A comment left on my latest Miske-case story by a reader using the name “Shoeter” raised questions about the reason that my reporting on the case stands out.

Shoeter wrote:

Why aren’t the other outlets here following this incredibly complex and dramatic criminal investigation and looming trial? I noted the same thing with the Kealohas’ prosecution.

It seems as if local print and TV here are neither ready, willing, and/or able to commit any resources, which yields this presumption/suspicion that an excessively sycophantic, cozy, and/or other unprofessional relationship exists here between the local press and these high-visibility “bad actors”.

It stands to reason then that local media is part of the same “bradduh-bradduh” network that includes criminals and corrupt politicians.

I respectfully disagree.

In my view, it really has nothing at all to do with anyone’s “excessively sycophantic, cozy, and/or other unprofessional” relationships.

The reason is much more basic. Money. And money determines how many reporters are available, and what they are assigned to do. The fact is that remaining newsrooms have fewer people expected to produce more than ever before. Quick and simple is preferred over long and complex. That’s just economics, plain and simple.

For decades, local news has been under the gun, and repeated rounds of budget cuts have hit newsrooms of all types, whether print or broadcast.

I’m more familiar with the newspaper side. I was given an opportunity to do investigative reporting for the old Honolulu Star-Bulletin, back in a day when even a local newspapers was able to justify releasing me from most daily responsibilities in order to pursue stories that took more time to research and report. It was an exhilarating time. It’s also a time that has passed.

If you hadn’t noticed, newspapers have been closing at an alarming rate. It’s a national problem. The NY Times reported that 2,500 U.S. newspapers have closed since 2005, about 25% of all newspapers. Remember that Honolulu had completing daily newspapers until 2010, when the Gannett newspaper chain, itself under financial pressure, decided to sell its Honolulu Advertiser, which was merged with its rival, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, to create the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. And the resulting decline of local reporting, not only here but across the country, is widely recognized as a significant national issue threatening the future of our democracy.

I’m not employed by Civil Beat. I’m not given “assignments” for future stories. Technically, I’m retired, and comfortably so, but my own drive keeps me digging into and writing about things I’m interested in. And this unusually significant and complex case is one of those things. I even stopped billing CB long ago, so that I consider my reporting to be a contribution to its efforts to keep in-depth local reporting alive and well.

I’m a contributing writer, and as such I’m free to follow my nose, so to speak. Being retired allows allows me to devote much more time to the intricacies of this case than any rational editor would be able to allow if I were on the payroll, where time is money. And that allows me to provide you, the readers, with more intricate descriptions and, when possible, explanations of what’s going on in the case, and what is slowly becoming known about the underlying crimes the government alleges, all while the case creeps towards an eventual trial.

I would encourage you to contribute to Civil Beat’s nonprofit efforts. I would also highly encourage everyone to subscribe to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Perhaps it’s not the newspaper we would ideally like to have, but we would be far worse off without its daily news coverage, which is often quite good, despite all the constraints.

Just for the record, I tried to post this reply directly on the Civil Beat site, but found that I had exceeded the upper character count allowed for comments. So it appears here, where I allow myself as much room as necessary.