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Charlie Whitehead was a newspaper reporter covering LeeCounty government for 25 years, starting in the mid-1980’s for the Breeze corporation then moving to the Bonita Banner in 1989. That same year he moved on to the Naples Daily News, where he remained until 2010. During his brief departure from journalism, Charlie ran for Lee County commissioner in 2012. He ran without party affiliation. Charlie launched his own blog (bylinecharliewhitehead.com) in 2013, and in 2014 was named by Florida Weekly the Best Blogger in Florida. Charlie has served on advisory committees to Lee County and to the town of Fort Myers Beach as well as the Beach Elementary School Advisory Committee. He has been president of the Fort Myers Beach Little League and of his residents association. He’s a family man whose children have attended Lee County public schools. Charlie believes in hard news and he believes local newspapers and TV stations no longer provide it. He believes real news coverage is essential to a free society and that those charged with providing it aren’t. MISSION Newsroom staffs have shrunk dramatically over the last few years and become vastly less experienced. As a result they are less able – and seemingly less willing – to let people know what their local governments and other movers and shakers are really up to. People who rely on corporate news outlets to provide watchdog services are out of luck and in the dark. They no longer get the kind of alert, experienced and objective reporting that can help them make sense of local events and let them know how what government does affects their lives. I believe an informed public is essential – critical really – to our society. Our founding fathers did not envision a populace in the dark, ignorant of and misled about the important things its government does for it and to it. They envisioned, I believe, an America able to see for itself and make its own way. America can, but in a world now thick with noise and bluster and thin on news and knowledge it needs light to see. For generations, America’s newspapers shone that light. I will continue to, as Dylan Thomas wrote, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I will be that watchdog. I will strike that match and wield that torch to illuminate those corners. |
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