Mainstream newspapers have ridiculed Republicans for decades, and it’s still going on. But something is happening in Maine, where Republicans won the House, Senate and governorship last fall, that may make newspapers regret their years of one-sided opinionating and reporting:
A Maine legislator is proposing three amendments that would alter the requirement that the state’s rule-making changes be posted publicly. This would mean a cut in revenue for newspapers, which often run those postings in their classified ad sections.
Republican legislators, who have been blasted for years by left-leaning editorial writers and Democratic-voting reporters who think their biased reports are fair, are far less likely than their Democratic colleagues to be sympathetic to saving this boondoggle revenue stream for newspapers.
As many have pointed out, the requirement that public notices be in the local paper amounts, these days, to no more than a government subsidy. Public notices online and searchable would be far more convenient for citizens than those set in agate type in the back pages of the local rag.
As budget-cutting becomes a necessity, look for more state legislators to begin looking at this sop to publishers as an unneeded expense.
