PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I still remember when a good friend of mine, about 40 years ago now, used to ask me why newspapers didn’t care more good news.

This friend knew I was a reporter for a daily newspaper, The Daily Astorian, so thought I would have an answer for his good question.

I didn’t then.

Part of the reason, of course, was that I was a new journalist, so I thought I would be able to report what was going on at Astoria City Hall, my beat, along with the Port of Astoria – and didn’t have to set out to focus on good news.  I would function in the tradition of muck-rackers.

Just news.

In the last 40 years, I have developed two thoughts about journalism. One is that the best journalists today (who work for papers like the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times )expose us to what is going in our world. Their focus is not to report “good news;” it is to report “the news.”

If it strikes negative chords with us, so be it.

If positive, so be that, too.

Of course, the bad journalists today – if you even can call them journalists – focus on bad news, a sort of “gotcha” approach because they apparently think such an approach generates readers, hearers or viewers.

The other growing perception for me is that newspapers – my first love, way above TV or radio – do themselves a favor when they focus on good news in a community.

Like the new Salem Reporter, an on-line newspaper edited by a long-time friend of mine, Les Zaitz, who used to be an investigative reporter for The Oregonian and, at one point, with his wife, owned by Keizer Times.

Zaitz and his staff focus on good news, at least on occasion. Two recent examples.

Zaitz lauded the Salem area Little League team that made it to the World Series. What a great accomplishment, he wrote, one worthy of community acclaim.

Over the weekend, Zaitz also lauded the start of the Oregon State Fair. Here is what he wrote:

“One of the highlights of the year in Salem is the Oregon State Fair, and we’re reporting from all angles. That includes jumping right into competition ourselves for a first-hand report.

“I have a special love for the fair, for I spent a summer on the maintenance crew between my junior and senior years at McNary High School. When the maintenance chief, a former Navy guy, learned I could type, I became the office clerk.

“Then one day, he handed me a big mass of keys. He said something like: “Check every padlock on the grounds and be sure they work. And I mean everywhere.

“That struck me as an odd assignment. I wondered if he was trying to get me out of his hair. So off I went for days – every entry gate, every barn door, even the catwalk on the racetrack stands.

“His genius later became clear to me. When the fair was running at full pitch, he knew he could count on me to get anywhere something needed attention. He had found a very clever way to be certain I knew every bit of the fairgrounds.”

A couple other pieces of good news have struck me in the last couple weeks. Both involved the church my wife and I attend here in Salem, Salem Alliance. During the month of August, the church gives various workers a month off and welcomes children, who otherwise would be in Sunday School, into the regular church service.

Last Sunday, a group of about 25 young people gathered on the state to play their string instruments in an orchestra to lead the church in worship. Very impressive.

That was preceded a couple Sundays ago by a group of young people (again about 25 or more) – perhaps some of the same young people — who formed a choir and also led in worship.

Great to see kids involved in such pursuits, especially as they sing and play to honor God.

And, yes, overall, there is good news around if only we look for it, even as we may worry that world events are negative and foreboding.