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Jan. 8, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Recent events in the media have underlined, once again, how fortunate we are to be living in this community. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman recently discussed the saga of Rep. George Santos and his successful election to Congress despite the series of untruths he fabricated about his past.
Noting that the revelations about Santos’ lies were not forthcoming from the Times until after the election and, therefore, could not factor into voters’ evaluation of the candidates, Haberman observed that this is a clear example of what she terms “the death of local media.”
We have seen the evolution of this agony in local reporting as newspaper after newspaper in local arenas, small towns and cities large and small are gobbled up, digested and ultimately discarded by megamedia giants.
So, unlike in the Lexington/ Rockbridge area, voters in many parts of the country, including Santos’ district, don’t have easy access to candidate profiles, candidate debates, candidate views of important local issues, editorial evaluations or voter responses.
Yet here in our small community, the Rockbridge Advocate and The News-Gazette provide us with all of that and more, allowing us, if we choose, to be informed and intelligent voters. I, for one, am grateful for the work of our local media and urge fellow citizens not to take their value to the community for granted.
LAURENT BOETSCH Lexington
