By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher
FEB. 6, 2026 | The cranky old fellow, Bad Government, must be smiling happily these days. He knows that his element will probably carry the day from here on out, as fewer citizens will be aware of what is going on in the cities, towns, state capitols and even in Washington.
Why is he smiling?
He knows the Good Government people will essentially be shut out about the goings on in the various governments, for the simple reason that few independent professional news sources will be covering the routine government meeting.
There’s a reason. There are fewer independent news sources today than even before.
For instance, here in Georgia there are 17 counties that have no newspaper today. But even worse, in Gwinnett County, with over one million people, there is only one newspaper still publishing, the Gwinnett Daily Post, and today it publishes in thin editions only twice a week.
Considering Gwinnett even more, and remembering that the county has 17 cities, how much reporting of the deliberations of these city councils ever gets newspaper coverage? The answer is seldom.
Then the two giant governments in Gwinnett County Commission and the School Board, spend millions of dollars each year with little spotlight on them.
Some say that the local governments are the closest to the people. Yet when the people get little information from the sparsity of independent media, the interactions of that government and the people is virtually nil. The citizens don’t know what’s going on. The governments run their own courses virtually unchecked.
And Bad Government keeps on smiling. And Good Government has few happy days.
We’re not criticizing our elected officials. Most of them carry on their offices in an upstanding manner, of course, with the eye for getting re-elected. It’s not their fault that we have fewer professional and independent media covering their activities. Most of them will be acting in what they feel is the best interest of their governmental entity.
But Bad Government will simply smile and hang around, knowing few media people are watching.
On the national scene, 3,200 local newspapers in the United States have closed or merged since 2005. More than one-third of all newspapers that existed two decades ago are no longer in operation. The rate of closure is over two per week, mostly impacting weekly, community-focused publications, transforming hundreds of areas into “news deserts.”
Bad Government was smiling this week when The Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced it is laying off approximately 50 employees, representing about 15 percent of its workforce. For a firm that recently stopped printing a daily paper edition, that is a major cost savings to the paper. Now cutting its news staff is a slap in the face to the community. How can the paper expect to have more digital readers when it is producing less news for the community?
Nationally, the Washington Post announced recently it would drastically cut its staff. Hundreds of reporters will no longer cover news. The Post specialized in covering politics and national news, so Bad Government smiles again.
The irony of the Washington announcement is that the Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men. Most of the nation contributes to his largess daily by using his Amazon service. He’s got piles of money he could put into the newspaper and help the nation. But no. He serves our country less by cutting back.
Sorry, Good Government.
- Have a comment? Click here to send an email.
