You may never have heard of Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, nor Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman until last week. But it’s probably better that you have. Kiley, since 2004, and his successor, Weightman, were two officials in charge of the Army’s prestigious Walter Reed Medical Center.

Both have subsequently lost their jobs following a bombshell story in the Washington Post exposing serious problems with the condition of the hospital, including poor sanitary conditions and structural flaws. In a similar vein, a familiar newspaper in DeKalb also is helping to initiate serious public reform.

I’ve refrained from discussing the letter that the paper’s editorial board wrote and submitted to Governor Blagojevich last week, pending actual results. But lo and behold, NIU sent out a press release Wednesday announcing that Governor Blagojevich’s 2008 budget recommendation includes a $19 million appropriation for renovation and expansion of the Stevens Building.

To set the context, I have to honestly say I was skeptical about receiving any kind of result at all from this piece. I agree completely that it was a good venture for the board to undertake, but after all, we’re only a college newspaper. If it was as easy to fix problems in the state and country as writing an eloquent letter to the governor, federal legislature or even president asking for more money, I think and would hope that newspapers would do it more often.

This goes to show, however, that newspapers, oft considered a dying breed of media, still have the power to influence society in a profound way. Amongst the monotony of simply producing a paper on a daily basis, it’s entirely possible that journalists forget this fact.

But situations that call for an important matter to be noticed – like obtaining money to fix an academic building in dire need of disrepair, or exposing the conditions of a building in neglect, like the Art Annex, have proved to be times this semester when this newspaper was indeed the most appropriate avenue to enact that change.

It’s encouraging, considering these past few weeks, to think what else this newspaper or newspapers in general can do. Though the recent Scooter Libby trial threatened to hurt media by exposing potential inherent flaws by working with anonymous sources, it’s also encouraging to see the media’s influence in the case.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, was convicted Tuesday of lying to a grand jury and the FBI, who were investigating the leak of the identity of a former CIA operative. Mr. Libby, 56, is the highest-ranking White House official to be convicted of a felony since the Iran-contra scandals of the 1980s.

It’s important to keep in mind that Blagojevich’s gesture is only a recommendation and the funding could get lost somewhere in the state legislature. But, seeing as we have this much momentum, I don’t think we should let that stop us from securing these funds and further underscoring the ability of newspapers to still perform meaningful public service.