If daily newspapers fail, America is in trouble.

Most of the reliable news on the Web is rewritten from newspapers or TV. When you start surfing the Internet at other websites, the truth becomes a gamble.

While television news has come a long way, much of it is driven by what’s visually exciting, such as fires and freeway chases. Too many stations present entertainment as news. And the more unsavory stories in life seem to get more attention on TV broadcasts than in newspapers.

The death of Michael Jackson serves as an example.

While daily newspapers didn’t ignore the never-ending hullabaloo about his death and rumors surrounding his estate and the custody of his children, those stories were given more coverage on television. TV broadcasters seem to have a lower opinion of what viewers want to see than what newspapers think people want to read.

Or maybe readers are smarter than viewers.

In college, many of the stories that were reported on campus TV were stolen from—you guessed it—the student newspaper. To this day, most investigative journalists are newspaper reporters, not talking heads.

Newspapers are, of course, their own worst enemy because they give away online what they expect people to pay for if it lands in their driveways.

Newspapers are dedicated to balanced, factual reporting, but too many of them have broken their own rules. While they may not always be right, they’re quick to correct the record if they’re wrong. Accuracy is important to newspapers because their credibility is at stake.

Many websites don’t care about fairness or objectivity. The Internet is occasionally reliable, but there’s a ton of misinformation, too.

Community newspapers like the Acorn will survive and even prosper because of the need for local news and information, but America also needs its daily newspapers. They are the watchdogs that tell us what our government and corporate America are doing.

Without daily newspapers, the people of America will be handicapped as citizens and as voters.