asking questions and rooting out corruption.
There is less watching today, even though California's population has nearly doubled since I began my career, and we are all poorer for it.
It might seem like the opposite
