Opinion: Plan to divert legal ads to government Web sites is risky
April 12, 2009
OPINION
The [Easton] Express-Times
Here's a fair warning: This editorial may come across as insider-industry stuff, or even as a self-serving pitch by newspapers to protect a source of revenue.
But the point is, if you've made it this far -- reading this in print or on our Web site, lehighvalleylive.com -- you're among the dwindling number of people who care enough about what's going in their hometown, region and state to read a newspaper. For that, we thank you -- not just because newspapers depend on readers for survival, but because our American way of life depends on people who believe that information is one of the most valuable commodities we have.
Now, do you believe this information is free?
You might think so, clicking onto a Web site, surfing, and moving on to something else.
Good, reliable, independently sourced information is free in the sense that our constitutional freedoms are free. Yet we know that freedom comes with a dear price.
So, too, does information at least in the sense that unimpeded flow and public access is something that needs to be jealously defended.
Which gets us back to the issue here: The Pennsylvania Senate is considering a bill that would allow local governments to post legal notices on their Web sites, bypassing a requirement to publish them in newspapers of general circulation in their home counties, as has been the rule for decades. These items are important, letting people know of meetings, zoning appeals, bids for public projects, etc.
These public notices are a source of money for newspapers, so let's get that out in the open. And as most people know, newspapers are fighting for their lives right now.
Yet the laws that set up this arrangement shouldn't be discarded so easily. They were enacted because 1) newspapers are a good way to get information to a lot of people, and 2) newspapers have a vested interest in disseminating accurate information, whether it reflects well on government or not. Newspapers see their primary mission as telling subscribers what is going on, unadorned by the filter that public officials might like to use.
Paid legal ads are part of that process. All local governments are cutting back, yet the cost to towns and counties for these ads works out to a fraction of 1 percent of their budgets, according to the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. Besides, newspapers are already getting these ads online, through their own Web sites and on centralized Web sites.
An informed public is the best bulwark against government abuse, and the most common abuse is secreting information. Pennsylvania took a big step by strengthening its open records law, but Senate Bill 419 would be a step back -- allowing government bodies to meet the "general circulation" requirement by posting legal notices on their Web sites.
Nothing prevents local governments from using their own Web sites to advertise meetings, bids, votes, etc. In fact, it's healthy to have public information posted in as many places as possible, in all types of media. But all taxpayers should stop and ask whether a trend toward assigning government as the primary publisher of government news is a good thing.
It is not. It is a danger to a free society. Please phone, write or e-mail your senator and weigh in.
The [Easton] Express-Times
Here's a fair warning: This editorial may come across as insider-industry stuff, or even as a self-serving pitch by newspapers to protect a source of revenue.
But the point is, if you've made it this far -- reading this in print or on our Web site, lehighvalleylive.com -- you're among the dwindling number of people who care enough about what's going in their hometown, region and state to read a newspaper. For that, we thank you -- not just because newspapers depend on readers for survival, but because our American way of life depends on people who believe that information is one of the most valuable commodities we have.
Now, do you believe this information is free?
You might think so, clicking onto a Web site, surfing, and moving on to something else.
Good, reliable, independently sourced information is free in the sense that our constitutional freedoms are free. Yet we know that freedom comes with a dear price.
So, too, does information at least in the sense that unimpeded flow and public access is something that needs to be jealously defended.
Which gets us back to the issue here: The Pennsylvania Senate is considering a bill that would allow local governments to post legal notices on their Web sites, bypassing a requirement to publish them in newspapers of general circulation in their home counties, as has been the rule for decades. These items are important, letting people know of meetings, zoning appeals, bids for public projects, etc.
These public notices are a source of money for newspapers, so let's get that out in the open. And as most people know, newspapers are fighting for their lives right now.
Yet the laws that set up this arrangement shouldn't be discarded so easily. They were enacted because 1) newspapers are a good way to get information to a lot of people, and 2) newspapers have a vested interest in disseminating accurate information, whether it reflects well on government or not. Newspapers see their primary mission as telling subscribers what is going on, unadorned by the filter that public officials might like to use.
Paid legal ads are part of that process. All local governments are cutting back, yet the cost to towns and counties for these ads works out to a fraction of 1 percent of their budgets, according to the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. Besides, newspapers are already getting these ads online, through their own Web sites and on centralized Web sites.
An informed public is the best bulwark against government abuse, and the most common abuse is secreting information. Pennsylvania took a big step by strengthening its open records law, but Senate Bill 419 would be a step back -- allowing government bodies to meet the "general circulation" requirement by posting legal notices on their Web sites.
Nothing prevents local governments from using their own Web sites to advertise meetings, bids, votes, etc. In fact, it's healthy to have public information posted in as many places as possible, in all types of media. But all taxpayers should stop and ask whether a trend toward assigning government as the primary publisher of government news is a good thing.
It is not. It is a danger to a free society. Please phone, write or e-mail your senator and weigh in.
