“Strong newspapers have been good for democracy,
and both educators and informers of a citizenry and its governing officials.
They have been problem-solvers. That is what you are missing when you don’t
have someone covering you and bringing transparency or sunlight onto government
decisions and giving people a say in how those government decisions are made.”
—Penelope Muse Abernathy, a University of North Carolina professor whose “The Expanding News Desert” study found 1,400 U.S. communities, rural, lower income
and older, have lost local newspapers since 2003.
• Editorial Comment: Who needs watchdogs? We can trust government to do what’s right.
PeezPix
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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD
“I
don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If
you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a
little.” —Tom Stoppard
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