“Retail corruption is now a breeze, since newspapers and other media can no longer afford enough reporters to cover all the key government meetings. You wake up one day, and they’re bulldozing 20 acres of pines at the end of your block to put up a Costco. Your kids ask what’s going on, and you can’t tell them because you don’t have a clue.
“That’s what happens when hometown journalism fades — neighborhood stories don’t get reported until it’s too late, after the deal’s gone down. Most local papers are gasping for life, and if they die it will be their readers who lose the most.”
—Carl Hiaasen, author and newly retired Miami Herald columnist, “With or without me, Florida will always be wonderfully, unrelentingly weird,” The Miami Herald, March 12, 2021.
• Editorial Comment: Cool. No more bad news.
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