Stephen Schwartz on newspapers

Sometimes interviews take a strange twist, and conversations go in directions you hadn't anticipated. During our conversation, Stephen Schwartz started talking about newspapers, and you can see why his comments endeared him to our hearts:

"I really don't want to get all my news online or from television… Online, you just read the things you're interested in, which… just increases the vulcanization of our society and our point of view. And it's also prone to inaccuracy and misinformation.

"At least if you pick up a newspaper, and the newspaper's relatively reputable and the reporters have done their job, you're going to get stories you might not have gone seeking, and you're also going to know that their facts are checked.

"(In newspapers, there's depth.) That's the problem with television, the whole sound-bite thing. And the Internet.

"It's a little bit like what we talk about in 'Wicked,' where they can spin the characterization of the Wicked Witch of the West or the Wizard, with quick slogans and publicity and PR. You're getting just a sort of black and white snapshot, with no depth or shading at all.

"I think (losing newspapers) would be very, very detrimental to our country, which after all, is a democracy, which is supposed to be formed on an informed electorate… Newspapers have to change how they reach their readership, and how the economics work, but it's hard for me to imagine that people aren't going to want to have a newspaper in the morning."