"The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves, nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816. ME 14:384
I have recently been thinking about what would happen if there was no newspaper of record? What if the only local publication that vaguely qualified was the weekly shopper? Would that become the newspaper of record? This would be absurd.
So what have towns done when this happens? I suspect they have used a regional newspaper, such as RI's Providence Journal. The question then becomes, what happens when, as might well soon happen with the Providence Journal, the regional newspaper goes out of business?
Without objective, neutral, and investigative reporting we would be a much sorrier society. Graft and corruption might not be the inevitable end but without the visibility into the activities of governance and administration that newspapers provide how would we know?
I am sure other towns and districts have faced this predicament. What was their solution. If you know please add a comment here.
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