When Local News Fades, Communities Lose Their Memory

A survivor speaks, a county boils, and a coach is still missing. We open with a raw statement read at a school board meeting that reframes a tabloid headline into a human story: shame that never belonged to a young woman and a community forced to wrestle with a potential culture of protection and silence. From the Appalachian search to the charges filed days after he vanished, we trace how institutions falter when accountability comes too late—and why people lose trust when leaders speak in euphemisms.

The conversation shifts to grief and judgment in real time. Within hours of Scott Adams’ death, timelines filled with verdicts about his soul and legacy. We push back on the performance of certainty, asking what we gain from fast moral takes and what we lose when we refuse humility. Public platforms can help us think through messy topics, but a microphone is not a mandate to abandon grace.

Then we get practical. The collapse of local news has erased the public record that used to anchor our towns: who voted yes, where the money went, which kids brought home the trophy. Without beat reporters, advocacy groups and influencers narrate local life, and algorithms reward heat over facts. We share why we launched SideEye Media, how volunteer writers can rebuild small, reliable reporting, and what it takes to make civic information clear and useful again—no print presses required, just standards, consistency, and a community willing to care.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves their hometown, and leave a review with one concrete idea for restoring local accountability where you live. Your idea might be the blueprint another listener needs.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:29 Vanished Coach And A Survivor’s Statement
• 2:54 Community Anger And Culture Of Abuse
• 5:34 Speculation On The Disappearance
• 7:44 Scott Adams, Legacy, And Public Backlash
• 10:59 Coffee Break And Self-Reflection
• 13:04 Launching SideEye Media

