If it comes to it, this newspaper — and undoubtedly a large majority of community newspapers across this country — will tell the truth to the death.

In this social media-dominated, post-factual, fake-news, information-illiterate, instantly gratified, partisan-warring, blame-the-messenger, conspiracy-mongering, propaganda-spewing, cyberbullying time we live in, honest brokers of truth, justice and real news the people need to know, like community newspapers, are besieged on all sides.

To all those who think a community newspaper like this, which serves four rural counties in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, populated by a grand total of about 38,000 registered voters, exactly what would be the point of favoring one political party over another? If this paper could get every registered voter to vote one way, it wouldn’t even make a difference in the state senate election, which is one reason why candidates, including those elected, running for offices of that voter constituency size, rarely visit here.

Back to the real world, where voters are sharply divided into two enemy camps: what would possess the community newspaper in its news coverage to favor one side over the other, thus alienating 19,000 potential subscribers and an estimated 40,000 readers? From a business standpoint, how stupid would you have to be to slant coverage for political reasons? We’re not in the business of not selling papers.

True journalists don’t report one side in news coverage. Many uninformed people would disagree, but it’s the truth. Newspapers don’t even print one side on their opinion pages. Whether it’s opinion or news, we print all sides. There is something for everybody in a local newspaper.

This is a time of extreme crisis for local news, given the economic impact of the internet and the oceans of information it generates, most of which is nonsensical garbage that has diverted people from the truth of what’s happening all around their community, state, nation and world.

That free flow of informational sewage has caused people to turn on traditional outlets of legitimate news like newspapers. They cancel their subscriptions, cutting themselves off from the real news they need, for they know not what they do.

It’s not newspapers that have changed, although they can be found on the internet as drops in an ocean of information.

Local newspapers are standing on their faith that standing fast in remaining committed to telling the truth will prevail during this make-or-break era of information illiteracy and turmoil. If we go down, we’ll go down swinging for the truth.

A Daily Mining Gazette editorial