How society’s watchdogs fill a crucial role

Pam Price, Henderson

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 | 2:03 a.m.

I relish the Las Vegas Sun’s logical, insightful and scrupulous editorial cartoons, commentaries, editorials and in-depth news reporting. Therefore I was happy but not surprised to hear that the Sun recently won another award for journalism. This national award was the 2010 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for Marshall Allen’s and Alex Richards’ five-part series, “Do No Harm: Hospital Care in Las Vegas.”

Las Vegas Sun Publisher and Editor Brian Greenspun stated in his Sunday column, “Nation can’t afford failure of free press,” that Allen and Richards analyzed “... 2.9 million billing records — records that Nevada officials had in their possession but had not dissected.”

Greenspun said he often thinks, “What would we do without us?” “Us,” in my view, refers to the truthful, unfettered journalists nationwide — society’s watchdogs. Whenever I view the charlatan commentators elsewhere with their covert political agendas, I am reminded that the “us” — the trustworthy journalists — are a precious information resource that must not be taken for granted!