Columnist Jim Slusher: With the news, 'the way it is' isn't always 'the way it will be'

I like the print newspaper, and its electronic twin our e-edition, because it provides a unique, immutable snapshot of a day. I like the online newspaper for the precise opposite reason. It is an unmistakable reminder that the "news of the day" is not static but constantly changing, constantly in motion, and thus unpredictable.

The print newspaper is an opportunity for reflection and personal and societal self-examination. The online edition is a reminder that you'd best be prepared by evening to re-evaluate everything you decided in the morning.

But this is not a phenomenon entirely peculiar to the online 24-hour news cycle. It's also evident in the ever changing print headlines from day to day and month to month.

For a vivid and darkly hilarious example, turn to Page 38 of The Onion's classic 1999 collection of parody newspaper front pages tracing the news of the world in the 1900s called "Our Dumb Century." The fictitious front page depicted there offers a not-untruthful story reflecting the spirit of America on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 1929, under the banner headline "Stock Market Invincible / 'Buy, Buy, Buy,' Experts Advise." Then, on the very next page, on an imaginary Page 1 of a week later, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929, a screaming headline in just three words looming across the entire page carries a very different message: "Pencils for Sale."

In short, what seems patently obvious on one day can very quickly prove to be just as patently wrong. In legitimate newspapers across the country, Donald Trump was, on Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, a laughingstock pretender to the presidency with no hope of winning anything more than a state or two in the next day's election. By the evening of Nov. 8, 2016, he was president elect.

Today, Donald Trump is presumed to become the Republican nominee for president, even as a host of wannabes line up to challenge him. Without any challenge among Democrats, Joe Biden is all but ordained his party's nominee for reelection a year and a half from now. Me, personally? I'm not convinced either man will be in the picture when the campaign heats up in Summer 2024.

Things change.

Look closer to home. Daily Herald headlines of early last week described the Chicago Bears beginning the process of demolishing Arlington Park to make way for a presumed domed football stadium. By the end of the week, the team had issued a statement that Arlington Heights was "no longer our singular focus."

I've heard it said that a still photograph is a picture of infinity because it portrays something that was not seen a fraction of a millisecond before it was taken and will be different a fraction of a millisecond afterward. A print newspaper may not be so different. Just as a still photograph can send a different but still powerful message compared to a video of the same event, so a print newspaper retains a certain indefinable value even though the events it describes may fluctuate by the minute in descriptions online.

"And that's the way it is," the legendary Walter Cronkite used to sign off every nightly news broadcast. In the age of the internet, one might reasonably reply, "Not so fast there, Walter." It's still useful to be able to examine "the way it is" in the unique, immutable moment a daily newspaper provides. We just have to keep in mind that that is not necessarily "the way it will be."

jslusher@dailyherald.com