It’s fair to say that nearly everyone has misgivings about the internet and the startling rise of social media networks in recent years. Newspaper editors have an especially strained relationship with Facebook and other industry giants, because they re-use our expensive-to-produce content for free and siphon off much advertising revenue. When we’re in a bad mood, we see them as parasites that risk killing off their hosts.

On the other hand, they provide a convenient and fast way of sharing the news with a wide audience. The hunger to be first and best with the news is what drives us, much more than money.

It’s very rewarding for a journalist to see stories make an immediate impact — generating attention, comments and shares. Best of all, our work sometimes makes a real difference, by inspiring citizen involvement and government action.

If you haven’t already, I strongly recommend you “like” us on Facebook, at www.facebook.com/ChinookObserver. If you’re a subscriber, it is there you will often be able to read stories before our printed or eEditions arrive. Even non-subscribers will at least see headlines, and I make news freely available to everyone if it involves something like public safety or the pandemic.

On a personal level, I confess to being a fan of Facebook, even as some dear friends despise it for aiding in the spread of animosity and falsehoods. For me, its usefulness in maintaining connections with far-flung friends and family far outweighs its annoyances. And at last count, I think I was up to 291 memberships in specialist groups. To name just a few: Pre-1895 Railroads & Steam Engines, Alaska Highway Military History, Oyster Obsession, Wild West Collectors, Episcopalians on Facebook, Pacific Northwest Plants & Wildlife, The James Webb Space Telescope, Placer County Gold Miners, Beautiful Wiltshire, and on and on.

A person can now pursue any interest from anywhere, and find like-minded people to do it with — a great advantage here where we are still a little ways off the beaten track.

Turning to next week’s edition, rough weather got in the way of earlier plans to cover recreational spring fisheries for the May 18 Observer, but rosier conditions allowed our ace photographer/outdoors writer Luke Whittaker to make it onto the ocean on May 22, out 40 miles for black cod and halibut. We plan on that being our main front-page feature. Luke is also heavily covering prep sports right now, with spring seasons wrapping up.

Brandon Cline is hard at work on his usual array of local news, including a report on who all filed to run for office in the 2022 election, while our key north-county news gatherer Jeff Clemens is keeping an eye on court and everything else going on in the county seat of South Bend, and Raymond.

If you’re a subscriber, thank you very much. If you’re not currently a subscriber, I sure hope you’ll become one. The community project called the Chinook Observer depends on you.