Local journalism is important.
The John Druckenmillers, Diane Wagners, David Crowders, John Baileys are essential to our republic. Sheila and I with our partners Steve & Laurie Craw had a go a it in the seventies. I think we did some good things but we couldn't make a living at it.
Jefferson is reputed to have said he'd rather have a free press and no government than a government and no free press.
Sheila and I have subscriptions to four papers, the Rome News, Atlanta Journal/Constitution, the New York Times and the Washington Post. The last two are very important national papers and probably safe. The former two, despite some very good writers and reporters, are frankly only a shadow of their former selves. There just is not the advertising base to support robust journalism. Local radio does minimal weather and news nowadays. I suspect the vast majority of their airtime is prerecorded "canned"stuff. Thank God for GPB and NPR.
I do not know how to restore principled local journalism, but we are in trouble without it. When one small local paper on Long Island broke a major story last September, few noticed.
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