Comments on: Print keeps government open

By: 89Hoo

89Hoo — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:08:08 +0000

Newspapers have long been a bastion of transparency….

When Hearst Artist Frederic Remington, cabled from Cuba in 1897 that “there will be no war,” William Randolph Hearst cabled back: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”

By: Open4thEstate

Open4thEstate — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:40:28 +0000

Newspapers have long been a bastion of transparency, and I agree that the more people who know the business of government the better. However, with declining subscribers and dwindling revenue from retail advertisers, I wonder if this editorial is a desperate attempt to hold onto one last revenue source – the income guaranteed by state sunshine laws, and paid for by local tax revenue. Be honest, and tell the public how much profit your newspaper makes annually from mandated public notices funded by taxpayer dollars.

By: Sandi Saunders

Sandi Saunders — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:03:54 +0000

I think that the saturation of the internet matters and it is true that a wide swath of people are missed if a notice is solely in print or solely online. But just as guns do not ensure freedom and liberty, neither does public notice printed in a newspaper ensure open government.

IMO, newspapers made their beds by not doing more all along to shine sunshine where it was needed to complain about any instance it misses now. Those tiny little “public notices” are not a substitute for anyone’s due diligence.

By: Mr Loco

Mr Loco — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:26:02 +0000

This editorial is pure BS. Localities publish notices in one Newspaper of Record on one day. If you don’t get that paper you have to go someplace such as a library to read it. It goes into hard-to-find spots in a few days. A continuing increase in access to the internet has reached the level today that virtually everyone can view these notices and they don’t have to remember the date of publication or the publication. The proposed budgets and other documents should stay on the web site for a long time, making it much more convenient. It is dishonest to say that anyone without internet at home or the library has ever or will ever consult these budgets.