Local newspapers are mostly gone, and the few remaining don’t have the staff or money to do investigations, and that is really screwing up politics — and it’s not just at the local level. If George Santos had run for Congress a few years ago the local newspapers would have investigated and exposed him as a phoney before the election and he would never have been elected. It would only have taken a few minutes for a reporter to discover his claims of education and work history were all lies, but these days the remaining local newspapers can’t afford to have a reporter spend a few minutes on the phone.
Local newspapers are mostly gone, and the few remaining don’t have the staff or money to do investigations, and that is really screwing up politics — and it’s not just at the local level. If George Santos had run for Congress a few years ago the local newspapers would have investigated and exposed him as a phoney before the election and he would never have been elected. It would only have taken a few minutes for a reporter to discover his claims of education and work history were all lies, but these days the remaining local newspapers can’t afford to have a reporter spend a few minutes on the phone.