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Hello, good morning. Uh well, we're gonna get over here to it. I only have a couple of things. Man, I don't even know where to start. Okay, victim of missing high school football coach Travis Turner breaks silence at school board meeting. We have forgotten about this guy, haven't we? They still haven't found him. And it's been since November 2025. Do you think he's dead? All right, the schoolgirl allegedly abused by Virginia football coach Travis Turner broke her silence for the first time since he vanished into the Appalachian Woods last year, telling how she initially blamed herself for the scandal in a heartbreaking statement. She says, I do not feel like a victim, said a statement from a girl read on her behalf at the Wise County School Board meeting Monday. I feel like I was the problem. I feel like I had embarrassed the school, damaged the reputation of the coaching staff, and disrupted something I was supposed to protect instead of myself, the statement read. It was read by a Wise County resident, Stephen Murray, who claimed he brought it on her behalf, and also listed off three other county school teachers who have been charged with sexual misconduct in recent years. This is just the cases that have been reported and charged, Murray said, joining a chorus of irate residents who lambasted the board. When there is this much abuse, it's not just a few bad apples, it is the culture. The fish rots from the head down. The meeting was the Wise County School Board's first allowing public comments since Travis Turner vanished in November as police were on the way to question him over child porn and exploitation accusations. What do you think is going on? I mean, if he had nothing to hide, of course, we always say this, don't we? But then again, I don't even know. I don't even know. I I don't know these people, so all I can go is by what is being reported. And you know, half the time that's not even true. Turner, a 46-year-old father and pillar of the Big Stone Gap community. Hey, Big Stone Gap. That has been written by Adriana Trevanni in her books. I've read all of her books. I'm gonna maybe reread them. She's a great author. I love her. Anyway, she has a book called Big Stone Gap. Alright, anyway, I got off track. Uh he was uh coached in boys' football at Union High School, hasn't been seen since he disappeared, despite extensive manhuts combing that rugged local terrain. They are not gonna find him. They are if he's dead, if he went out into Appalachian and shot himself or whatever, they're not gonna find him. Oh my gosh, he was last seen with a gun walking in the woods behind his house on November 20th, with police arriving at his home hours later to question him as part of a child sex crimes investigation. Turner was officially charged with child pornography charges and five counts of soliciting minor days after he vanished. Oh dear. Oh, you can go finish reading that if you like. Oh my gosh. Alright, let's see. Moving on, what else do we have in the queue? Well, I really didn't have this in a queue, but we're gonna talk about Scott Adams for a minute. I did not really follow him. I didn't really listen to his podcasts, his live streams. He came to my attention years ago when he first became popular with the controversy, and I forget what it was all about. Something about a group of black people, he wouldn't live by them, or something like that. So don't, I'm not sure, I can't remember what it was, but it was misconstrued, taken out of context. I don't know, but that caused controversy. And you know, Greg Gutfeld said there are three people that changed the world Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and and Scott Adams. And you know, I think he's right because Scott, like I said, I'd never heard of him before until that happened. And then I kind of just from the internet read some things and you know listened a little bit, but I never listened to him on a regular basis. But from what I understand and what I've seen online from other people, uh, that he had a very thought-provoking, you know, he helped a lot of people. And, you know, he passed away yesterday. And of course, within hours, and I'm surprised, Jason Whitlock reposted something. I think he reposted Scott Adams' letter and just lambasted him hours after his death talking about, no, I don't think he's a Christian, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He, you know, oh my gosh, Jason, just because you have a mic in front of your face doesn't mean you need to use it. I mean, he retweeted that. I don't I think that was in bad taste. Nobody knows as between Scott and his maker and them make and the maker. Um, so I just pe he wasn't the only one. There were other people too uh reposting Scott's letter and claiming that no, he did not die a Christian. Blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, you guys, just shut up, okay? Just shut up. Boy, I tell you what, I'm here at the Starbucks and it is hopping this morning. Normally it's not this busy. All right, I need to go get my coffee and then I'll be right back. Hold on. All right, I'm back. I've been debating whether I want to tell you this or not. Look, first of all, I um re-listened to some of this episode just now. I kind of because I had to re rewind it to figure out where I was because I went from Starbucks. Now I'm at work parking lot. And I sound like a freaking hillbilly, but that's okay. That's what I am. I'm a hillbilly. Alright, I need to practice on my speech, my voice, and make it better. Now, the second thing is I have debating whether I want to tell y'all this or not, but I'm going to, it's not a big deal. But you're gonna think I'm crazy. Maybe you already think I'm crazy. I have started another blog, another website. You know, I have an Americanist, which I love. It's mine, it's you know, it's uh pointed to in a certain direction. That's mine. Then now I've started another website slash blog called Side Eye Media. And what I'm hoping to do with it, maybe, I don't know, is to get other writers involved and start, you know, make this a pretty big website, a pretty big resource for people to go to. But I need other committed writers that want to do it for no pay. Yeah, good luck with that. But that's what the Victory Girls does. The Victory Girls, we have a handful of writers, and our leader, our Capitan, our editor, she is she runs a tight ship. I mean, if she sends out a schedule, you sign up. You are expected to write on the days and slots and time slots that you signed up for. If not, there is hell to pay. You can't just say, okay, I'm gonna write on Tuesday and then not do it. No, that's not how it works with Victory Girls. And I love our editor for keeping our toes or keeping the fire to us. I love it. And that's what kind of what I want to do with SideEye Media, but I don't know. Maybe I'll just keep it as a side thing. I don't know. It's sideeimedia.com if you want to go check it out. My first blog entry is about the loss of local newspapers. I would love to see it come back for local newspapers. It won't happen, but I would like to see it happen. Let me go see if I can find. Okay, yeah, my first article blog post is titled How the Collapse of Local News Changed How Americans Understand Reality. We've taken our local news away, and now it's all national stuff. Even if you still have your local news online, go look at what they're reporting on. They're not reporting on local stuff, they're reporting on national stuff. Why is that? We've lost the community. We've lost our local community. And of course, people get their news on social media and other ways, but you know, is is that really good? Is that we don't have real reporters on the ground anymore, not like there used to be, that didn't have an opinion, but actually looked for facts and reported it. We don't have that anymore. It's all, you know, I don't know. It's all opinion. I don't know. I don't even know how to explain it. It's in my blog article if you want to go read it. It says uh most Americans were never news junkies. This uh this decline matters because most Americans will never were never political junkies. You know, Furry and Energy always says that too. The gin pop, as he calls them. I love it that he calls it that. They do not follow municipal budget or zoning decisions, nor do they read about opinions or legislative summaries. People have jobs, families, bills, and limited addition uh limited attention. If you go up and ask a regular person, hey, do you know what's going on in the Supreme Court today? Nope, they will have no idea. They would they don't they don't know anything about the transgender ideology that's going on. They know nothing about renee good that happened and it with the ice thing. You know, they'll see headlines and fragments of it and they'll form an opinion just from a headline. And it's sad. I don't know what that has to do with local news, but you know, remember when you were in high school and it was a big deal, you know, if your sports team or your name was in the newspaper, if you won the football game and the guys on the team, their names were in the paper. That was a big deal. I remember it. So anyway, reporters recorded who voted yes, who voted no, what passed, what failed, and what and where the money went. They provided written record of civic life. We don't have that anymore. So maybe that's why the corruption has run rampant. Because we don't have anybody recording this anymore. When documentation fades, something else fills the space. Activists, advocacy groups, online commentators, and self-appointed community watchdogs increasingly shape how people understand local events. I mean, it's it's not just that, but that like I said, it's how there's a video too. I don't know why it's not showing up. There's a video that I embedded in that blog post. And I forget the people's names, but I when I was watching the video, it's like 30 minutes long, 45, 40, maybe 40 minutes long. I watched the whole thing. And for probably the first 20 minutes, you couldn't tell what political identity these two people were. If you watched it, you would swear they were conservatives and Republicans. It turns out they're not. One was a liberal, one's a Democrat. But what they said, I agree with 100%. And I think it's just interesting. I did go look them up. That's how come I know that one's a Democrat and one's a liberal. But they were very re uh reserved, they were very calm, they were one was a newspaper, local newspaper editor at one time, and she was being interviewed by this other person who's an author or something. I don't know. He's he's the liberal, she's the Democrat. But uh 20 minutes in, you can you they finally reveal themselves, but it's not that bad. Um I don't know where I'm going with this. I just think we need I would love to see the local news come back. The local newspaper, it'll never happen. Only because the print and distribution, you just can't, you can't afford it. You can't afford to do it nowadays. And and like I said, everybody has their phone in the has their news in their hand on their phone. I don't know. I just like to see local stuff come back. Okay, uh, question of the day, I guess. Let's see, what should I do? Okay, since we're talking about newspapers, local newspapers, and having your name in the local newspaper. Did you ever have your name in the local newspaper when it was around? Uh I'm sh I think I did. Maybe, but it was, you know, obviously a sports thing. But I was in the band. I think it was must have been for the we had a band competition, and our when I was in the band. I was I didn't play an instrument, I was on the flag corps. Not the flag corps, I'm sorry, the rifle corps. And our band competition was we were we effing kicked butts in all of our competition. We brought home trophy after trophy after trophy. And I I was probably in the newspaper for that. Not just me, but the whole the whole band. Uh that's the only luckily it's not for anything awful for being in the newspaper. Alright, I gotta go. Thanks for listening. Happy Wednesday. Go get them.