In the midst of the 600 things happening on Friday, I didn't have much of a chance to expand on the Rojas post, but now in what passes for calm around here, I thought I'd come back and say some more.

Though the story here is Mr. Rojas and his alleged misdeeds, Cooley's quote about Fox 11 got me thinking.

"The public needs to be vigilant to guard against scam artists who target the weakest and most susceptible," said District Attorney Steve Cooley, in a statement. "That is why the investigative reporting of Fox 11 News on this case should be commended. A free press needs to keep the public informed of vital issues such as the possible loss of a home to real estate foreclosure fraud. It is a public service that they should not take lightly."

It's rare that you hear public officials praising the press, particularly ex-cops and prosecutors. Cooley's a little different, as the newspaper business has noted, but he makes a good point.

Normally, I'm not a big fan of TV news, but in this case, Fox really did do a great job and a public service. On a fraud charge like this, it's hard to tell the scope of the alleged crime unless there's widespread notice of the purported scam. Fox 11 wasn't just re-reporting a press release that the DA put out, either (which, I'll admit, is exactly what I did in this case), it actually went out and found supposed victims and spread the word. And, luckily, that helped cops and prosecutors track down additional people to help the case.

Tim Gallager, ex-publisher of the Ventura County Star, wrote a good piece on this today in the Los Angeles Business Journal (thanks to LA Observed for noticing the link).

Gallagher makes a very compelling case for why the recent cuts at the Times matter. As a reporter at a paper that has gone through several waves of layoffs and a long campaign of attrition, I will admit that I'm biased in favor of his argument, but I'll let him tell it, rather than me:

But when you keep cutting, the good journalists leave. The reporting suffers.
The readers suffer. The scalawags get away with more.

So if you want to get away with something, keep rooting for newsroom cuts. Aside from overburdened criminal investigators, the reporters are the only ones checking up on things. And there are fewer and fewer of them these days.

Unfortunately, that's all too true. It's not the job of newspapers or TV stations to do the cops or DA's dirty work, but we are supposed to all be here to serve the public. Whether it's spreading the word on alleged misdeeds like Rojas, exposing corruption and injustice of politicians and the powerful, or even just giving a human face to a tragedy, the press serves an important role in our democracy. Every time it gets squeezed, by budget cuts and the bottom line, more and more of those important stories slip away.

I'm glad Cooley recognizes this and hope the folks who mind the dollars at Fox, the Times and my own newspaper do, as well. It's not just a matter of jobs-- it matters to everyone whose stories go untold because the people telling them aren't there anymore.