“Local journalism is a vital civic institution. Perhaps above all, it provides a check on power and a means of exposing corruption and incompetence, whether among government agencies or corporations.
“In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.
– Judge Hugo Black, writing for the 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court majority that decided in favor of the press
After more than 50 years of writing for a free and unfettered local press, I feel truly fortunate to continue my task of informing the public. (Actually, more than 50 years if you consider I wrote for a high school column in one of the now extinct Philadelphia dailies – and, as a high school senior, I chalked up a Page One byline in my hometown’s newspaper.)
My role as observer has set me at the sidelines of history. Although my audience is small as compared with those whose beats cover the country or the world or even space it is here in these little pools of people that history and its accompanying chicanery and good deeds begin.
It is here in Bucks County I have reported on the deeds and misdeeds of local school boards, township government and state and local police. I always did my best to ferret out the truth – and that task was often very difficult, if not impossible, considering the roadblocks officials can erect – and they do erect them. I do have to say, however, in my experience, the good deeds usually far outweighed the misdeeds, even though the officials who behaved badly are more easily recalled for their exceptional audacity.
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