By Robert Rogers
Never pick a fight with a guy who buys ink by the barrel.
Pinnacle Peak-area resident Joe Smyth with his book, “Fixing America’s Broken Politics.” (Courtesy Robert G. Rogers)
That’s Mark Twain advice that politicians have been heeding for ages. Indeed, it’s apt advice for anyone whose livelihood depends on favorable public opinion.
And because of this adage public figures have long sought out and nodded in eager agreement with Pinnacle Peak-area resident Joe Smyth.
Joe is a lifelong newspaperman, chairman of a company that publishes six weekly community papers in Arizona, including the Scottsdale Independent, 20 more such papers in Delaware, Florida, and Maryland; a daily newspaper in Dover, Del.; and news websites. The company, Independent Newsmedia, Inc. U.S.A., also maintains two major printing plants that produce a number of other newspapers, including the Arizona edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Joe was almost born with ink in his blood. Sixty-two years ago, when he was a toddler, his father, Jack, relinquished a successful family retail business in Renovo, Pa., to pursue a lifelong dream of running a newspaper. He did so in faraway Dover, Del., by establishing the first daily newspaper in the First State’s capital city. Not long after that young Joe began getting ink on his hands. After school, on weekends, and during summers, Joe was at his dad’s side absorbing everything there was to learn about newspapering, from circulation, advertising, typesetting, printing, and photography to reporting, editing, and editorializing.
What ensued was a quarter century of editing the Delaware daily and running the day-to-day business of producing newspapers. The experience has handsomely qualified Joe as a newsman’s newsman.
Throughout his time at the helm of his newspapers, Joe and his colleagues attracted numerous national and regional awards. One commentator characterized the paper Joe headed as a “feisty, courageous hornet…buzzing with purposeful neutrality and journalistic integrity.†No small wonder, accordingly, that during his career Joe attracted and mentored many young idealistic reporters.
“Fixing America’s Broken Politics,” is a book written by retired newspaperman and Pinnacle Peak-area resident Joe Smyth. (Courtesy Robert G. Rogers)
Once ink gets in their blood, though, it’s hard for newspaper people to take their hands off their typewriter or computer keyboards. Joe Smyth has been no exception to this rule.
No sooner did Joe settle into retirement from the day-to-day grind of newspapering than the perennial itch to put words on paper struck him, and it has resulted in a book and a blog.
“Fixing America’s Broken Politics: Common Sense Solutions to the Issues that Divide Us†offers concise, easy-to-read, politically neutral descriptions of more than 30 of the contentious issues and subjects that Joe sees the nation’s professional political class exploiting and perpetuating.
It grew from Joe’s regret about “how much we, as Americans, have lost our ability to talk about politics and public issues with any degree of civility.†As Joe sees it, the nation is moving toward a point of crisis where too many have too little – or absolutely no – respect for government or politics.
The Scottsdale Independent is one of more than two dozen newspapers published by the company headed by Pinnacle Peak-area resident Joe Smyth. (Courtesy Robert G. Rogers)
“Absent the consent of the governed,†he says, “governments lose their legitimacy. Unfortunately, that’s where we’re headed, and that points to a looming crisis.â€
“Gridlock has become a goal of the political class,†Joe claims, “and that serves no purpose other than for entrenched politicians to raise more money and sustain their power.â€
“Compromise,†he notes, “used to be the hallmark of the American political process. And it resulted in the resolution of political issues in ways beneficial to overall national interests. No more. Issues are not resolved, and our interests – other than those of individual politicians and the political industry that has arisen around them – are disserved.â€
In addition to running a news media enterprise and finding time to write a book and maintain a blog, Joe has served as the founding president of the Valley Citizens League, a nonpartisan civic group in Arizona. He has also served on an education reform task force that led to Arizona becoming a national leader in charter schools and school choice.
Joe and his wife, Madonna, live in Pinnacle Peak Country Club estates, and are the proud parents of six children and twenty grandchildren.
Related, Website, Blog, and Articles
Joe’s book can be purchased on Amazon.com. Visit Website
Joe’s blog can be accessed at http://joesmyth.org. Visit Blog
Pinnacle Peak People: Halftime Shows Start in Scottsdale by Robert G. Rogers – Published: October 2015
Pinnacle Peak People: Famous Inventor Endures in the Desert by Robert G. Rogers – Published: September 2015
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