In this protected environment, creatures and institutions alike demonstrate that adapting to Hawaii's ways, rather than challenging them, is the way to survive. The ruby red i'iwi bird adopted the color of the native lobelia flower and twisted its beak into the fluted shape of the bloom to ease extraction of its nectar. Since Hawaii's human nectar is tourism dollars, the economy is directed at selling the state as paradise on earth. The newspapers are not immune to this survival technique. It does not go unnoticed by even uncritical observers of the local media that the largest newspaper on the islands, circulation 172,500, is called The Honolulu Advertiser .
Incisive analysis is even more rare.
Vital news from across the nation and around the world is scant. It is not surprising, then, that the most recent challenge to the powers that be in Hawaii came not from the powerful media establishment, but from a group of student journalists. Tired of a wall of secrecy built around state disciplinary proceedings, the University of Hawaii chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists decided to test the power of the local public records law. They demanded to see the previously secret files of disciplined police officers. When the students sued, the police turned to the public for support.